Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1871-07-25
LANCASTER, WISCONSIN, TUESDAY, JULY Is, 1871

now Wien creed on creed is strug-
Cling for constitutional recognition ?
The theory of this government is
legal law for all. Is this true of its
practice when all law making is
prosecuted in the interests of charter
ed monOpolists. Our fathers sought
TO esta ish in the new world the
best government on the face of the
earth. What constitutes such a gov
ernment? 1 find no more compre-
hensive definition than the epigra-
matte answer OF the great commoner
OF England: chat government is
best, which governs for the m lions,
reduces taxation TO its lowest point,
and gives to every child a plain ed
ucation." Applying this test to our
present political condition how do
we find it? Have we in truth a gov
ernment for the millions? BY this
phrase | understand "a government
wholly free from every faint of class
legislation and sectional preference,
and welding its mighty energies in
behalf Of the humblest citizen as well
as the proudest monopoly; a gov
eminent whose first, last and only
aim is the highest ulti nate good of
every citizen. To arraign on this
occasion the principles of any party,
to attempt to bolster OPP any political
platform, or denounce, any strictly
party measure would be as unbecom-
ing as it is for from my purpose. But
if our sacred institutions, preserved
TO us by SO many sacrifices, are in
danger from any source, it is the duty
of every citizen manfully to face and
oppose that danger.
say, then, this government is not
nor can not be government for the
millions so long as vast monopolies
so etfectually combine the mighty
energies of money, patronage and
influence to dictate and control our
legislation. Every year new and
important franchises are given by
the legislatures of the states to Joint
stock companies without numbers,
and thousands on thousands of acres
of the most valuable lands, are gratu-
itiously conveyed in fee simple by
the general governmental new and
most dangerous innovation on every
known,principle of constitutional law
Powerful corporations are constantly
forming new combinations, till they
hold the balance of power in the leg
I1in aE 80 k.of IL. -
attempt TO make laws in the interest
of the laborer when several legisla-
tors are so entirely bound by the
golden chain of corporations, whose
monied power is constantly augment
ed by enormous tariffs wrubg from
the hard earnings of the people who
gave them their franchise and whom
they now reward by conspiring TO
PONDER? or what avails il to attempt
to enforce legislation, even once OBJ
tanned, when courts and iuries are
eager "to grasp the gilded hand that
shoves by justice ?" What saps the
profits OF the industrious mer-
chant, and gives the farmer a
pittance for his hard won products
when high prices rule the markets
CT the East? 1t is that fatal policy
which drains the industries of the
nation to enrich the Golfers of our
great corporations. These organiza-
tions dictate the terms of our nation
al credit. Why is our foreign credit
lower than that of Spain, the most
impoverished and ill-governed nation
on the globe, and wrings from our
treasury a rate of interest as ruinous
as it is disgraceful The reason is
most obvious. When our foreign
creditors contrast the well conducted
stock companies of England and the
continent with that single anomaly
in the State of New York, which
issues thirty-three millions of spuri-
Gus stock certificates, and with gold
thus obtained buys up the Justice Of
the courts and controls the legisla-
ton of the most powerful state in the
Uaion, they question, and with rea-
son, the integrity of nation which
tacitIy upholds fraud so atrocious.
When the self>constituted doctrines
of the Eric Rail Road found them
selves well nigh driven to the wall,
when gold bought judges, had ex-
hausted every trick and flaw of law
in vain to get their knavery through
the Tammany ring, they brought TO
their aid the legislation of the State,
and well nigh secured the passage OF
bill, which introduces the most
dangerous resolution in common law.
undermines the most sacred princi-
pies ofjurisprudence and moral right.
That bill not only would have taken
from the outraged English owners of
Erie stock the last hope of Justice
from American courts, but have
struck fearful blow at the dearest
rights of every American citizen =
So powerful have these corporations
become that they defy law, control
the fluctuations of trade and give the
lines OF governmental policy. Unless
government soon puts the strong
arm of positive law between these
organizations and the people, sub
lecting them to the restraint of whole
some legislation, and operating them
in the interests of the people as we'll
as the rings which now exclusively
direct them, they must inevitably
bring ruin to the country.
This tendency to discriminate
against the masses aud in favor of
the few is not confined to our public
corporations. The great problems
which now engage the public mind
once put at rest, and the union es-
tablIshed on the basis of law and
justice, new career of prosperity is
assured TO US With the increase of
our railroads, the improvement of our
soil and the development of our in.
dustries, the shrewdness and enter
prise which our habits of life and
systems of education give to our peo-
pie, we may expect in the next thirty
years an accumulation of wealth
whose magnitude will be common
surate with the ease with which il is
obtained. But its distributation will