The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1871-12-02
Attack on Administrative Cor
ruptiOn.

The age in which we live dates the
beginning of a new epoch in American
history and that of the world as in
huenced by ours, The activity in
spired by the firing upon Fort Sumter,
and the subsequent battles in which
we displayed so many grand energies
and though which we finally achieved
such great results, is not yet dormant.
To paraphrase Mr.. Lincoln's grand
sentences, which nearer than anything
else ever written expressed the new
spirit of the nation, 1--WE highly re-
solved that the dead should not die in
vain, that the nation should have a
new birth of freedom, and that the
government of the people, by the peo-
pie, and for the people, should not
perish from the EARTH"
This pledge we have kept and are
still keeping. The theory of the
founders of the government has been
restored, all men are free and equal,
and the last vestige of slavery and
caste is being banished from the land.
But yesterday a citadel of con-
servatism entered upon new era.
Now, without bloodshed or anarchy,
we are on the eve of another great
change. Aninsidious evil, and for that
more dangerous than slavery, has
sprung up, and its blighting effects
are seen all over the country. Great
and serious abuses have grown upon
us unawares, and faithful public
servant is fast getting to be as much
| the exception as it was once the rule.
Bribery and corruption are becoming
universal. We are not all exaggerat-
ing the piture. Scarce day passes
but that there is some fresh exposure
of betrayal of trust, or some new
assault upon the ballot. The most
glaring and dangerous of the evils
that afflict us have all been pointed
out by the recent turn in public affairs
or are made apparent by the passing
revelations of each days news. We
ourselves have moralized on the SUBJ
iect. but the theme is a fruitful one,
and allows of indefinite discussion
1t is full time that, as a people, we
dedicated ourselves to a new task /;
| that we highly resolved to revert the
administration of the government
back to the customs of the fathers.
Not to lessen the fame of the soldiers,
nor to exalt the purpose which should
enlist us, for as MI. Lincoln so elO-
quently expressed it in the speech
from which we have already quoted,
we can neither add to nor detraet their
fame, and the work is as noble one
as theirs. Its manner infinitely more
so. The progressive spirit of the age
has pronounced against war and death
and fighting, as the means of accom-
plishing reforms, and they are at all
times to be discountenanced.
Public officers must realize more
keenly their duties to the people, and
the people must demand the fulfill
ment to the letter of the trust reposed
in their servants. Commanding abili-
ty, sterling patriotism, and, above all
rigid honesty, must be the qualitica-
tions imposed upon the official by the
voter, who must also appreciate more
than now the priceless value of the
suffrage and its potency for good OF
evil.
Let us have our government
tional, State and municipal honestly
administered by honest men and lei
the people resolve that it shall not be
done otherwise. Let us rescue politics
from its perverted sense, and public
station from it's degradation.