Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1871-10-06

the straitest sect, who voted for Grant
and Holden, and have never acted with
the Democratic party And yet Judge
Brooks (who, by the way, 1T would appear
is seeking to make amends to the Radical
party for his manly conduct in the Kirk
war, by ut-Heroding Judge Bond in ex-
traordinary rulings and extra-ludlclal
dicta,) announces from the Bench that it is
significant that all of the Ku-Klux belong
to one party What a pity that Judge
Brooks couldn't sc stand the pressure" as
the redoubtable J. n. used to say =?
Corruption the Destroyer of Republics.
History shows that all the republics that
have persisted, fell through the corruption
of their citizens and it establishes another
fact; this corruption was the result of pros
perity. AS long az the republic was poor
the people were free and honest. So soon
as wealth poured in by conquest or by
trade, greed, avarice and population be-
came the ruling passions.
There is, it seems to US, striking sim
iitude between our day and the last period
of the Roman republic. In Rome, as IN
State was poor, men were willing to serve
their country from patriotism or for the
honor Of office. But when the conquest OF
Asia. Africa and Gaul had made the State
ROB, public office became so valuable a
prize that those who once held 1t were
willing to plunge the republic into civil
war rather than to give it up. Marius,
ScyIla, Caesar, Octavius, Crassus and Antony
did this rather than yield up their COM
mand or their pro-consulship. which were
worth millions to each of them.
Now consider the parallel in our own
history, remembering that while Rome
took five hundred years to reach the period
of corruption, We have taken less than
fifty. It may be said that until the time
of the Mexican war, and the accessions of
territory which followed it, the prizes of
office, though honorable, were not
very glitsering. Public officers live
generally upon their salaries. which
we're scant enough. But since that
time what change has taken
place. The country has extended its
.rea in every direction, it's wealth
$ increased at prodigious rate, and
multitudes of public offices, to which are
attached contingent Prerequisites. have be-
come exceedingly lucrative, even where the
lncumbents are honest. For example,
collectorships, Indian agencies and the
like In addition to this came the late
war with its fat contracts, and We know to
what tremendous frauds it gave rise. Thus
was awakened the "duri sdcrG flames" the
cursed hungering after gold, which has
produced all these rings, jobs, fraudulent
claims, swindling contracts, briberies, lob
byings and oil that variety of frauds for
which the English language could furnish
no names, and new words had to be ln-
vented to designate them. The same
consequence follows with us that did in
Rome. To the victors belong the spoils
and these spoils have become so i'm
mensely valuable that those who hold
them will. if they can, plunge the coun-
try into anarchy, ruin and civil war rather
than yield them up.
We had occasion some days ago TO al
lude to the enormous and universal defal-
cations that diPgrace the government in all
it's branches. But although these frauds
are every day assuming more and more
gigantic proportions, they are IN fact but
the smallest part of the evil inflicted upon
the whole nation. The country Is
rich and can bear the loss Of hundreds OF
millions but what it cannot bear is the
loss Of public virtue, honesty and honor,
followed as it must be by the loosening of
all moral obligations in private life. Can
the spectacle of political profigacy and Of
rapid and scandalous fortunes, realized
with impunity by population in office, be
without a deleterious effect upon the
young men of the land But the evil
does not stop there. It is surely and not
slowly destroying all the foundations of
republican government. It is making
universal suffrage a mockery-expressing
the sense of the people less faithfully than
a French pyebiscite. IF Convention is
called it is managed by ring which en-
ploy every corrupt means to carry their
point. At the polls bribery, patronage
and the party lash at one point bayonets |
at another the terror produced by an |
ubiquitous perversion of the forms of JUS |
tice at a third; disgust the honest, |
brighten off the timid, silence all opposi-
ton and the trick is done. The intrigue
OF ring is foisted upon the country as
the will of the people.
This suggests another thought. When
decentralization and corruption once be-
come fixed in the public life of people
there is no more hope of return to former
purity. The dagger of Brutus could de.
stroy Caesar, but it was powerless to re-
move the degeneracy which craved for
another master. At a later day, when
victorious general was made consul for a
term OF years, how long was it before the
universal suffrage of a subservient people
made him consul for ten years, then con.
sui for life and finally emperor There
are enough points of resemblance between
fh02Q kIrn0n and nu~o 80 kn onnrabox, |