The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1871-04-28
Political.
ADDRESS
OF THE
DEMOCRATIC C0NGRESSMEN

WIFI tlc UVtiOnS anu
designs of those who control the Radi-
cal party, and wo feel called upon to
utter few words of warning against
the alarming strides they have made
toward the Capitalization of power in |
the hands of Congress and the EXecu-
tive. The time and attention of the
Radical leaders have been almost wholly |
directed to devising such legislation as
will, in their view, best preserve their
ascendency, and no regard for the wise |
restraints imposed by the Constitution
has checked their reckless, desperate ca.
reer The President of the United States |
has been formally announced as candi.
date for re election. The declaration of |
his selfish supporters have been echoed |
by a subsidized press, and the discipline |
of party has already made adhesion to |
his personal fortunes, the supreme test |
ofpolitical fealty. The partisan leglsla.
ton to which we refer was decrecd and |
shaped in secret caucus, where the ex
tremest counsols always dominated, and
was adopted by subservient majority,
if not with the intent, certainly with
the effect to place in the hands of the
President powers to command his own
denomination, and TO employ the army,
navy, and militia, at his sole discretion,
as Il means of subscribing his personal
ambition. When the sad experience of
the last two years, so disappointing to
the hopes and generous confidence of
the country, is considered, in connection
with the violent utterances and rash
purposes of those who control the Presi-
dents policy, it is not surprising that
the gravest apprehensions for the future
peace Of the nation should be enter.
tanned.
Alta time when labor is depressed, and
every material interest is palsed by
oppressive taxation, the public offices
have been multiplied beyond all pre-.
cedent, to serve as instruments in the
perpetuation of power. Partisanship is
the only test applied 10 the distribution
of this vast patronage. Honesty, fitness,
and moral worth are openly discarded
in favor of trucking submission and dis
honorable compliance; hence, enormous
defa!cations and widespread corruption
have followed as the natural conse.
quences of this pernicious system. BY
the official report of the Secretary Of the
Treasury, it appears that after the de-
ducton of all proper credits, many
millions of dollars remain due from ex.
Collectors of the Internal Revenue, Gnd
that no proper diligence has ever been
used to collect them. Reforms in the
Revenue and Fiscal systems which all
experience demonstrates to be necessary
to frugal administration of the Gov
ernment, as well as measure of relic
to an over. burdened people, have been
perSistcntly postponed or willfully neg
lectcd. Congress now adjourns without
having even attempted to reduce taxa
ton OF to repeal the glaring impositions
by which industry is crushed and i'm.
poverished. The Treasury is overflow
ing, and an excess of $50, 600, 900 Of reve-
nue. is admitted, and yet instead of some
measures of present relief barren and
10 I.tooCu ny lHN
Senate to consider the tariff and excise
systems hereafter, as if the history OF
broken pledges and pretended remedies
furnished any better assurance for future
legislation than experience has done in
the past.
Ship.bulding and the carrying trade,
once sources of national pride and pros.
perity, now languish under crushing
load of taxation, and nearly every other
business interest is struggling without
profit to maintain itself.
Oura agriculturists while paying heavy
taxes on all they consume, either to the
Government or TO monopolists, find the
prices forthcir own products so reduced
that honest labor is denied its just re-
ward and industry is prostrated by in
vidiouS discrimination. Nearly 200, 900.
900 acres of public lands which should
have been reserved for the benefit of the
people have been voted away to giant
corporations, ,neglecting our soldiers and
enrichinga handful ofgreedy spectators
and lobbyists, who are thereby enabled
to exercise 4 most dangerous and cor
rupting influence over State and Federal
legislation. If the career of these con-
spirators be not checked, the downfall
Of free government is inevitable, and
with it the elevation of Military Die
tator on the ruins Of the Republic.
Under pretense of passing laws to en-
force tho NINth Amendment and for
other purposes, Congress has conferred
the most despotic powers upon the EX-
ecutive, and provided an official ma
chinery by which the liberties of the
people are menaced, ana the sacred
right Of local self.government in the
States is ignored, if not tyrannically
overthrown. Modelled up to the Sedi.
ton laws, so odious in history, they are
at variance with all the sanctilied the
ories of our institutions; and the con.
structlon given by these Radical inter.
prefers to the XlVth Amendment is
to use the language of an eminent Sen
ator, Mr.. Trumdull of Illinois, an San
nihilator of States" Under the last
Enforcement bill, "the Executive may
in his discretion, thrust aside the Gov
ernmcnt of any State, suspend the wri
of habcas corpus" arrest its Governor
imprlson or disperse the Legislature
silence its Judges, and trample down
IFS people. Nothing is left to the clti
zen or the State which can any Longer
be called n right; all is changed into
mere suiierance. Our hopes for redres
are in the calm good sense, the "sobel
. second thought of the American peo
a pie. We call upon them to be true t,
g themselves and to their past, and, dis
regarding party measures and mino
diiferences,to insist upon decent equal
ization of power, the restriction of Fed
eral authority within its just and prope
limits, leaving to the States that con
troll over domesticaflairs which Is essen
u tial IN tbair bapnipnca aud