The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1871-05-04
From the Washington Patriot.
THE DEMOCRATIC ADDRESS

We have the satisfaction of laying before
our readers an address to the people OF tht
United States. signed by every Democratic
and Conservative member of the Senate anC
House Of Representatives who was presen
I in Washington when il was prepared. Thi
/ important paper Is intended to expose th'
/ actual situation Of affairs here, and to pre-
I sent TO the country frank statement Of thu
+ course of the Radical party In its usurpa
1 tons of the power and its criminal neglec
| OF the public interests. In discharging thii
/ duty our friends have acted wisely, no
/ only in holding up 70 censure the excesses
and Shortcomings of their adversaries. bu
| in defining with manly distinctness thei
| own views of policy. They have not as
sumed in any sense to build politica
platform, for that responsibility belongs u
a National Convention, but they did no
/ feel AT liberty 70 disregard living facts, Of
| to evade them by any doubtful expedient
To the People of the United States:
Our presence and official duties at Wash
I ingtcn have enabled US to become fully &C
/ quainted with the actions and designs oil
/ those who control the Radical party, and
| we feel called upon to utter a few words o.
warning against the alarming strides they
/ have made towards 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
70 devising such legislation as viii, in their
view, best preserve their ascendency, and
no regard for the vile restraints imposed
by the Constitution has checked their reck-
less and desperate career.
The President of the United States has
been formally announced As u candidate for
reelection. The declaration of his selfish
supporters have been echoed by a subsi
died press, and the discipline of party has
already made adhesion to his personal for
tunes the supreme test ofpolitical fealty.
la.erf Lot ioI.
was decreed and shaped in secret caucus,
where the EXTREMIST counsels always domi
mated. and was adopted by subseTvient
majority, il not with the intent, certainly
with the effect to place in the hands of the
President power to command his own re-
nomination, and TO employ the army, navy,
and militia at his sole discretion, as a means
Of subscribing his personal ambition. When
the sad experience of the last tao years
so disappointing 10 the hopes and generous
confidence of the cOuntry--is considered.
in connection with the violent utterances
and rash purposes of those who control the
Presidents policy, il is not surprising that
the gravest apprehensiOns for the future
peace of the nation should be entertained.
At a time when labor is depressed, and
every material interest Is palsied by OPP
pressive taxation, the public offices have
been multiplied beyond all precedent, to
serve as Instruments in the perpetuation of
power. PartisSnship is the only test ap-
piled to the distribution of this vast patron
age. Honesty, fitness, and moral worth are
openly discarded in favor of trucking
submission and dishOnorable compliance.
Hence, enormous defalcatiOns and wide
spread corruption have followed as the
natural consequences of this pernicious
system.
BY the official report of the Secretary of
the Treasury, it appears that after deduc-
ton of all proper credits, many millions of
dollars remain due from ex-eollectors of the
internal revenue, and that no proper dill
gence has ever been used to collect them.
Reforms in the revenue and fiscal systems,
which all experience demonstrates to be
necessary to a frugal administration of the
government, As well as measure OF relief
to an overburdened people, have been per-
sistently postponed or wilfully neglected.
Congress now adjOurns without having
even attempted to reduce taxation, or to re-
peal the glaring impositions by which in
dustry is crushed and Impoverished. The
Treasury is overlooking, and an excess OF
eighty millions of revenue is admitted, and
yet, instead of some measure of present re-
lief q barren and delusive resolution is
passed by the Senate to consider the tariff
and excise systems hereafter, as if the his
tory of broken pledges and pretended REM
edies furnished any better assurance for flu
ture legislation than experience has dOle in
the past.
Ship building and the carrying trade, once
sources of national pride and prosperity,
now anguish under a crushing load of tax
alton, and nearly every other business in
terest is struggling without profit to main
tain itself.
taxes on all they consume, either to the
Government or monopolists, find the prices
for their own products so reduced, that
honest labor is denied its Just reward, and
industry is Frustrated by invidious discrim-
iuatiOn.
Nearly 2OOOOO,OOO acres of public lands.
which should have been reserved for the
benefit of the people, have been voted away
to giant corporations, neglecting our SOL
diers ard enriching a handful of greedy
spectators and lobbyists, who ar thereby
enabled to exercise a most dangerous and
corrupting influence over State and Federal
legislation.
If the career of these conspirators be not
checked, the downfall Of free government
is inevitable, and with il the elevation of a
military Dictator on the ruins of the Re-
public.
force the fourteenth amendment, and for
other purposes, Congress has conferred the
most despOtic power upon the Executive,
and provided an official machinery by which
the liberties OF the people are menaced, and
the sacred right of local self-government in
the States is ignored. if not tyrannically
overthrown. Modelled after the seditiOn
laws, SO Odious in history, they are at vari-
ance with all the sanctified theories of our
institutions, and the construction given by
these Radical Interpreters to the fourteenth
amendment is, to use the language of an
eminent Senator, (Mr. TrumbuI1, of Illiaois,)
an "annihilation of the States"
Under the last enforcement bill, ''the Ex-
ecutive may, in his discretion, thrust aside
the government of any State, suspend the
writ of Habeas Corpus" arrest ITS Governor,
imprison or disperse the Legislature, ST.
lence its judges, aud trample down its peo-
pie under the armed heel of his troops.
Nothing is left to the citizen or the State
which can any longer be called = right; all
is changed into mere sutferance.
Our hopes for redress are in the calm
good sense, the sober second thought" of
the American people. We call upon them
to be true TO themselves and to their poster
ity, and disregarding party names and mi
nor differences, to insist upon decentrali-
cation of power, the restriction of Federal
authority within its just aud proper limits,
leaving TO the States that control over do
nestle affairs which is essential to their
happiness and tranquility and good GOV
ernment.
Every thing that malicious ingenuity
could sug gest has been done to irritate the
people Of the Middle and Southern State y
Gross and exaggerated charges of disord ,
and violence owe their origin to the ~ss 1u
ehievous minds Of potential managerSi ors
Senate and House of Representative upe
which the Executive has, we regret to sRf
lent his aid, and thus helped to inname the
popular feeling. In all this course of hos
tile legislation and harsh resentment, no
word of Cancellation. of kind encourage
ment, or fraternal fellowship has ever been
spoken BY the President or by Congress, TO
the people of the Southern States. They
have been addressed only In the language of
prescription.
We earnestly entreat our fellow-citizens
in all parts of the Union to spare no effort
TO maintain peace and order; 10 carefully
protect the rights of every citizen; to pre-
serve kindly relations among all men. and
to discountenance and discourage any vio-
lations of the rights OF any portion of the
people secured under the Constitution or any
of its amendments.
Let us. In conclusion, earnestly beg Of you
not to aid in the present attempts of Radical