Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1871-04-21
A ffiiress Of the Democratic Members
* OfCOngresS.

troll the haQlCal parGy, anu We lesl Cdlleu upon
to utter few words Of warning against the
alarming strides they have made towards cen
tralization Of power in the hands of Congress
and the Executive. 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 ascendancy, and
no regard for the wise restraints imposed by
the Constitution has checked their reckless and
desperate career. The President of the United
States has been formally announced as candi-
date for reelection The declarations of his,
selfish supporters have been re-echoed by a
subsidized press, and the discipline of party
has already made adhesion to his personal for
tunes the supreme test of political fealty The
partisan legislation to which we refer was de-
creed and shaped in secret caucus where the
EXTREMIST counsels 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 power to command
his own denomination, 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 two years,
so disappointing to the hopes and generous
confidence Of the country, is considered, in con-
nection with the violent utterances and rash
purposes Of those who control the Presidents
prehension for the future peace of the nation
Should be entertained At time when labor
is depressed and every material interest is pal
sled by oppressive taxation, the public offices
have been multiplied beyond all precedent to
serve as instruments in the perpetuatlon OF
power. Partizanship is the only test applied
to the distribution Of this vast patronage.
Honesty, fitness and moral werth are openly
discarded in favor of trucking submission and
dishonorable compliance Hence enormous
defalcations and wide spread corruption have
| followed as the natural consequence Of this
perncious system. :.
By the official report Of the Secretary OF the
Treasury it appears that after the deduction of
all proper credits many millions Of dollars re.
main due from ex-Coectors of the Internal
Revenue and 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 a frugal admin
istration of the Government, as we'll as mea-
sure of relief to an over burdened people, have
been persistently postponed or wilfully neglect
ed Congress now adjourns without having
even attempted to reduce taxation or to repeal
the glaring impositions by which industry is
crushed and impoverished. The Treasury is
overhowing, an excess Of eighty millions OF rev.
cnue is admitted, and yet instead of some inca
|
olution is passed by the Senate to consider the
tariff and excise systems hereafter, as if the
history Of broken pledges and pretended rene
dies furnished any better assurance for future
legislation than experience has done in the past.
Shipbuilding and the carrying trade, once
sources of national pride and prosperity, now
| anguish under crushing load Of taxation, and
nearly every other business interest is strug
Cling without profit to maintain itself Our
agriculturists while paying heavy taxes for
what they consume, either to the Government
or to monopolists, find the prices for their own
products so reduced that honest labor is denied
its Just reward, and industry is Frustrated by
invidious discrimination. Nearly 200000,000
acres of public lands, which should have been
reserved for the benefit of the people, have
been voted away to giant corporations, neglect
ing our soldiers and enriching handful of
greedy spectators and lobbyists, who are there
| by enabled to exercise most dangerous and
corrupting influence over State and Federal
legislation IF the career Of these consprators
be not checked the downfall of free government
is inevitable, and with it the elevation of mill
tary dictator on the ruins Of the Republic.
| Under the pretence Of passing laws to enforce
| the Fourteenth Amendment, and for other pur-
| poses, 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 selfgovernment in the States is ignored
if not totally overthrow. Modelled upon to the
sedition laws. so odious in history, they are at
variance with all the sanctifed theories of our
institutions, and the construction given by these
Radical interpreters of the Fourteenth Amend
mcnt is, to use the language of an eminent
Senator, Mr. Trumbull, Of Illinois, an ami
hilation of the States Under the last en-
forcemcnt bill ''the Executive may, in his dis
creton, thrust aside the Government OF any
State, suspend the writ Of haJeas corpus, ar
rest its Governor, imprlson or dlsperse the
Legislature, silence it's Judges, and tramplc
down its people under the armed heel Of his
troops. Nothing is left to the citizen or State
which can any longer be called right-all IS
| changed into more suHerance.
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 posterity, and,
disregarding party names and minor differences,
| to insist upon decentralization Of power and
the restriction of Federal authority within its
just and proper limits, leaving to the States
that control over domestic affairs which is es-
sentia to their happiness and tranquility and
good government.
Everything that malicious ingenuity could
suggest has been done to irritate the people Of
the Middle and Southern States. Gross and
exaggerated charges of disorder owe their orr,
gin to the mischievous minds Of potential man
ayers in the Senate and House Of Representa-
tives, to which the Executive has, we regret
to say lent his aid, and thus helped to inhame
the popular feeling. In all this course of hos.
tile legislation and harsh treatment no word
of Cancellation, Of kind encouragement or fra
ternal friendship 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 feow-citizens in all
parts Of the Union to spare no effort to main
tain peace and ORDER to carefully protect the
rights of every citizen, to preserve kindly re-
lations among all men, and to discountenance
and discourage any violation 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 the present attempts of Radical par