Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1871-04-25

his SelnSh supporters nave Deen re-ecnoeu Dy
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 ar
my, navy and militia, at his sole discretion, as
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 President S
policy, 1t is not surprising that the gravest ap
prehenslon 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 perpetuation of
power.
Partnership is the only test applied to the
distribution of this vast patronage. Honesty,
fitness and moral worth, are openly discarded,
IN favor OF trucking submission and dishonor-
able compliance. Hence enormous defalca-
tons and widespread corruption have followed
as the natural consequences of this pernicious
system.
BY the official report Of the Secretary of the
Treasury 1t appears that, after the deduction
OF all proper credits, many millions of dollars
remain due from ex-collectors 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 10 be necessary to a frugal ad-
mlnlstration of the Government, as well as a
measure of relief to an overburdened people,
have been perslstently postponed or willfully
neglected.
Congress now adjeurns without having even
attempted to reduce taxation or to repeal the
garing impositons by which industry is crushed
aud impoverished. The Treasury is overflow
ing, and an excess of eighty millions of reve-
nue. Is admitted, and yet, instead of some meas
ore of present relief, barren aud delusive
resolution is passed by the Senate to consider
the tariff and excise systems hereafter, as if
the history of broken pledges and pretended
remedies furnished any better assurance for fu-
ture legislation than experience has done in
the past. Shlpbuiidng and the carrying
trade, once sources OF national pride and pros
perliy, now languish under crushing load of
taxation, and nearly every other business in
terest is struggling, without profit, to maintain
ITSELF Our agriculturists, while paying heavy
taxes on all they consume, either to the Gov
eminent or to monopolists, find the prices for
their own products SO reduced that honest la
Dor is denied Its just reward, and industry is
prostrat ed by invIdious discrimination. Near
ly 100000 coo acres of public lands, which
should have been reserved for the benefit OF
the people, have been voted away to giant cor
poratlons, neglecting our soldiers, enriching a
handful of greedy spectators and lobbyists,
who are thereby enabled to exercise most dan
ger0Us and corrupting influence over State and
Federal legislation. Ii the career of these
conspirators be not checked, the downfall of
free Government is inevitable, and with it the
elevation of military dictator on the ruins of
the Republic
Under the pretence of passing laws to en-
force the Fourteenth Amendment, and for 9th
er purposes, Congress has conferred the most
despotic power upon the Executive, and pro-
vided an official machinery by which the liber-
ties Of the people are menaced, and the sacred
right of local self-government in the States is
ignored. if not totally overthrow. Modelled
upon the sedition laws, SO odious in history,
they are at variance with all the sanctifed the
cries Of our Institutions and the construction
given by these Radical interpreters to the
Fourteenth Amendment is, to use the language
of an eminent Senator-M Trumbull, Of lii
nois-an humiliation Of the States" Under
the last enforcement bill, 1.-THE Executive may.
In his discretion, thrust aside the Government
of any State, suspend the writ of habeas cor
pus, arrest its Governor, imprison or disperse
the Legislature, silence its judges, and trampe
down It's people 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 suferance.
Our hopes for redress are in the calm good
sense, the sober, second thought OF the
10 49,
true to themselves and their posterity, and,
dsregardlng party names and minor diferen-
ces, to insist upon a decentralization of power,
and the restriction Of Federal authority within
It's just and proper limits, leaving to the States
that control over domestic affairs which is es-
sential to their happiness and tranquility, and
good government.
Everything that malicious ingenuity could
suggest has been done 60 lrrltate the people of
the Middle and Southern States. Gross and
exaggerated charges of disorder and violenc
owe their origin to the mischlevous minds of
potential managers in the Senate and House of
Representatives, to which the Executive has,
We regret to say, lent his aid, and thus helped
to infiame the popular feeling. In all this
course Of hostile legislation and harsh resent
ment no word OF Cancellation, of kind encour-
agement, or fraternal 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 pro-
scrlptioD.
We earnestly eutreat our fellow citizens 10
all parts Of the Union to spare no effort to
maintain peace and order, to carefully protect
the rights OF every citizen, TO preserve kindly
relations 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
tisans to stir up strife in the land to renew
the issues OF the war, or to obstruct the return
OF peace and prosperity to the Southern States
because it Is thus that they seek to divide the
attention OF the country from the corruption
and extravaganza in their administration Of
public affairs, and the dangerous and profit
gate attempts they are making towards the
creation of centralized military government
La the five years OF peace following the war
the Radical administrations have expended
l,200, 000,0 dollars for ordinary purposes
alone, being within $500, 600, 900 Of the aggre-
gate amount spent for the same purposes in
war, and in peace, during the seventy-one
years preceding June &c. 1861, not including,
IN either case, the sum paid upon principal or
interest of the public debt.
1t is trlhing with the intelligence of the peo-
pie, for the Radical leaders to pretend that
this vast sum has been honestly expended. -
Hundreds of millions Of it has been wanonly
squandered. The expenditures of the Gov
ernment, for the fiscal year ending June 80,
1861, were only $62, coo, 600, while, for pre-
clsely the same purposes-clvi list, army, navy,