The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1871-07-07

tame enough to be kicked under the
yoke of despotism, or ignorant enough
to be juggled out of the great inherit
ance of free government which the
fathers left them.
ROrTENNEss OF TIE ADMINS.
TRATIoN.
We complain of our present rulers
Tor lawless usurpation of power. Power
not delegated is always abused. In
This, rs in other eases, usurpation has
been accompanied and followed by cor
ruption. Frauds without number, an d
almost without limit, have been com.
mitted on the public. Men of the worst
character for common honesty are per.
mitted to occupy the highest places. OF
the money collected from the people,
ana not stolen before it reaches the
treasury, large portion is squandered
by congress on party favorites. or cor
fupt rings, and on base combinations
OF public plunderers. The enormous
extent to which this financial corrup-
tion has been carried will become man.
llest to any one who compares the ex.
penditures of the government during
the six years which followed the civil
war. Both were periods of peace, and
there can be no excuse for more than
small increase corresponding to the
ratio in which the population has ad-
vanced. But where tho ordinary ex-
pehdltures for the fiscal year ending
June |, 1870, exclusive of Indian annu.
ities, pensions and interest on the pub
lie debt, were Sl4S,G60, ,922. 43, for the
year ending June 1, 1860, the expendi-
lures Tor the same purposes were but
Soo.0lS, lSS.72. Here Is shown the diff
terence between the ordinary cost of
carrying on our government when its
agents are honest, and the cost of the
same thing when its officers are so des.
titute OF moral principle as to disregard
all legal limitations upon their sown
authority. A free, unperverted repre-.
sentative government is simple in its
machinery, easily maintained, and
"dispenses its blessings like the dews of
Heaven, unseen and unfelt, save in the
beauty and freshness they contribute TO
produce;" the secure tranquility of a
regal establishment may sometimes be
a compensation for the burdens it i'm.
poses, but rotten republic is at once
the most costly, the most oppressive
and the most unsteady of all political
structures.
THE RIGHTS OF Ia BoR.
To support the cxtravagant corrup-
tiQns of an administration like the pres.
ent, and at the same time pay the pen
sions and the interest on the debt,
would require heavy taxation at best.
But the party in power has contrivcd
to mako the taxes doubly burdensome
by their mode of levying and collecting
them. Great gangs Of unnecessary
officers are supported and fattencd out
of them. They are in many cases I'M
posed, not with any view to the supply
of the public treasury, but solely to
operate as bounties for the benefit OF
individuals and private corporations.
| While the mouth of labor Is thus rob
bed of tho bread it earns, the fortunes
of monopolists and ringmasters are
hideously sweled, and their rapacity
inilamed for still further aggression
upon the rights of the industrious
masses. The necessity of revenue re.
form is admitted on all hands, and by
none more freely than by candid sup
porters of the sO.called republican par.
ty in congress, but the majority is SO
completely controlled by private inter.
osts that considerations of public duty
have no influence upon them.
AN INDEPENDENT JUDICIARY.
No people can be wholly ensaved so
long rs they have the protection Of an
independent and upright judiciary
The radical party, feeling this, have
tried by all means, fair and foul, tc
make the federal Judiciary an instru-
nIent to aid them in their crusade
against the law Of the land. They have
filled the inferior courts, especially in
the south, with their most unscrupulous
parlisans. Again and again they have
constructed and reconstructed the Su.
preme Court-sometimes by reducing
and sometimes by increasing the num-
Der of judges-always with the view t.
make majority which could be relied
on to indorse their Unconstitutional
legislation. When the judgments OF
that august tribunal sustained the an.
cient principles Of liberty and justice
its authority was denounced, disobeyed
and contemned. They have interposed
in pending case with legislative de-
crees to take away the jurisdiction OF
the court and prevent it from protect
ing "A citizen whose plainest right they
desired to invade. We soemnly trust
that they have not yet succeeded, and
will never succeed in bending the court
of last resort TO their foul purposes.
RADICAL RECONSTRUCTION.
Their so.called reconstruction law
are series of experiments for the re-
duction Of the southern States to the
lowest condition of political slavery
hoping thereby to make them instru
ments Tor the enslavement of every
other section. To this end they have
not only refused them representation
in congress, but forced them to be mis-
represented by persons who came there
to get oppressive laws enacted against
them. They have steadily struggled tC
make the State governments the tool,
of their partisan tyranny. Everywhere
they have debauched the administration
of Justice, disregarded the popular will
and produced the most frightful dsor,
ders. Scalawags, carpet baggers, and
the most Ignorant of the negro popula
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