Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1871-04-28
Address OF the Democratic Members OF
Congress.
10 the PeODle of the Un;ted States.

congress
To the People Of the United States:
Our presence and official duties at Wash
ingt"n have enabled us to become fully &C
qualnted with the actions and desires of those
who control the Radical party, and we feel
called upon to utter few words of warning
against the alarming strides they have made
towards Capitalization of power in the hands
OF Congress and the Executive. The time and
attention of the Radical leaders have been al
most wholly directed to devising such legis-
latlon as will, 10 their view, best preserve
their ascendency, and no regard for the wise
restraints imposed by the Constitution has
checked their reckless and desperate career.
The President of the Uuited States has been
formally announced as candidate for re-elec-
ton. The declaration OF his selfish support
ers have been re-echoed by a subsidized press,
and the discipline OF party has already made
adhesion to his personal fortunes the supreme
test Of political feAlty. The partisan legisla-
ton to which we refer was decreed and shap-
ed in secret caucus where the EXTREMIST coun-
sells always dominated and was adopted by a
subservient majority, if not with the intent.
certainly with the effect to place in the hands
of the President power to command his own
re-nominatio9, and to employ the army, navy
and militia at his sole discretion as means
| of subscribing his personal ambition. When
the sad experience Of the last two years, 80
disappointing to the hopes and generous con-
6dence Of the country, is considered, 10 con-
nection with the violent utterances and rash
purposes of those who control the Presidents
policy, it is not surprising that the gravest
apprehension for the future peace of the ma
ton should be entertained. At time when
labor is depressed and every material interest
is palsied by oppressive taxation, the public
offices have been multiplied beyond all pre-
cedent to serve as instruments in the perpetu-
alton of power. Partizanship is the only test
applied to the distribution of this vast patron-
age. Honesty, fitness and moral worth are
openly discardedsin favor of trucking sub
mission aud dlshonorable compliance. Hence
enormous defalcatious aud widespread Cor
ruption have followed as the natural conse-
quence OF this pernicious system.
By the official report of the Secretary of the
Treasury it appears tina! 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
|
perience demonstrates to be necessary to a
frugal administration of the Government. as
we'll as q measure of relief to an over-burden-
ed people, have been persstently postponed
or wilfuly neglected. Congress now adj
jnurns without having even attempted to re-
dace taxation or to repeal the glaring impo-
sitions by which industry is crushed and i'm
poverished. The Treasury is overlooking, an
excess Of eighty millions of revenue is admit
ted, and yet instead Of some measure of pres
ent relief, barren and deusive resolution is
passed by the Senate to consider the tariff and
excise systems hereafter. as il the history of
broken pledges and pretended remedies furn-
ished any better assurance for future legisla-
ton than experience has done in the past
Shipbuilding and the carrying trade, once
sources of national pride and prosperity, now
languish under ascrushing load of taxation,
and nearly every other business interest is
struggling without profit to maintain ITSELF
Our agricuIturists, while paying heavy taxes
for what they consume, either to the Govern
ment or to monopoists, find the prices for
their own products SO reduced that honest la
Dor is denied its just reward, and industry is
Frustrated by invdious discrimination. Near
ly O0000,000 acres of ps6lic lands, which
should have been reserved for the benefit Of
the people, have been voted away to giant
corporations, neglecting our soldiers and en-
ricbing handful Of greedy spectators and
lobbyists, who are thereby enabled to exer-
else a most dangerous and corrupting inau-
ence over State and Federal legislation. IF
the career of these conspirators be not check
ed the downfall of free government is inevita-
BILE, aud 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
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 seif-government in the
States is ignored, if not totally overthrown.
Modelled upon to the sedition laws, so odious
in history, they are at variance with all the
sanctiied theories Of our institutions, and the
construction given by these Radical interpre-
ters of the Fourteenth Amendment is, to use
the language of AN eminent Senator, Mr.
Trumbull, of Illinois, all "annihilatiOn of the
States" Under the last enforcement bill
"the Executive may, in his discretion, thrust
aside the Government Of any State, suspen,
the writ of hdbeas corpus" arrest its Govern
or, imprison or disperse the Legislature, silence
its Judges, and trampe down its people un-
der the armed heel of his troops. Nothing is
left to the citizen. or State which can any
longer be called a|right-all is changed into
mere sufferance.
Our hopes for redress are in the calm good
sense, the "sobet second thought" of the
American people, We call upon them to be
true to themselves and to their pnsterity, and,
dsregarding patty names and minor differ
ences, to insist upon decentralization Of
power and the restriction Of Federal authority
within its just and proper limits, leaving tn
the States that control over domestic affairs
Which is essential to their happiness and tram
guilty 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 dis rider owe their "ri-
gin to the mischievous minds of potential
managers in the Senate and House of Repre-
sentatives, to which the Executive has, we re-
greet to say, lent his aid, and thus helped to
inaame the popular feeling. IN all this course
of hostile legislation and harsh treatment, no
word of conciliation, of kind encouragement
or fraternal friendship has ever been spoken
by the President Of by Congress to the people
OF the Southern States. They have been ad-
dressed only 10 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, to carefully protect