Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1872-10-02

ed extravaganza. Men on a salary
of s., 500 sporting costly diamonds,
driving fast horses, living at the rate
of $50, 900 year. Men on salaries of
$1,000 as though there was no limit
to their wealth,
For two and a half years there has
been no statement published Of the
annual receipts and outgoes of the
city government, although the law
requires such q statement every year;
nothing has been published, but every
thing held back. Once, indeed, in a
while, some leading citizens are in
duced to go and certify, in a general
way, "that all is right" at the Comp
troller's Office, every thing going on
well till some thirty or forty million
of dollars have been added to the debt
of the city, for which there is no pos
sible benefit derived. When these
statements were first made public,
thought that these men had furnished
a certain amount of property or labor
to the city, and had been induced to
make out their bill for a large amount
paying back a certain amount to the
office-hOlders, splitting the difference.
This has been done before in New
anu buGIt dEes dAAA "
say other localities in which it is done.
But the case is made worse than this.
There must be some fifteen or twenty
millions of bills for which nothing
was ever furnished; billS made out
for $50, 900 or 500, 900 for carpets, plas-
tering, plumbing, lumber and materi-
ais which never existed, or were new
er supplied at all.
CAN RoGUEs BE KEPT FROM OFFICE?
Now what of all this? Men in pow
er have proved false, as all parties, all
governments, occasionally nave done.
There never was any party so pure, so
upright, so righteous, so vigilant that
rOgues did not creep into power under
its rule, and fill their pockets at the
public expense. The simple fact that
a large amount of public money has
been stolen is not, unfortunately, a
novelty, but the fact that men thro'
whom,-I will not say by whom, be-
cause the facts are not all established
iudicIally,-but the men through
whom this money has been stolen, the
men who had to approve these bills,
and certify them 90 be correct and
proper and pass them over and pay
them, these men stay in Office, defying
public sentiment, refusing TO surren-
der their trust, and insisting that
they are going to hold on to the end
of the present term, and then take
public verdict in a race for another
election. / venture to say that no
such case as this has happened in the
history of the world, where the men.
who il they are not thieves and rob
bers, have been the cOnvenienees OF
thieves and men who, if they have
not stolen the money themselves, have
allowed others to steal it when 1t was
their duty to see that it was not sto-
len. These men cling to their trust
face the public down, and say, we
have done nothing we are sorry for.
How are you going to get US out?
We defy YOU" Once in while one
suggests to another to go out. 1T does
not look WELL" says one, for you to
be here: it is not good to have bad
smell about us you must get out to
make things sweeter." But the 9TH
er replies. "It is no worse in my cor
ner than in yours; if 1 GO out you
ought to, and / don't mean to go. -
And they do stick, all OF them, and
they will stick till they are perfectly
certain that they must either accept
the State prison or go out of the way
of the law and justice Of New fork.
WHO Is RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ROGUE
RY?
Now is the Democratic party respon-
sible? Not if the Democratic party
elected them not knowing they would
steal, or willing others should steal
money by the millions but they are
responsible so far as they sustain or
may sustain their unTighteousness-
If that party shall promptly repudl-
ate them, kick them out OF their pia-
ces, follow them up by legal prosecu-
ton and punish them, it will not be
morally responsible before the country
for the money stolen while it was ig-
norant of their crimes. But it is Ie-
spopsible before God and man for de-
fTauding the people out of their votes
when that has been q PLAIN, publish
ed, notorious fact for years yet they
90 on and the whole party profit by
it. wink at il and take the spoils-the
receiver if not the thief. The Demo
cratic party has known just as well, L
venture to say, here in Ohio. that
these frauds were going on, for they
have been developed in solemn re-
ports before Congress. Democrats have
been elected by votes that any man
must have known to be fraudulent
These men, whom it is now claimed
have defrauded the Democratic partS
and disgraced it by their dishonesty
in money matters, are the very men
who have been defrauding the state
of New York out of their honest,
righteous votes for years, and the
whole Democratic party stood oy
them without giving one wOrd OF re-
buke or interpOsing single reprooi 20
nut an end to this most netarlOus ana
acknowledgements.
IL were in vain, fellow-citizens, for
that party to say, as the guilty Mac
beth said to his ghostly persecutor !;
Thou eanst not say did it; never shake
Thy CORY locks at mei"
Because the facts haYe been so notori-
Gus, they hSve been so demonstrated, (,
that no man could doubt their exist
ence.
ILLEGAL. VOTING AND REGISTRATION.
1t is now nearly forty years since l
have been a voter, and thifty-odd
wears since l came to have some little
share in advising and eounselllng now
public affairs should be managed. L
was then a Wing, confronting the
same PARTY, with the same principles
and tile same usages that have been
more developed since, and the very
first act of legislation IN which L ever
bore a conspicuous part was an act
prescribing and requiring a reglstra-
ton of the legal voters of the city OF
New York. l had been for several
wears an active politician at the polls;
had seen how fraud was rampant AT
those polls and knew, and every
body must know, that so long as any
man could come up and swear that ne
was a voter. and have his vote reeelV-
ed though ten men present knew ne
was not voter so lOngas man VINO
was not challenged could put In MS
vote and 90 away, just so certain
would there be fraud. The man VINO
insists on leaving my door open at
night on purpose that burglar ml9hS
take advantage of it and come IN ana
steal my property, is just as muoh 8
thief as though he took It himself
/ had seen for years that the great
body of those who were not citizens
and chose TO vote, did vOtei and II
they chose to vote ten times, at so
MANY different polls, they could there
was no barrier against 1t and the nrst
act l ATTEMPTED to pass was the Regis
sS-.;-, a1,, of New York in lS4O.-