The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1872-05-24
BIAN DEMOCRAT, BLOOMSBURY, COLUMBIA COUNTY PA.

and New York has done about the same
thing. 1 can not see how you can figure
with any certainty to win with q
straight out ticket. With three tickets
In the field Grants chance Is best by all
odds; he gets plurality of the vote
and the election may be forced into the
House of Representatives, Grants
stronghold. A little concentration
would cure this difficulty and believe
triumphantly elect Greeley, consum-
nation whose chief beauty consists in
the fact that that would beat Grant!
But, Mr.. Editor, there Is higher and
this subject. 1t lies in the plain path
of political duty, in the higher range
of political truth and honesty. The
politics of this country has sunk into
the depths of corruption. We want
both publication and restoration. The
country is ruled in part by lawless
usurpation; the Judiciary is corrupt;
ministers of State buy and sell and bar.
ter public property; vast monopolies
are encroaching upon the wealth and
substance of the people; the halls of
legislation are shambles; the tone of
our politics is lowered and degraded
and the very fountains of national life
are poisoned by the bargain and sale of
politics. You have horse jockeys in the
highest places of public trust, and
thieves in the highest officesin the land.
The contagion has spread and infected
almost every precinct in the whole
country, aud debauched and dsgraced
public honor and private honesty eve.
rywhere-over the whole land-like
deadly miasm it has spread. 1t is time
all good and true men, without distinc-
tion of party, united together to strike
down the monstrous iniquity of politi-
cal corruption, which is breeding such
infamous effects in this country in all
the affairs of everyday life. L do not
know better man to make the instru-
ment of this great work than one of
whom no man can say he ever took q
bribe or gave himself up to worship
mammon.
The Democratic party for some wise
purpose in the de"rprs of Providence,
has been given over 10 political mis-.
takes for many years. 1t failed at Chi.
cago; it repeated its mistake in New
York, and the lesson of these failures
should be enough to teach it breadth of
view and freedom from bigotry in
times like these. The party can not
lose character through the election OF
of Mr.. Greeley. BE he ever so much a
) President, he could not swallow up a
party whose constituency is in every
State and whose votes Outnumber by
millions those of his own immediate
adherents. But besides this, regard II
, as q most fortunate circumstance. for The
REFORMS zoe propose, that the C0noreSS
Nth aohich lr. Greeley too,lld act, were
he President, could not be said to 6t
made up of his o,cn henchn,en, men
, pledged or obligated to do his bidding. Tc
such Congress by the platform adopt.
ed at Cincinnati an all important issue
/ of the future is committed-the ques
, tion of the tariff, one requiring close
and careful debate and cautious action
In pennsylvania, the Democratic par
| ty can not be said to be afflicted
with any undue haste respecting the
, doctrine of free trade. Free trade ma,
, be, and undoubtedly is, a wise genera
t principal; but 1t is strong medicine tt
, take all at once. Absolute free trade
exists in no important nation of tht
globe, and comparative free trade ha'
, had to pass through long periods of par
turitiou. Is it not just as well to pu
this question where the Cincinnati plat
} form puts it-in Congress? And shall
, we in Pennsylvania not be satisfied tina
when it goes there it may be met by
/ the counter irritant of projections
, Executive?
! l believe Mr.. Greeley and his friend,
are earnest and honest in the cause o
. Reform; l believe they have strength
to give US and we have power to Civ,
, them. l esteem it fortunate circum
, stance that the President should not be
J 80 profoundly attached to the party tina
elects him that Congress would bt
, bound in any contingency to do hi
/ / ntxyn nf
, Dlnatlon OF events wherein this semi
: detached relationship would operate
, upon both parties thereto so as to bint
the President to his obligations. %StrfI
Congress of too intimate connection
with the patronage of the government
and engender by partial separation
that wholesome mutual respect between
the coordinate branches of the govern
ment which was contemplated by the
founders, and sought to be embodied In
the system of checks and balances de
vised by the Constitution of the Repub
lie. l believe that Mr.. Greeley's elec
tion would ring the death knell of or
ganized radicalism in this country that
straight out Democratic ticket would
be beaten and thereby all chance for the
recovery of power lost. [ believe that
flying the colors of the reform move
| SN.N SOhoeAtupAhS @ Saop
of the winning party, we shall main
tain our place in the van of the politi
cal influences of the land, and attain
most eftectually what we profess to have
at heart; that we would witness the
overthrow and destruction of our oppo
nents, and, maintaining stronghold
In the seats of power, still keep oul
place in the hearts and brains and conf
dence of the people that looking rather
to the new order of things, than to q
dreary lapse of Grant, the people would
rally to the cause we offer to their suf.
frages and overcome with the hopeful
enthusiasm of victory assured, all that
can be done by the enormous enginery
of political power that is opposed tC
us. i think that the spectacle Of our re
covery of the just equipoise of local go
vernment and purity of administration
through such an alliance would! be the
prOudest testimony ever offered of the
real virtue OF our people and the high,
est evidence of their capacity for sell
government.
A LIFELONG DEMOCRAT,
CONGRESS.