Litchfield enquirer., 1872-07-25
THE FiRsr GUN FOR GRANT.

weather and Kellogg of the House of Rep
 resentatiyes and others, advocated the
 election of Grant and Wilson. The Hon.
 Thomas H. Bond, well known New Ha-
 ven Democrat, was one of the speakers,
 and Hon. Charles Atwater, Democratic
 candidate for Lieut.. Governor. was one of
 the viee-presidents. The former consid-
 cred the Democratic party disbanded, Of the two republicans he preferred Grant to
 Greeley. The present administration had
 been peaceful; it had diminished the debt at the rate of an hundred millions year; it had the confidence of the young men who had followed Sherman to the sea and who had stood by Grant at Shiloh and in the Wilderness. The moving cause of Greeleyism was the desire for office. For
 this Democrats were asked to sacrifice everything. They were like boy when
 digging at the side of the rock, and man
 asked what he was digging for. and he said for woodchuck;' and when the old man asked if he expected to get him, re- piled, Get him good God, we are clear out of meat, and we have got to have himi" agl,,s.
 Mr.iDawes reviewed the charge of ex- travagance in expenditure so frequently brought against the administration. Du- ring Johnson's administration but four teen millions of the debt had been paid; the present administration had paid one hundred millions year besides reducing the taxes The whiskey tax at 50 cents per gallon had produced more revenue under Grant than it had done at $2, under Johnson. The government expenses (outside of those growing directly out of the war) were less now, by the head, than they had been before since 1910. In 1860 they were $2,60 per capita; in 1870 they, were only $1.71. As regards alleged de- falcations, the figures showed that only one-tenth of one per cent of revenue tax due since March, 1869, remained unpaid Since 1869, 525 millions, internal and cus- toms revenue, have been collected, and all paid but $28 GOO. The republican treasur- CT in eleven years has has paid out &, ,OOO,- GOO, 900 dollars, and lost in that time but $55, 900, and the men like Hodge, an old democratic paymaster, have been tried and convicted by the republican party.
 The meeting was very large and en- thusiastic one and shows that the spirit of '68 is abroad in Connecticut
 A rather important issue between the large towns and cities of the State and the smaller towns sprang up in the legisla- ture, last week. Heretofore the State has paid out 50 cents. per scholar (aside from the School Fund money) towards the SUD- port of free schools, and the rest of the burden has been thrown on the towns. An amendment was offered to the new ed ucation bill throwing the entire burden of the maintenance of our public schools up- on the State. The effect of such change would be to the advantage of the small towns, where schools are many, attendance small, and consequently the expense great CT per scholar than in the cities where scholars can be educated at comparatively less expense and where, too, the greatest amounts of property are accumulated. This amendment was strenuously opposed by city members and pressed by country members, but finally failed. The amount to be furnished by the State towards the support of schools was, however, raised from fifty cents to dollar and ahalf per scholar The city papers complain of this as an unfairness, and the committee on ed- ucation sought to reduce it to one dollar per scholar. It is said that dollar and half is more than some towns now expend per scholar, though that certainly ought not to be the case. We fail to see any unfairness in throwing the burden of the support of schools largely on the State. The difficulty and expense of maintaining good schools for the sparse population of many of the country districtsis very great; the cities have decidedly the advantage under our present system, and ought not to shrink from bearing their fair propor- tion of the expense. E..
 The Enquirer need not try to console itself with the hope that the Democrats are to be divided. The Democracy and their Liberal allies have gone into this contest to win. They have determined to clean out the Military Ring at Washing ton and they are bound to do it. Mark that !--F'Ggnaer.
 The action of the gentleman your party ran for Lieut.. Gov. last spring, and of other Democrats who prefer moderate Republican like Grant to so bitter hater of Democracy as Horace Greeley, certainly indicates Q division of your party. Last week the Farmer expressed the feeling of the genuine old Democrat when it said,
 We perform to-day the most disagreea-
 ble and distastefil act of our whole life in
 placing at our mast head the names of Horace Greeley and B. Gratz Brown, as the candidates of the Democratic Party for President and Vice President of the
 United States. It is impossible to conceal
 our chagrinwe have no disposition to disguise the sincere and almost inconsola- ble dISappolnCment that we, Tn common with large number of the sterling Dem ocrats of the Old Fourth District, feel at the strange turn political affairs have ta-
 ken. Aa ss-a
 | Now with such feeling as that towards l your candidates. and with prominent Dem
 ocrats like Atwater and Bond going for
 Grant, is it reasonable to expect the full
 Democratic vote of the State to be polled
 for Greeley? The Springfield Republi-
 can. the abiest Greeley paper in New Eng
 land, only estimates 85 per cent of the
 Democracy as ready at present to vote for
 Greeley, The New Departure failed most
 ignominiously in Connecticut, last spring,
 from the fact that the Democracy did not
 take interest enough in the matter to turn,