Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1873-03-27
The Venality Of the Times.
WHAT SHALL WE DO?

The most deplorable index of any age
is: the exchange of moral principle foi
money
When we refer to ancient history, and
E read of the sums of money raised by the
fmonarchs of those days, the luxury in
which they lived. the stately monuments
the grand obelisks, the costly palaces, the
mighty pyramids, and the wonderful
hanging gardens erected bythem the read
er is astounded but when we learn hat to
accomplish their ends, a majority of the
people were through poverty forced into
abject slavery, we admire their resolution ;
but must join with civilized nations in de-
nouncing those rulers as the enemies of
mankind
How Xerxes controlled and marched an
army of nearly three millions into Greece
appears like myth; but when we consid-
er that this monarch gathered to himself
the principal wealth of his countrymen,
rendering them wholly dependent on him
! for support, the mystery vanishes This
was the making of Xerxes, but it was
death or seryitude 10 the people.
Turning from the days when power
was conceded to one man, from dead
monarchs and ruined monarchies, to look
at country where the power is vested in
the citizens, where our public men are
elected by an Independent people to carry
out their will, and shall we in the 73rd
year of the 10Th century ask, where are
we as nation drifting, and what do we
find?
The answer is reluctantly forced
upon us by the facts surrounding us in
the same channel, and find the same ten.
dency to appropriate these high offices
of trust to personal aggrandizement, same
tendency to ignore the rights of the peo-
! pie in the thirst for fame and money that
rendered these ancient rulers so despica-
bic in the estimation of the civilized
world. What are the facts 1t will be re
membeTed that prior to th,year 1850 all
our Congressman were satisfied with their
salary that after war was declared between
the States to meet the emergency then
existing, never were officers COM
Delled to perform greater amount of la
Dor and hold longer sessions than then, ret
no one dared or even wished to increase
his pay for such services, and after it was
found necessary to issue legal tentler
notes, and the country flooded with them
SO as to render money worth but 33 cents
on the dollar, even yet none dared or de
sired to take an extra dollar greenback
out of the Treasury. 1t will also be re-
membered that during the years of war
the Golfers of business men were filled to
overflowing with money, farmers could
get q high price for all ther products, real
estate advanced, wages of laboring men
advanced, and never were all classes of
men better prepared to bear extra burdens
than during those years, yctthere was no
Congressman or Legislator who was not
cont'n mt to take the ordinary salary Butnow
when it is we'll known that there is some
what of a financial crisis, when the people
are grooming with burdens, when money
is worth more than double what it was
eight years ago, our representatives,
save few honorable exceptions, whose
record also before the country, reach
their hands into the National Treasury
AMI pocket $4,000 apiece, gathered from
the hard earnings of the people.
The members of our State Legislature
llmbibing the same spirit with some hon
orable exceptions, s,afterincreasing their sal
ary each So per day had the effrontery to
increase the burden of the tax payer two
fold or more by requiring all assessments
| of property to be at cash value, and on
this increased assessment increase the
State tax for State purposes from 5 to
10 cents per 800. Here is an increased
burden forced upon the taxpayer, at a
time when the people are least able to
bear it, at time when there was no
emergency demanding it. For what To
put money in the pockets of men who
cannot dare to come before the people
with an excuse for their conduct, for there
is no excuse.
Under the existing state of things.
many are asking, what are we to do ?"
They say corruption ard venality have
crept into high places through both par
ties, and at this stage, one Republican ed
itor acknowledges his willingness to
abandon his party. As well might chris
tian and Jew abandon their several
churches because some wicked men had
worked themselves in. The Republican
party is organized on principle that will
stand the test of any enlightened age, and
when a Republican asks himself what
he shall do? Let the answer of his con-
science be: do right The time is at
hand in this country when patriots, hon.
est editors, orators, statesmen, and private
Ecitizens should be found at at their post
in one grand army, and with honesty and