Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1873-09-04
Speech Of Senator Morton, Confin.
ucd from First Page.

and l will tell you little secret, which
i the Democratic party in the days of its
power never discovered, and l fear
never will, and that is, that the best
way for party to maintain its ascend
ancy and keep the power is to diligent-
ly and inexorable investigate its own
condition and purge itself of all rlscalS
and rascdlity when discovered. Instead
of covering up the delinquencies of lis
OWN official members, be the first to
drag them TO light and punishment.
The Republican party cannot keep all
rascals out of its ranks, or out of office,
but it can expose and punish them.
The Republican party has shown
fronl time to time that it knows how
to break its own idols. No man in il
is so high as TO be above the most Sc
we're and searching investigation, and
if found wanting in integrity is at once
put aside, however long and distin-
guished may have been his services.
If the Democratic party, with its
multiplied crimes and follies and
blunders thick upon it, which can
point to no redeeming act in twenty
years, is to be forgiven, it seems to me
the most fastidiouS should look with
charitable eyes upon the yenial errors
of the Republican party. When we
contemplate the glorious record of the
Republican party, which is without
parallel in the history of parties, its
errors are but as specks upon a grand
picture which glows allover with light
and life and beauty.
WHAT IT HAS DONE.
If you would judge correctly of the
Republican party you must look at its
grand results, take in its whole history
for twelve years; just as in compre-
hending the full power and glory of the
sun you would look at the whole orb,
and not confine your vision to some
little spot on its face. When we look
back through period of only twelve
years and find that the Republican par
| ty suppressed the mightiest rebellion
| in history, preserved the Union, abol-
ished slavery, elevated five millions of
people from the condition of slaves to
the enjoyment of civil and political
rights, restored the country to peace,
and that under its rule the country is
growing in wealth, power, and intelli-
gence as never before, we can put aside
with contempt the petty ISLANDERS upon
| it, and challenge the admiration and
confidence of the nation.
THE OLD, OLD STORY.
If we recur to the history of the past
we find that villification of Congress
was even more general, malignant, and
personal during the administrations of
Washington, jefferson, and Jackson
than it is to-day. The business of de-
traction and SANDER seems to have lost
much of its vigor and facility since
Washington was almost daily charged
with "the foulest designs against the
liberties of the people, concealed under
the cloak of patriotism"
If the mass of the people believed
these wholesale calumnies the country
would grow rapidly worse, and the
next generation be much wickeder than
the present; for there is nothing so de-
moralizing as general belief in the
corruption of mankind. If our chill
dren can be made to believe that they
breathe ian atmosphere of corruption,
and that everything is wicked about
them, they will have small induce
ments TO become honest men and wo-
men, and will be likely to fall in with
what they understand to be the pre-
yailing customs.
And will just say here to those who
have the leisure and opportunity to
review the political literature of the
last seventy years, that they will find
under every administration the OppO-
sition to that administration has
charged it with being more corrupt
than any that had gone before, and that
the period was one of general official
prohigacy, which, unless it was check
ed by turning the others out and put
ting them in, would result in the ruin
of the country.
CHEERFUL OUTLOOK.
As a general rule the public men are
represent the people especially in their
manners and morals. And while am
not wanting in veneration for the mem
ory and character of our fathers, l am
cure l do them no injustice when / say
that the mass of the people of this
country at the present day are their su-
periors in morals, education and intel
ligence. Their means of Improvement
and their opportunities are vastly great
er than We're those of the Fathers; and
as general rule their public men have
kept pace with them. / believe the
world is growing better instead of
worse, and especially this part of the
world in which we live; that the prin-
cipleS of free government are better
understood in this country to-day than
ever before; that there is more devO-
ton to them; and that the sacrifices for
the preservation Of the Union in the
war of the rebellion were, to say the
least, of far greater magnitude. and
quite equal in degree to those made IN
the Revolution. Human rights are
better understood and more strictly en-
forced than ever before; and whereas
at the time of the Revolution there
were few men who, rising above all
their contemporaries, perceived the
g. great wickedness and danger of hui
man slavery, the mass of the nation
has now come to comprehend it. As
our fathers in the Revolution were
wiser than the Colonists, SO is the gen.
Grafton of to-day wiser and better than
the fathers.
| SALARY GRAD.
1t might be the subject of comment
if / failed to make some reference to
what is called "the Back Pay" By an
amendment to the Legislative Appro-
priation Bill the salary of members of
Congress was raised to 81 800 year, in
stead of $1,000, which was their COM
pensation under the old law. What
was known rs Congressional mileage
was abolished, and all allowances for
newspapers and stationery. The law
was also made retroactive, so as to pay
this increased rate for the Congress then
expiring, deducting from it, however,
all sums paid for mileage, stationery,
and newspapers.
The measure was in no sense party
one. So far as that is concerned, it
may not be improper to observe that
4 more Democrats voted for it in the two
Houses, in proportion to their numbers,
/ than Republicans. But it was no sense