American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1873-08-02
A Picture of Republican Rule.
EXTRACTS from Ironical Speech by Hon. s. ;
OK at New York July T.

military service The last one was held to be
the vndication of his personal character ana
his policy ruler and reformcr. As 10 MS
personal character l have no remark our
foreign ministers first ironically interpreted
the election. Full of the san Domingo treaty
and the Geneva magniloqucnce they lald down
their crowns, even before the mauSuratlon
made it decorouS; and that apostle of civil
Service, the accomplished Curtis, feeling that
there was no more for him to do, lald his re-
formatory chaplet at the altar OF success
But we have some who complain Was there
ever a Providence, however well meant, which
did not evoke complaint. Shiphuilding
groans for work; navigation begS for boun-
ties; commerce cries aloud for gains. Who
does not complain:
The brown-fsted rough. the shrt--eeved Cid,
The backwood- Charlemagnc of empires new
Grow profane in marts and mines at the East
and the West, while the farmers meet III
Oranges, indignant at leviathan mouopolie@,
and stamp their heels on equity toes of money
ed digntics. The children of toll will not see
how beautiful 1t is to contribute by pillow,
loom, and anvil to the angelic statesmen OF
this heaven-favored period. They even go so
far as to reproach an unseltsh Congress Tor
raising its pay and the patriotic President for
doubling his salary, They call it a vulgar
grab, and will not see that luxury of high
living exalteth nation But did not Rome
have her shoddy displays, superficial fash
ions, monopolizing corporations, grinding
taxation, and personal greed; and was not
Rome exalted-before she fell? Are not all
equal before the law now; and If Legls-
latures are bad in Pennsylvania and New
York, then why not allow them to be bought
in Kansas, cajoled in Arkansas, and kidnapped
in Louisiana? Was there unreasoning
n people. When we have repose in the
South, they call it decay and death; when it is
action they call it fraud and force. They ask
for peace Well, is not the Administration
continually ringing down the curtains over
the sanguinary drama of our war? Yet sol
diers who followed McClelland, Franklin,
SIprnm nd Hancock hpcnlisp
starred ensign remains in the keeping of the
gallant jayhawkcr of Virginia. or because his
hungry guerrillas are sharers ut the Federal
board. They insanely cry for Southrons like
Campbell, Graham and Hunter, while Aker
man, Longstreet and Settle are willing to rep
resent the now voiceless purpose of once
spirited people.
What matters it which class of rebels rule
in the despoiled South-a battalion of scat
tered bummers, or the orderly masses of hon
est men. What matters it whether the South
is ruled by one man with knk in his char
acter, or by another with kink in his hair?
Whether Louisiana succumbs TO the .Gatlin
guns of Casey, the sword of the Federal eN-
ecutive, the Illegal decree of Durell, or the
keen razoro of Pinchback? Is not reform the
order of Providence. Did not Wilson plant
and Colfax waters Alasl for that reform.
There are those who will persist with cruel
mOckery in singing its elegy: "a
Its spring is past. and yet it hath not sprung:
Its fruit is dead; its leaves-they are not green:
Its youth is past. and yet il is not young;
Ii saw the world, and yet it was not seen;
1t once did live. and now its life is done!
SOME MORAL REFLECTIONS.
How cruel and unmerited this refrain
applied Just now-at least to our own city
and State, where reform is in such active
eruption. Again, there are Others besides the
labOring man who, styling the last election "a
ferocious, corrupt and vulgar scramble" can
not see the hand of kind Providence in Civ
ing us four more years of this heavenly rule!
Perhaps they forget that the terrorism of the
time suppressed facts which have since trans
pred. 1t may be said that General Grant was
voted for as a lesser evil; that his opponent
aroused the fears of the timid, wealthy and
selfish; that the cohorts who rallied under
seventy thousand office-holders, and with
money by the million were inducing that pride
of place and excess of power which prepare
for more complete overthrow and more
comprehensive reform. But was it not in-
tended that We should draw nigh to the CEN
tenary of our National existence, as to
new under gTander auspices the splendor of
our careers Again, may we not study out
some higher purpose which permits our beue-
ficent financial policy to continue four years
more? To pay the syndicate only ten millions
for funding two hundred millionsl A paltry
sunni But Providence favored the unselfish
syndicate. Two thousand millions
being placed on the market under its patriotic
management. Doubtless we shall be even
more generous in the next recompense. Why
not open heart and hand, We hard-fisted yeo-
many of our land? Labor is gentle, labor
soothes, and is it not even more blessed to
give than to receive? A good Providence
our lands and our credit to build another
Pacific Railroad; why should we grudge to
the propretors of that road-the syndicate
the manipulation of all our funded debt.
Then there are minds who criticise the tor
Del because we have not resumed specie pay
ments. Suppose this failure did cost in the
past four years s4e4OO0, 600 in imports and
customs. Are we not rich in money and
ms re- mt ntIIra
are found who protest against the Secretary of
the Treasury changing at will the volume of
our currency. They say it is contrary to law,
assists speculation, discourages business and
changes values. They think that a bloated
issue is not health; that plethoric treasury
tends to PRODUCTIVITY. They do not the
beauty of that divinely arranged tariff which
gives hundreds of millions to the forty thou
sand few, though it be at the expense of the
forty millions many! Even the farmers in
their blindness fail to discern in the blazing
light OF their own corn the economy of cheap
fuel, and a nations salvation in our beneficent
tariff. Why does not the nation perceive the
divine economy which, forbdding us to buy
ships abroad, with the largest-hearted liberal
ity bestows ninety millions every year on the
generous foreigner who comes to our aid.
Suppose our own tonnage is less than third of
that which does our carrying; suppose it is
still decreasing, why should not the nabobs
who rejoice in this rule at home, and who
wander abroad at their own sweet will, look
friend, be it English, French or German.
What an opportunity to illustrate the most ex-
tended universal cosmopolitanism. Here is
no narrow Americanism. A good lesson to
our vanity, spitefully say some. No more
bombast about our native bunting, though
under a high tariff it is made at Lowell
Down with the discordant screams of our
bird of prey! Why not cultivate the bated
breath of divine humility? Some there are
who are proud of our diplomacy, and may
compare Franklin with Jay and Dallas with
Cramer. Others, still looking abroad, blush
about Vienna; but does it follow we have less
credit there than at home.
Who does not recognize an ironic Provi-
dence in our Indian affairs? The Quaker policy
is peace and-Capby is at rest. Capt. Jack is
exalted in life, and if he dies Imagination
needs no aid to see him apotheosized and
standmg white-robed on the walls of the New
Jerusalem, singing with John Brown the
battle-hymn of freedom, with the scap-lock
Of the pale woman dangling at his belt To
come nearer to our homes and our interests,
in what department of the Administration
does not this high ironic appreciation appear:
In the mode OF appointing judges to revoke pre-
vious decisions? In the grand schemes of in
ternal improvement to crafty local pride
and aggrandize selfish speculation Not in
these alone The intellectual force of the
majority is not less apparent in the general
misgovernment South and North, in State and
city. Is it not late to complain of this? Was
1t not known that States like North Carolina
had been betrayed, robbed of resources, taxed
to impoverishnent, States and railroads put
under bonds of paper and bands of iron,
handed over to rogues who were preferred at
Washington? Why should rebel States COM
plain if left to reputation and anarchy? Did
not the men who furnished the means to cor
rupt the ballot last fall, dicker in the false,
forged and Illegal bonds of those States, Is
not that better than secession and slavery?
can understand why we have pharsaical