The Van Buren press., 1873-11-04
NO. %


checked by the influence Of such shival-
~, can do when it pervades the entire
nation, dominating national and State
legislation, and touching with its golden
wand the highest court Of justice In the
land We have seen how this great re-
public has been transmutsd into ring
public, while the South has been reduced
to political uonentity; what q concen
tric sories of rings, what wheel within
a wheel as in the prophets vision, have
been produced from the centre 70 the
circumference Of the Union.
Look at the succession OF these rings:
Grst, the "primary meeting ring, or the
village caucus Of half a dozen politicians
making M their "slate around . gro
GERS eask of onions or dried apples.
Follow the series Of political rings from
that primary meeting Of free and inds-
psndent citizens mp through State con-
yentiops to she congressional csucus and
lobby at Washington. Then take the
corporation rings, and follow thcm from
the centre to the circumference Of their
power. Do the same with land rings,
wheat rings, traffic and transportation
rings, and tariff rings. Lock atthe great
railway rings, that touch with their rel T.
meters either ocean, at the credits mobil-
ier they organize, the legislation they
control, and the legislators they demo.
alze and smirch with the pitch OF dis
honest transactions. SEQ what men in
the highest places Of trust have sold snd
soilcd the characters the public had Civ
en- them, by Fastening to he rich BY
treachery or fraud. See how the hns
gold of political and commercial probity
has been dimmed by these transactions,
and the suspicious they engcndcr. What
the French mean by bomgeoisie, We sx-
press by sholdy, and no wsrd in oar Ian.
guago has q more uniformly accepted
meaning than this Of recent coinage We
all know what shsddy means In textile
fabrics. But never did it fll such place
or play such part in soldiers coat ~
it does in our paper money. In our paper
characters on change, and In the paper
moralities which the last few years have
witnessed.
Itmay seem disloyal to our republican
institutions to say il, but when it 10 said.
let the candid reader see il he can dis
at the present juncture is the element that
has been displaced by the POLITICAL estra-
cism Of the South. | do not say that We
need Southern aristocracy, but we need
ono which shall resemble aud exercise
some OF its best characteristics. and such
we need imperatively, North and South,
East and West. We need claFs With
as 1ne an esprit de corfs, with as high
sense Of honor and personal and family
dignity, as England ever produced or
the South claimed to possess. We want
such men as the Jctfsrsons, Maidstone,
Lowndes, Pickneys, Calhouns, Clays. and
Bentens, and ether statesmen whom the
South has contributes to the structure
and glory Of the nation, whether they
come from ONE side Of Mason and Dix.
on's line or the other. We want men
who will walk through the lobbles of
Of Congress and "wcar the flower Of q
blameless life,' and Of blamelsss
thought, though each hall and every step
we're beset with the gift bearing Greeks
Of corrupiing rings seeking to place their
gold "where it shall do most good.
You may call such class an aristocrs.
oy, or by any opprobrious name; but Il
10 class We most need in every section
Of the Union, to stand 40 bulwark
against the overflow Of shoddy which
threatens to drown the political probity
and purity OF our national life aud char.
acter.