Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1873-10-23
more than revealed. The bow is IN
the sky for the Democracy"
"AII Parties are Equally Corrupt. "

pushed to the wall by the glaring cor
ruptions of their party leaders. 1t is
the most convenient defence they can
resort to, and yet the poorest, even if
it were true. But it is not true, if the
sweeping assertion is intended to in
clude the Democracy, which it of
course does.
In the first phase, the democratic
party went out of power on the 4th of
March 1861, and since then there has
not been moment wnen it had the
power to do mischief All branches
of the government have been in radi-
cal hands, and no democrat has been
intrusted with a dollar of the public
money, or with a single government
'job;" and hence nobody can accuse
them of stealing a dollar. The only
instance of democratic malt"asance
that we can think of was that of
Tweed, and he was accountable only
to the municipal government Of New
York City; but even Tweed was
promptly arrested, tried by Il demo
cratic Judge, and turned over to Grant,
whose supporter he now is. If the
Administration had even attempted to
deal with its own thieves in the same
way, its hands would be much cleaner
than they are. although soiled by eX-
cessivc labor. Even during the war,
when full one half Of the army were
democrats, the party was debarred
from all positions where lanrels were
to be won or money was to be made
Therefore we say that Of the many
millions which are known to have
been stolen by government agents and
contractors, no democrat got Il dollar,
because all democrats were excluded
from those positions And so the
responsibility should rest where it
belongs. The radical party is respon-
sible because they had the power,
while the democratic party stand en-
tirely exonerated, not because it is in
fallible-which We no not Pretend
but because they have all the while
been too far removed from the public
crib to plumber it, if they were so in
clincd.
And as to the honesty of the demo-
cratic party when they 'rere in power,
the words of John p. Hale ought to
be pretty good authority with radicals.
Just before leaving the Senate, and
near the close of the first year of
Lincoln's administration, he said
"7He frauds upon the government
during the last .te~ months, haze er
ceeded those daring oil Of its precious
existence"
We thought at the time that the
assertion was quite too broad, but as
the radical journals have never dispu-
ted him we have not. And since then
it is admitted that the rascalities Of
the government have all the while
been running from bad to worse.
johnson was inclined to enforce hon
esty in the government, and his efforts
in that direction almost expelled him
from the Executive Chair. But since
Grant has been in power the radical
thieves have had no occasion to i'm
peach their President for similar rea-
sons. Neither can they justly charge
democrats with the remotest compile
ity in the spoils for Grant hos never
appointed one of them to station Of
honor or profit. And beyond this, let
it be remembered that all the finan-
cial pets Of the government, like Jay
Cooke e. Co., and Henry Clews e.
Co., who have recently ''gone under"
with millions Of Grants rotten green
backs, are all stiff radicals. We re-
gret that Jack Hale is too near his
end to make another estimate of the
rascalities ofhis party up to the pres
ent moment, in comparison with those
of past ages. 1t would be of much
interest to antiquarians to know how
far into the dark ages we should be
obliged to go to balance the iniquities
of the last dozen years.
With all these facts before the coun-
try, it is foul libel to say that the
democratic party is, or ever was, a
tenth part as corrupt as the party in
power. 1t is not true that call parties
are equally corrupt" The men who
say this have never studied political
history. We do not claim that demo-
Gratis are exempt from human imper-
fections, but we do claim that they
ruled the government prudently and
honestly for many years, and surren-
| dnred Ii To the marty In nnunr fron