The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1873-03-15
THE CORRUPTION OF OUR PUBLIC MEN.

undoubtedly me most pOftcntOuS cNll OF
the times Is the enormous corruption that has
broken out among our public men In past
times the country has had its Swartwouts,
its GARDENERS its Aaron Burr's, and a few
such noted cases Of corruption and political
decentralization; but never in any country, or
in any age, has the disease been so wide
spread and universal On this subject we
find Il trcnchapt article in the New York CD.
s6rcer a scmireligious and non-political pa
per of the very highest character, from which
we append an extract:
What makes the present state of things so
fearful, is the universally of the disorder.
The whole head seems to he sick and the
whole heart faint From the crown of the
head to the sole of the foot there is little else
than putrcfyng sores. Cakes Ames is from
Massachusetts, and Pomeroy halls from Kan.
sas, and all the way between these two eX-
rcmes, the like of them are too numerous to
mention. The contemplation of the picture
is more disgusting than the sight of a hospit-
al filed with the dying. The sick may be
healed Even the field that is covered with
the slain may be clothed anew with verdure
and enriched with living harvests. But this
/
case.
The popularity of this disease in the body
IpOlic is that il is always and everywhere a
desire to get money. The ambition that Graves
honor and power may be laudable and noble (;
and is, in true patriot and statesman But
these bad men in Congress, and the States and
cities seek Office only to make themselves
Iricl. 1t is the worst kind of moral .iaundicc
and the color of the complaint appears. This
is It's nature 1t had large development in
the war of 1sGl-'65. Wars always breed
race of spectators who trade on their coun-
uys need. The haste to be rich is stimulated
byOpportunity. And with the return of peace
bad men have pushed on their schemes of
plumber, the people being their victims still.
This is the form that fraud has taken 1t
makes the public treasury its object, and in
the name Of patriotism Chat last refuge of u
scoandreD, ii fills its pockets with the money
cXtortcd by grievous taxation from the earn
ingsof an impoverished and contidng people.
So generally understood is this fact that no
legislation is thought Of as possible unless
money is freely used. No man would 90 to
Congress with bill, without expecting to pay
many bills before his, however righteous, was
passed. Money is the power behind the throne.
Money and money alone rules the State Never
more thannoW,was mammon god OF this world.
And the rebels in the wilderness did not wOr-
ship the golden calf more devotedly than the
world now adorcs the dollar The disease is
the love of money, which we have the highest
authority for saying is the root Of all evil.
And now we ask, what is to be done about it?
The POWER is not yet in the hands of bad
men The power resides in The people, and
the people are not yet wholly lost. We know,
for we have SEEN that when the people rise
in their might they can drive the robbers out
of power, into their dens. They did it last
fall in this city. But such spasms of virtue
are ppt cures; they are the struggles of the
patient in the agony ofdiScase. Even public
journals that were then champions of reform
are eating their own words and seeking to re
store the same dangers from which the city
was delivered. We have lost faith in party
politicians. The time has long since come
when the men of business and thOughtshould
give attention to their country. Because poll
ties have become loathsome good men must
take hold and reform the abuses that make
them loathsome, They must throw themselves
into the fight as they did in the war, and as
they would again if a foreign enemy should
threaten our land with invasion,
1t is in the power of no one man to re-
deem the country. But the responsibility is
upon each man as if he only and alone could
do it. Thousands Of men have retired dis
glstcd from the field Of politics, and many
more have been crowded out by the machna-
tons of crafty and thieving politicians who
do not want good men in their way. But
they are bound to assert themselves, and the
people led by them must take hold of the best
men, draw them out from their retirement
thrust power and responsibility upon them
and compel them to bear the honor and the
toll of saving the State. We adopt the Ian
g,lage of the NdtiOn and we wish that all the
nation would feel its force: IF we want to
have men in public life who will not have
Cakes Ames hanging about them and offer
ing them little pecuniry tavors, and whoI
when charged with cutting down our cherry-I
tree will stand up and own it, we must put
them into public life and when they are in ii
keep them in ~"