The Grange advance., 1873-10-29
Continued from last week. d ! !
THE WHOLE GROUND GONE OVER.

' .-s - a
THE WHOLE GROUND GONE OVER.
An ADDRESS DELIVERED ArsA P1cN1c, HELD
BY THE WEIGH G1ANGE P. OF H., OF
4 GooDHuE COUNTY, July 2ND, 1873. '..
%: II BY B. B. HERBERT.
NATIONAL, SECTIONAL AND PARTY FEEL1NG.F
There is another question before the
House the great and momentous question
Of whether Knud Olson 0verbol, Norwe-
gian, Samuel Sammerson, Of Sweden, Fritz
Breitman, of Germany, Timothy Titmars,
of England, or Sam Slick, of America, shall
be nominated then whether Slim Joe of
Back Pay Township, on the Highfalutin
ticket, or Slippery Jack, Of Mobilier Town
ship, on the Hard Scrabble ticket, shall
go to the Legislature, or whether Timothy
Titmouse, of Shoddy Contract City, on the
Hard Scrabble ticket, or John Monopoly,
of Land Grant City, on the Highfalutin
ticket shall 60 to Congress, and so on
through the five hundred thousand Offices
that this great Yankee nation have bor-
rowed, stolen or invented for the purpose
of making men glorious and handing them
down to posterity. And you have not ap-
pealed to the House but have quietly sub
mitted. Yea, more than that, the people
have been to blame to great extent for
the perverted use to which this national,
sectional and party feeling has been put
by designing politicians. In this age we
have so far outgrown the simple homespun
customs Of our ancestors, that instead Of its
being necessary to fine men to compel them
to accept Office, it is necessary to indict
them to keep them out of Office.
EVERYBODY WANTS OFFICE.
Everybody wants Office, and for every
body to get Office every means has to be ex-
hausted so that aspirants of each nation
ality have stirred up national jealousies and
raised the cry that each must have it's
share of the Offices and endeavored, under
this cry. TO ride into office, or else they
suffered great wrong; as though the
nationality, and not the individual. held
the Offices as though we are not all, here,
from whatever land we come, American
citizens. Then the sectional cry has come
up from each town and each county, that it
must have member Of the Legislature. or
some county Office, or member of Con-
gress, or some State Office, as though the
members of the Legislature did not repre-
sent the whole county and State and Of
Congress the whole state and nation The
only interest that the people have. or con pos
sibly have, in Office holders is that they be
qualified for and faithful to their trust.
The people have permitted themselves to
be blinded through selfish desire for
some imaginary good to accrue to them
selves, in common with their nationality,
their town or their county, and in striving
after the shadow have entirely lost sight
of the substance of the real question and
their own true interests, and thus have
been lead easy dupes Of designing wire
pullers.
RAILROADS AND VESTED RIGHTS.
You have seen great share Of the pub
lie domain donated to railroads, under the
name Of internal improvements, the public
credit loaned, and yourselves taxed to pay
bounties to open ways through this great
West by which Eastern markets might be
brought to your doors, your products
made more valuable, ana the country en-
riched.
You had supposed that the people had
some rights in these highway Us, that were
built for national and public benefit, and
50 largely with the public's money
But you have seen these roads, that we're
to be in an important sense, national high.
ways, gradually coming under the control
Of a few hard, grasping despots, called R.
r. Kings, the representatives of soulless
corporations.
You have seen these railroads from year
to year receiving, through your Legisla-
lures and Congress, new rights and fran
chises, and have good reason to believe that
those franchises were bought from your
representatives. You have seen them, in
the name of law, taking the property of the
citizen against his will and without fair
compensation, and when an appeal has
been taken to the courts, those last citadels
of liberty and justice, in whose sacred hall
the beggar stands equal with the
prince; you have seen the judges Of
these courts, whose judicial ermine
should be purer than the driven snow, CIV
ing decisions in the name Of justice against
iha citizen and in favor 0f fha n0warfnl