The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1874-06-25
The rEnI1. OF rHu UNITED SKATES.

Let us honestly admit the truth and
iaanfnlfy apply the remedy. The peril
IN our American life is dishonesty
This produces the lack of confidence
which is the root OF panics. Slavery
involved us in the tlames of civil
war. Better it should have burned US
to ashes than that we should survive
TO perish hereafter in corruptions.
The urn is less offensive than the pu-
trescence of the grave. Our very ex-
istence is at stake. American life
presents an anomalous spectacle. We
are socially pure and commercially
| depraved. Men who are upright in
their neighborhood and admirable in
4 their homes, will habitually and
| knowingly and systematically do
wrong in their business. Nayl even
churches, to draw crowds, rent peWs
and raise revenues, will resort not
/ only to sensationalism in choir and
! pulpit but make earth blush and
heaven weep over tricks that are de-
grading, tlemoralizing and insulting
to all manfness and religion. Nor is
the malady confined only to men in
distinguished position. 1t affects all
classes of our republic; the tainted
streams of the summit percolate the
entire mountain. OF all the sins of
humanity, bribery is perhaps, the
meanest. Most other crimes are pos
sible to a single transgressor. Here
there must be two parties to the guilt.
The man who gives and the man who
takes. Both are debased. There may
be daring in robbery, and courage in
murder. The popularity of bribery
is cowardice. 1t sneaks, it cringes, it
hides, it winds, it wriggles, it twists,
it skalks. 1t is not like a lion soaring
on its prey, but serpent lurking in
the grass to infuse its poison before
crushing with its coils. A man who
abuses his office, wraps his judgment
and twists his conscience for bribe,
sells his soul by his act, and ever after
lives expecting a higher bidder for
himself; and he is like nitro-glycerine
dangerous to his purchaser. Now, it
is painful and mortifying fact that
nearly everything in our country has
in some way, directly or indirectly,
been controlled by bribes. Mechanics
overseers, builders, contractors, archi-
tects have been bribed; clerks, mer-
chants, bankers have been bribed ; con-
stables, policemen, collectors, weigh-
ers, guagers. pOstmastefs have been
bribed lawyers, doctors, chemists,
analysts, surgeons. witnesses have
been bribed judges, juries, Legislators
Governors have been bribed. We
have sometimes feared that it would
be difficult to place a stone, or stick
of timber, or lock, or q screw, or u
nail in your house that has not some
where in its passage left the stain of
a bribe. It is doubtful whether The
food which supports our lives, or the
coffins which will convey us to our
graves, can wholly escape contamina-
ton. The consequence is disturbed
faith in each other, and sometimes
distrust of our country and humanity
with fear like shadow that on all
European and American societies is
but the doom of an ancient Babylon
and Rome. Our faith alone saves
from despair. That is sufficient, but
not here TO be disguised. Certain it
Is that panies and other evils we have
named are but eruptions of disease on
The surface of the body polite. Onr
nation from our civil war has been
for our recent commercial
disasters. The timbers of the edifice
IF public prosperity have been decay
ng long before the weakened struct-
Ire was threatened with its crash.
Many underlying sands must be
Washed away to make the mountain
all,