Wilmington daily gazette., 1874-03-07
Corrupt Public Opinion.

The New York Herald accuses the Republican
party and the Administration OF being guilty OF
conducting the most corrupt and venal system OF
fraud and infamous government practices that
ever existed, and then says that the party rests
upon deadened and corrupt public opinion. y
We iear there Is too much truth in the charge OF
the Herald The present rulers could not have
held their places so long had public opinion been
free from corruption. The people unfortunately
have INDUCED the idea that they could reform the
. corrupt ruling party by placing in power other
men Of the same party that has SO degraded our
NATIONAL politics But instead of getting better
the party has grown more dishonest and infamous
until now the New York Herald, itself an advocate
of Grants election and an apologst Of his weak
ness and imbecility, declares eve are among the
worst governed people in the world" We make
but brief extract from the HeralFS accusations
against Grant and the Radical party; but there is
enough in what follows TO show the opinion of
what is held to be the most powerful and popular
independent journal of the country 1t says:
Upon what does this party rest? Upon a
deadened and corrupt public opinion. Look all
around us and we find the political atmosphere
laden with miasma. From Custom House to
Post Office, from the army TO the Treasury, the
unhealthy ,apors ascend. Every day we turn
new leaf OF msadministratiou neglect, crime
Our revenue system is simply nest of swarning
drones, who lap and grow fat upon the drippings
of the Treasury. Gradually We have come TO a
system resembling what was seen in France be-
lore the Revolution. vast class OF middlemen
has grown up between the people and the gov
sInment. The revenues are farmed out as they
were tarmed out by Louis XIV. Take the San
born disclosures the Jayne transactions, and a
thousand instances Of this kind Party discipline
10 30 extreme. and party necessities so pressing
that the whole machinery Of the government--its
administration Its revenues its power for good or
evil at the polls-is at the will of the party lead
ers. Between the people and the central author
ity, between the citizen and the President the
Congress and the courts there is this mighty
middle power. 1t commands the President and
all In authority, on one side, and the people on
the other The result is that, with all Of our
rhetoric, we are among the worst governed people
In the world. Our tariff laws shackIe the indus.
tries they claim to protect. Our State govern
ments In the South rest upon ignorance and NAL
fsasance in office, and when there arises q manly
voice Of resentment the mailed hand of the mill
tary commander suppresses 1t. We have, as wards.
savage but Interesting people, and instead of
The humanity of Christians We have shown bar
barity as terrible as that Of Give in Hindoostan
Our diplomacy abroad has its fruition In Emma
Mime speculatious, in Vienna scandals, in the hu-
Mutations OF the Epginius. Our aim Is to get
rlch and build palaces in Washinion and drink
champagne, and call each other "society," and
teach our youth thrift by conspicuous examples
OF luxury and parade. When, now and tLen, we
have revulsion Of nature, a strain upon the sys-
tem, panic and widespread ruin, we propose In
dation. The middle class (tbe farmers general Of
the reyenues) knows what imitation means. Any
policy of reform, of economy or retrenchment
means death. BY imitation there will be q few
years more OF success, OF speculation, of "socle-
ty," few more yt ars. and then the deluge"