Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1874-01-15

mass of the people-by which mean
the lower and middle ranks-could
suffer very little from such engines
and as few of them are objects of
jealousy. had there been nothing else
to complain of, it is not probable they
would ever have been brought totake up
arms bit the abuses attending the levy
Of tores soere heavy and universal.
Such an enormous power con-
stantly acting, and from which no man
was free, must, in the nature of things,
have degenerated in many cases into
absolute tyranny"
Not only the tax laws, but those of
privileges and patents, were so sub
verted, by devilish ingenuity, as to con-
stitute Juggernaut of monopoly, that
remorselessly crushed to death the life
of the nation. The resolutions of COM
plant respectfully addressed by the
the people to the monarch on the SUBJ
arouse righteous indignation even at
this distant period of time, but appeal
to the profoundest emotions Of pity. /
quote from the cahier of the people of
Rennes:
"Fixed and heavy rents vexatious
processes to secure them; appreciated
uniustly to augment them; rents soil
daires and reUenchable; rents cheantes
and ieUdntes fttDaages. Fines at every
change of the property, in the direct as
well as collateral line; feudal redemp-
ton (y'etrdite) fines ON sale to the
eighth and even sixth penny redemp-
tons (rachGts) injurious In their origin,
and still more so in their extension
6analite of the mill, of the oven, and of
the wine and cider press; corvees by
custom; corUees by usage of the fef !;
coruees established by unjust DEGREES
corvees arbitrary, and even fantastical
servitudes prestatiO,as extravagant and
burdensome collections by assessments
incollectible aveur, minus, inapu,aissi-
mems, Htigations ruinous and without
end the rod of seigneurial finance for
ever shaken over our heads vexation,
ruin, outrage, violence and destructive
servitude, under which the peasants,
almost on par with Polish slaves, can
never but be miserable, vile and OPP
pressed I"
| Is it any wonder that a people thus
abused should afterward have thrust
aside the restraints of law and prudence
and taken a terrible revenge; or that
with that revenge excuses should have
demned to suffer with the guilty? Is it
wonderful that these cruelty outraged
men should have been driven by despair
to become bloody monsters, or that
their humble wives and daughters
should be turned to those cruel and
stony-hearted judges who sat in the
revolutionary tribunals of justice, coldly
knitting sentences of death in worsted
work, and impatiently awaiting fresh
executions?
The sutferings of these unhappy peo-
pie are forgotten their subsequent
history has seen a thousand changes a
century of time has passed away but
the tortures they once suffered, and the
natural, though deplorable, consequec-
ces of their heroic resolution to outlive
them, are brought wildly to the mind
when we survey the accumulation of
fraud and injustice that is o~erwhelm-
ing our own people, and threatens to
drive them into similar measures of vio-
lent justice.
The American Revolution was q reac-
ton from monarchical rule, and drew its
inspiration largely from the writings of
those Frenchmen who had made elo-
quent the miserable condition of their
countrymen at that period. In estab-
fishing here Government of the peo-
pie by the people, we fondly hoped to
render impossible those grievances
which had called forth the works of
Rousseau and the Encyclopedias.
Yet, scarcely have three generations
passed away before We find all the old
class ascendancy re-established, and
every abuse of government that marked
the decline of the last century, in both
hemispheres, reinstated before our very
doors.
Extravagant and useless public ex-
penditures, of which we are made to
bear the burden rings, Federal, State,
municipal and cooperative, which rob
us right and left; corrupt officials, forged
warrants, sequestered appropriations,
suppressed or cooked accounts, embez-
Elements, defalcations and conspiracies,
sixty millions to one railway, an empire
of territory to another, credits n1obiiier,
land grabs, back pay, forward pay, Sc
cret pay, pay by Communication, brides to
members of Congress, bribery from the
highest to the lowest officials in Gov
eminent employ, watered stock, con-
struction companies, ring drawing-room
car companies, ring elevators, patent
monopolies unlawfully granted and re-
issued on every article of wear, of use,
of consumption, defaulting commission
merchants, swindling brokers, dishonest
bankers, the currency of the country
seized for the benefit of gamblers in and
out of Office, the public debt funded at
an extortionate and unnecessary rate of
interest, and so managed as to absorb
new appropriations of money at every
session of Congress, the courts of law
subverted to the ends of dishonest off,
Gals, dishonest claimants, dishonest
classes. the press bought up or subsi-
died, so that the interests of the peo-
pie have absolutely no representation
near the seat of Government, nor in the
metropolis in short, every technically
of law, every expedient of finance, every
engine of power is welded to extort un-
inst opd r1uwillipey frib11to from tho MO-