Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1874-11-04
either House that am aware Of disqualifles
h;msef nv drink. Gambling and debauchery

h;mself by drink. Gambling and debauchery
are no longer prac,iced, or they are at least
hidden away. No man dares now, as for
merly, to boast or jest over such achieve
ments. Venal jobbery, If practised, is too
secret to be seen. Formerly every Cabinet
officer, and many others. rode in public
carriage as q matter Of course; now Cabinet
officer who merely allows the old custom TO
90 on finds himself trumpeted through the
world as a great offender. George Washing
ton, when President. rode with six horses and
with out-riders. When he wished to use
horses he ordered them from the War De-
partment at the public expense, and the out
riders also. The same things which formerly
excited no remark, would now make snch
stir that the country would not hold the noise
TIE Salary and Back Pay bill, bad as it was,
and voted for, you remember, by larger
proportion of democrats than OF republicans,
was not worse than like bill passed in 1866,
only eight years ago. The bill OF 1866 con-
tanned every obnoxious feature OF the bill OF
last year. The act of passing it was in some
respects worse, because il stood by itself and
could be defeated without defeating an appro-
priation bill, and yet the one man from this
| State who gave the casting vote was after
ward returned by an increased majority. The
republican party, beyond any other In his
| tory, weeds out its own bad practices-and
some of its members, not content with DANG
this, are perhaps little inclined to make the
process as noisy and awfully dramatic as pos
| siblc. Abuses, hoary with the age OF cen
fury, have been cut up; inquiries have been
made which no preceding party would nave
tolerated, and men have been cast out for
acts which twenty five years ago would have
passed unchallenged or unnoiced. Yet all
this, the very instances OF self-puri6cation,
| h,,rl lad uo nd ~
to the world as a nation whose government is
sunk in the grossest depravity and corrup-
ton. If all this defamation tended only to
the overthrow of individuals, or even of par
ties, the harm would be less than it is. But
| 1t is a crime against civilization and free in
sttutions-it is sin against the cause OF
self-government. This Republic of ours is
the only considerable experiment extant on
the globe of government "of the people"
for the people and by the people" Its theatre
lis Continent blessed with abundant and
matches natural advantages. Its polity and
its institutions are the work of extraordinary
men drawn from many older ns,ionalities-
men profoundly versed in government-and
they consecrated themselves to devisng a
system superior to any mankind had known.
1t has endured a hundred years in the worlds
most enlightened age, and if now the expert
ment has eliminated in one grand carnival Of
venality and paradise of tricksters and plum
derers, who dares come next in the march OF
nations to dispute the divinity CT kings!
| (Cheers) Some men are ever bemoanng
the present and exaggerating the past.
The report of meeting here the other
evening said one of the speakers related how
competent the Judges of the Supreme Court
used to be. Marshall was referred to, great
and pure Judge, but estimating the compare
L. LII &c Id =
serve the difference in occasion. " Then j ohm
Marshall was appointed Chief Justice there
were twelve cases on the docket Of the Court.
He could devote month to each case and
write all the opinions himself in year. Now
| there are about 700 cases on the docket of the
court at a single term. and, as rule, they are
| more complex than the earlier case were.
We hear how well Congress used to do its
| business. and how competent and mastery its
members used to be. Did you ever think how
the labors and business of Congress and its
members have increased even in the last
twenty years? In the Thirty-second Congress
which occurred t~euiy one years ago, there
were introduced into the Senate during the
two years GAO bills, number much larger
than it had been before. In the House the
and resolutions finally acted on and approved
was 500. In the last Congress, the Forty sec
ond, of Senate bills there were 1852 Of House
bills. 4,073, of laws passed, l,0ll. Twenty
years ago the laws passed at a session were
309-now they are l,0ll. Take these data
and extend them to all the work done in Con-
gress and in the other departments of govern
nent, and see whether it is fair TO compare
the intellectual performance of men over
borne in the whrl of the present with the
leisurely and painstaking efforts of the less
crowded past. No, it is not true that the ma
ton retrogrades; and it does retrograde if it
elects to its seats of power worse men than
were formerly elected. tremendous cheer
ing) As water rises as high as the fountain.
head, so representatives, as rule, are
on a plane and level with their consttu-
encies; and you cannot prove that Con-
gress after Congress, and President after
President. and Cabinet after Cabinet, are vul-
gar and venal, without proving at the same
time the decadence and disgrace Of the Amer.
can people. You may doubt anything to
death; and suspicion has been bred till men
dare the most shameless wrong, and succeed
in 1t, too. relying on the din and roar against
the authorities and the uneasy distrust which
carps and signs for change.