Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-09-30

ventlOn could not avoid the denunclatiOn
of monOpolies, rings and combinations.
formed for the oppression of the people. >
during The last tan years, under Repabli-
can rule, every species Of fraud, corruption
and extOrtion, and every form of conspira-
CIV against the people has been practiced.
and goes unrebuked, The Credit Mobilier
scandal, the corrupt aud Infamous manage
ment of the Indian Department, the South
ern contract, the District of Columbia
frauds, down TO the petty cliques that rule
the towns and villages have aroused the
people everywhere, aud instead of reicdrd-
ing these foul conspirations with the ap-
pointfnent of ministers abroad, as In the
case of Bingham. Of Ohio with Judge
ship; as in the case OF Richardson, of Mas
saehusetts, with the appointment Of the
miserable Boss Sheppard as Commissioner
for the District Of Columbia; the Demo
cratic party denounce them, and appeals TO
good men of all parties to unite with us
and drive these shameless servants from
power. 'niliie-. i.o---l
The Democratic party is pledged to econ
omy in the administration Of the State
Government, and against an increase q
taxation. The great drouth and our pres
ent poverty made il necessary to oppose an
increase of taxation; and the practice Of
economy, always wise and proper, is now
an escape from insolvency; and in the en-
forcemeht of this idea, there is an absolute
necessity thai all useless and unnecessary
offices must be abolished; excessive salaries
reduced and the men who control and col
lect the public revenue besiheld to the
strictest accountability. The credit and
good name of the State must be maintain
ed, and all of its Just debts and Obligations
paid-the Democratic party cannot afford
to imperil IFS good name by the adoption
Of any policy that looks to reputation.
In four years of Democratic rule in Ten
nessee, the bonded debt of the State has
been reduced from forty-three millions
tifty-tWo thousand, six hundred and TWEEN
ty-eight dollars and twenty-six cents ($43,
052, G2S.26) to twenty millions, nine hun
dred and eighty thousand, fifty-One dollars
and twenty-five cents $50 S0,S51.25).
The old issues of the Bank of Tennessee,
amounting to 8, 1910, have been re-
eeived into the treasury and cancelled.
The floating debt, consisting in part Of out
standing treasury warrants, amounting
Oct. l, 1871, to S752,4l7-27, has been re-
dueed since Jan. l, 1873, from $300,000 to
Sl2I, 900; and the country demands that
this good work shall be continued until
this great incubus is taken from our shoul-
ders.
The demand for economy has Ma
tional as well as State significance,
anu while Republican leaders are per-
sistent in their efforts to miSlead the coun-
try, the facts show, that the exPendi-
lures Of the government are steadily in
ereasing, and to show the extent of il, in
vite attention to the last report of the Sec
rotary Of the Treasury, from which it APP
pears that the snet ordinary expenditures >
Of the government 70. the fiscal year end
ing June 80, 1S6 =, were S60,0j6, 754. The
population of the country at that time was
3l,Oo0,OO0. This, then, was an eXpendi-
ture per capita of Sl.90. The same report
stated that The net ordinary expenditures
Of the government for the fiscal year end
ing June 8, 1873, were S1S0, ASSOC. Es-
timating the population at 40,0O0,00O, this
was an expenditure of $3.50 per capita, or
more than twice as much under Grant as it
cost the people under Mr.. Buchanan. This
does not include interest on the national
debt, and embraces only the net ordinary
expenses of the government. These were
for the War Department, under
Buchanan, s16,472, POP; under Grant, Si6,-
323, 13S. The navy under Buchanan, cost
81, 5I4, 649; under Grant, So, sac, 256. The
Indian Bureau, under Buchanan, cost
s., 991, 12l, and under Grant, 1881, 704,
and there were great many more Indians
in 1850 than in 1873; and the miscellane-
Gus expenditures under Buchanan, were
27,9T1,973; and under Grant they reached
the enormous sum of ST3.32S, Il0-nearly
three times as great as they were under
Buchanan, whose administration was OBJ
nOxious to the charge of extravagance.
But there is a remedy for this evil Of ex-
travsgance, and il is for the people to say
whether they will employ it, and place tie
of the Government in the
hands Of the Democracy, or continue it in
the control of a party where the personal
interests Of its leaders seem paramount to
the public good.
THE TARIFF.
The Democratic party has again renewed
the demand, now universal in the South
and Wes:, for the repeal of the present op-
preSsive Federal tariff. The principle of il
that of prOtectiOn-is at war with the
sentiment of the world. Under
this system the entire industry of the coun-
try is taxed for the benefit of few manu-
facturerS. The productions of Tennessee
command no increase of price, but the far
mers Of the State pay enhanced prices for
all they buy. The public treasury is not
benefited by the high duties laid for pro-
lection Nor is the condition of the facto-
~ labOrer improved. The capitalists alone
are benefited, and they are enriched by
profits that are appalling in amounts. In the
ten or twelve revisions of the tariff, revised
by its advocates, an the last dozen years,
the tendency is to still higher protection.
With this policy of injustice to the
farmers of the West and South
the Democratic party has no
tOmake, but demands the abro-
CATION of the entire system, and the adjust
ment of tariff to its only lawful purpose
that of raising a revenue. Aside from the
direct injury TO the taxpayer, the present
system has degenerated into a school for
fraud and corruption on the part of the
army Ofofficials who are maintained out of
the revenue collected. Since Gen. Grant
came into power, $4,000 in actual steal
ings have been paid to the collector,
Naval officers and surveyor of the port of
New York, when at the same time each
one was drawing higher salary than paid
to member OF the Congress OF the United
States. These speculations grow out of
the system, and are practiced at Boston,
and all the great ports of the
and the revenue that should be
applied to the payment Of the public debt
IS Squandered upon pimps and informers
and partizan officials. In the year 1873
there were 81 collectors Of revenue, who
received salaries amounting to the sum of
So, 259.7S, who did not collect one cent of
revenue. Daring the same period, at four
teen other ports, the receipts from customs
to S1,995.52, and the collectors
and their employees were paid by the Gov
the sum of SO, 546.52; and at sew
enteen other ports, the receipts for customs
fortthe same periodIamounted TO S27,S75.40,
and the Government paid for this service
the sum of S95, 3S9.20. The Secretary of
the Treasury claims that there is a heces-
sity for maintaining this army of collectors,
because their services are necessary on our
coast to prevent the operation
of smugglers;" but | find from his report
hat salaried collectors are maintained at
Alton and Galena, Ill, at points in Ken
lucky, Missouri, Iowa, West Virginia, Ne
braska, and in other interior States and
Territories far from the coast, where there
ire no receipts from customs, and where
he collectors perform no official duty what
ever, except to draw theis salaries. And as
1 part of the machinery of this tariff sys-
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