The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1876-10-04

it's own rascals has been equally signal,
7 mean the frauds of the Union Pacific
Railroad Company and the Credit Mo-
bilier.
1.-THE MOST UNKINDEsT CUT OF
ALL"
You will pardon MEL am sure, for
referring to this affair; you are the
last men upon whom / would make a
personal point, aud I could not do it
here if I would try for the convic-
ton l have oftened expressed remains
unchanged, that your integrity was
not stained by such connection as you
had with that business. But both
know that it was the most gigantic
fraud that the history Of modern
times discloses. The magnitude of
the iniquity almost exceeds belief.
The entire amount of the booty al
ready taken from the public and stow
ed away in the pockets of the perpe-
traitors can not be less than one hun
dred million dollars, and every six
months they make q new demand,
which is honored at the Treasury by
All additional payment. I am told
that a late Acknowledgement counts
one hundred and eighty millions AS the
sum which the United States will lose
in solid cash directly taken out Of the
Treasury. 1 am not sure that this cal
culation is accurate, but it cannot be
very far wrong, and it is not equal to
0nehalf Of the whole steal, for it does
not include the value of the road itself,
nor the land grants, nor the proceeds
of the bonds to which the lien of the
United States was postponed, nor the
equipment bonds. AS the swindle
was the largest, so it was one of the
most inexcusably base. 1t was perpe-
trated at a time when the nation was
swamped with debt, when the people
were loaded with taxes, and when the
most rigid economy was imperatively
required. All circumstances as we'll
as the direct evidence, show that it
was 10 sudden acts of thoughtless i'm
prudence, but vas wilfully, deliber-
ately and %corruptly pre-arranged and
determined. There is nothing to nit
igate it; you cannot defend it ever by
waving the bloody shirt. Hoy did
the Republican party "punish its own
| r~ascals" in this case? Not q hair on
| the head Of any rascal was touched.
On the contrary, they were prompted,
honored and advanced the most gull
ty of them are now, as they were be-
fore, the very darlings of the party.
Even that is not the worst of it.
These swindles are periodically swell
ing the colossal proportions of their
crime by taking out of the Treasury
additional millions which they claim
as the "precious results" of their orig
nal fraud. They have no better title
to them than a wolf has to the mutton
he slaughters by the moonlight. The
legal remedy against these exactions is
so lain that Ignorance alone could
hardly miss il. But your officers
have found out the way not to do it.
| They permit the Government to lie
down and be robbed semi-annually by
q corporation which Tilden would
long ago have disarmed Of its power,
and whose criminal abettors he would
have swept into the penitentiary by
scores.
uAYEsIsM ALIAS GRANTISM.
T repeat that / do not blame you as an
active accomplice in this wickedness.
But YOU ought to have como out from
the evil and corrupt fellowship as soon
us YOU saw how evil and corrupt it was.
You owed it TO yourself, your church
and your country to break Oft at once
from political associates capable of
such indefeusible conduct. But your
acceptance of the doctrines planted at
| Plymouth by the Yankees blinded
your Judgment, and made your con-
science Inaccessible to the principles
planted in Jerusalem by the people
first called Christians at Antioch"
You would have us believe that Hayes,
if elected, will reform abuses and give
us q pure administration. Your state
Ement, and that of other gentlemen
equally reliable, make it certain that
| Mr.. Hayes bears All irreproachable
character in all his private relations.
I do not doubt his possession of that
negative honesty which it is a disgrace
to want. ! accord him those tame
household virtues Which entitle him
to the respect of his neighbors and the
confidence of his family; but he can
| no more stem the torrent Of Republic
can corruption than he can swim
against the rapids of Niagara. His
whole history shows that he would not
even make all effort to do so. He has
been most happily called "a man Of
tried subaerviency." A reformer in
these times must be made of stern MA
tcrial. lie must have no connection
with, and be under no obligation to,
the authors Of the abuses which need
reform. Above all things, he must
not have consented expressly or i'm
| pliedly to the commission of the pub
lie wrongs which his duties as q reform
or would require him to punish.
When lie comes to oppose wickedness
in high places the consciousness that
he himself is in pari dciicto will make
even u strong NAL ns nerveless as III
fancy.
TO show how hard it would be for a
mm like Mr.. Hayes to resist the worst
orders of his own party, l must cite a
case directly in point, and certainly with
in your recollection as we'll as mine. In
the case of Milligan you made an eloquent
and powerful speech before the Supreme
Court for those free principles which /, at
the same time, supported in my weaker
way. You showed the indcstructiblc
right of ever citizen to alcgal trial /; you
proved that Magma Charta did not perish
on the battle field; you demonstrated by
irresistible logic that the Constitution was
supreme after the war as it was before
YOU spurned with lofty contempt the bru-
tai idea that law was e~xtinguished by the
victory Of the forces called out to defend
it; and YOU closed with that grand pero-
ration on the Goddess Of Liberty which,
if spoken at Athens in the best Gays OF
her "tierce Democratic" would have
'shoOk the arsenal and Illuminated over
Greece" These were not the words OF
a paid advocate, for you had volunteered
in the case not tho sudden emotions OF
u neophyte, for you had read II pond
cred the subject well. You spoke the
| deliberate conclusion of your mind, and
there is no doubt that in your heart of
hearts you believe them to be true this
day. Yet when the reconstruction law
WAS proposed you suffered yourself to
be whipped in, surrendered your con-
science to your party, and voted against
your recorded convictions for a measure
that nulliticd every provision of the Constl-
tuition. whereby ten million of people
were deprived of rights which you knew
to be sacred and ~inslicnablo. 1t this was
the case, what subservicncy may not be
expected from Mr.. Hayes, when tho party
lash comes to DO laid on his back? You
are his superior in every quality that holds
a man true to public duty. You have
been carefully schooled in tho morality
Of the New Tcstiment, YOU have lived all
your life in the full blaze Of the gospel, you
arc gifted with Il logical acumen Which, few
can boast, and with moral courage far above
the average. If you fell down before the Mo-
Loeb of AbolitionisIn, and gave up all princl-
pal ut once, what act OF worship Will Hayes