The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1876-09-23
politital sfairs,
Ratification Meeting in Baltimore,
SEPTEMBER 1911, 1876.
Eloquent Speeches of Hon, NJ. Blair and
Ex-Gov. Thomas Swarm.

cry county, was introduced and was re-
ceiyed with much enthusiasm. He spoke
as follows:
We are not now called upon to decide
which has been the better man, or which
has been the better party in the past, but
only which candidate and which party suits
the present emergency. The partisan re.
publican asks votes for his party candidate
because his party carried the country
through the late civil war, preserved the
union, and emancipated the slave; whilst
the partisan democrat claims your suf
frages because his party carried the coun-
try through the war of 1872, made all our
vast acquisitions Of territory, has main.
tanned the constitution, and conducted the
country honestly and frugally during three
fourths of our history. The Independent
voter will say: Your arguments are good
as far as they go, but they do not touch
the question of the day. This is the hour
of calamity. Apsrslysis is upon the coun-
try. Business of every kind is ruined.
Capital is locked up and the laborer is
idle. What your several party candidates
have done in the past and what may be
their merit, except as it adapts them to
rescue the people from present wretched-
ness and to restore them prosperity, is
nothing to the purpose of the present in
quiry. We start our inquiries with the
conceded fact that the financial condition
of the country is deplorable, and that it
has become so under the management of
the Republican party. Hence upon that
party devolves the responsibility. The
vas: expenditures and the heavy taxation
which have actually exceeded the earnings
Of the people since the war, and which
have swept away all the previous accumu-
lations Of such vast numbers, have been
made and imposed by the Republican par
ty. The great frauds of the credit-mobil-
ier ring # the whiskey ring and Of the
ten tho-sand other rings which have
preyed upon the people and robbed them
Of sums more than sufficient to have paid
off the public debt, have grown up and
been fostered during the sway Of this
party. The enormous frauds are not dis
puted, and the only excuse attempted for
the extravagant expenditure by which the
country has been ruined is that the war
occasioned it; and that the democrats are
responsible for the war. The answer is,
that the money was not expended in car
rying on the war; that the public debt,
created ostensibly for that purpose, was
enhanced enormously by the fraudulent
contracts given for mere party and per-
sonal objects. And this answer is demon
strated to be true by tables of expenditure,
which l submit, and which have derived
from the official reports. The first shows
the entire expenditure prior to, during and
since the war The second compares the
expenditure before and since the war in
branches of the service not affected by tho
war. The first reveals the startling fact
that Grants seven years of administration
has already cost nearly as much as was
expended for all purposes during the sew
enty-one years which preceded the advent
of the republicans to power, and the sec
ond shows that his expenses in branches
Of the service having no relation to the
war are more than three times greater
than the same services cost in 1861.
1t is not necessary to show that this
money has been applied to expand the
army of Office holders to force Of eighty
or hundred thousand, an organized, ac-
tive, willing and thoroughly disciplined
body Of unquestioning partisans, or to cx-
pose in detail how that large sums are
taken from the treasury and applied to the
control of elections in the interest Of the
dominant party, under the form of con-
tracts given TO partisans, or upon which q
bonus is paid for such uses. The immense
expenditure itself implies corruption, and
shows it to be the systematic policy of the
party. Details as to the manner in which
this is accomplished would not make the
proof more convincing. This proposition
is also confirmed by statement No. 3, to
which / now call attention, contrasting the
amount of the revenue in 1866 with the
revenue in l974-5, and the cost Of collect
ing it. This table shows that it now costs
near million more than in 1866 TO col
lect two hundred and twenty millions less
revenue. There could be no reason for
increasing the number and pay Of those
engaged in collecting one-half the amount
of revenue, but to increase the electioneer-
ing organization. But the fourth state
ment, which l now submit, showing that
the expenses Of the government rise i'm
mensely at every presidential election, and
showing that it has added nearly forty
millions to the miscellaneous and Indian ex-
penses alone, to carry the last three elections
for tho radicals, makes the system by which
they operate about as plain as if We had
receipts in the treasury from their cam
paign committees in Pennsylvania and
other contested States. The deficiency Of
receipts from internal revenue for the
presidential year Of 1868-69, as contrasted
with the proceeding year, amounting to
nearly thirty-three millions, and as con-
trasted with the succeeding year amount
ing to more than twenty-seven and a-half
millions, tells tho same story. Hence
Bristow's determination to break up the
whiskey ring and the system by which
thirty-three millions were diverted from
the treasury in presidential years rendered
him an unavailable candidate at Cincin-
natl. The fifth statement contrasts the
army expenses of the last presidential year
with the years preceding and succeeding,
and shows that that election added eleven
millions to the account. Add to this the
loss of internal revenue shown to occur in
the presidential year, more than thirty
three millions, and the increased expendi-
ture charged to the account Of miscella-
neous and Indian expenses in those years,
and we can trace in these three items alone
an application Of about iifty-6ve millions
Of public money to the election Of radi-
cal President The centralizing power
ayowed by the radical party involves cnor-
nous taxation and expenditure and breeds
corruption necessarily; and whilst myself
found II necessary to act with that party
in maintaining the union, now that there
is not disunionist In the land, the occa-
sion has long since passed when the agcn-
n n