The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1876-12-27
gifhmolM llspattll,
WEDNESDAY. :. DECEMBER q. 1876.
Corruption in Politics.


This IS the title OF an article in the last
No. OF the International Reuie,o which Will
attract attention amongst statesmen. 1t
represents our Government as greatly inn
paired by political vices, and our foreign
commerce aud internal enterprise and in
dustry greatly injured by the political de-
moralization which he represents to be so
general. The writer traces our public evils
to the "love Of money" and to the use OF
The powers OF the Government for the graft
fication OF avarice. He says:
Government rs the greatest combination
OF forces known to human society. Ii can
command more men and raise more money
than any and all other agencies comolnea.
1t is quite natural, then, that they whose
theory OF government, II they nave any,
does not forbid its use for any purpose they
deem useful. should seek its Intervention In
such schemes as require great powers OF
capital"
Very true; and the Constitution never,
according to the views Of these people, OBJ
structs any measure that they desire as the
means OF gratifying their greed. Hence Is
the statute-book rcplete with laws tha'
enured more to the good Of individuals than
to the good OF the people.
uNow." SAYS the writer, "n 1t be once
assumed that the government is or may he
converted into machine for making money,
and that the majority, who controllt lor inc
time being, may use 1t Tor that PURPOSE
then there spring up as FROM the ground i
host Of hungry adventures, ofhce-seekefs'
public DlllndcrerS, bent on using the power
or patronage OF the Government Tor inc c.
richment OF themselves. This is accom-
plished in various ways-Sometlnles w Sc'-
ting offices, or, ii there be none arcaa!
made. creating them for the occasion; some
times by getting appropriations irom th'
public lands or the public chest, or ny pro-
curing tariffs here and charters Tor corpora
tons there"
From the immense corruption that has
grown UP under this greedy passion and
the contempt i: has inspired for the Cons'l'
tuition, together with the bad admlnlstra'
ton of public affairs that has grown out OF
the public dcprayity thus brought about,
our author lays before ms readers the fo!'
lowing results:
awe sec Federal Union, which, being
free from public debt in 1886, now owes
debt OF more than two thousand mitllonS
which Keeps in It's service thirty thousand
soldiers and hundred thousand civil OH
GERS, and which pays for these hundred anC
thirty thousand servants more than twice
rs much as any European country pays 1ol
the like number. We see thirtE-tigbt St,te:
owing an aggregate OF three hundred ant
eighty-two millions, and OF which eigh
pay neither principal nor interest; w
SIC counties, cities, and towns over
Whelmed with debt; and all the white
these various Goyernments-Fcdcrai, state
and municipal-take from our people
in taxes more than any government in Chris
tendon takes from it's people. We SCI
offices which it is the function OF the Presl
dent to fill with the trucst and best, farmct
out TO senators and representatives III Con
grcss. We see Offices claimed and bestowed
not for merit but Tor party work. and as
natural consequence we see the public service
inefficient and disordered. We see vena
Legislatures and executive officers receiv'
ing gifts. We see the most depravcd ant
least responsible newspaper press in tho
world. We see customs tariff which take!
J02 imported articles, and 912 different
GRADES OF these articles, some OF them t.
while the tariff OF England taxes only II
and the tariff OF Germany only l32, arranged
in 81 classes"
A sad condition OF the republic bcqueath
ed us by the fathers OF 1776, and left by
ANDREW JACKSON ont Of debt in 1887. Blu
cur author crrs in combining himself otht
love of money as the source OF all our evils
fha pf pirpS. hllt
rice has formed an alliance with other:
hardly second to it in its evil nature. Am
bition, fanaticisul, bigotry, and vindictiye
ness have all been its allies. Avarice has
been adroit enough to seem to follow
while the mad passions led in the line
that was most plopitious to the sordi(
schemes for money getting. These allies
provoked the sectional war, and with it the
fearful consequences which have spread
desolation and woe over the land.
While avarice is powerful, inasmEeh as il
employs the means it acquires to increase
its strength for further gains, yet it could
not have brought upon the country that
public decentralization and those calamities
which now atflict us. The greed for max
ing money out OF the Government first ap-
peared in the northern part OF the Union. 1t
grew and iattcned upon its Government
schemes; but found in the southern repre-
sentatires in Congress the sturdy opponents
OF their plans. This provoked great aver
sion at the North to the South, and
its "strict construction At the same
.imes fanaticism raised it's war upon
southern institutions. Then, too, social Pc
culiarities invoked dislike in some northern
communities towards the south, and north
ern religious sentiments and discipline in
censed the monster, bigotry, into active hos
.tility. Political ambition took offence at
the South for Withholding its friendship
from all those public men who trimmed
their sails to catch the breezes that were
created by these passions, and thus all were
combined to wage Il war Of hostility upon
the South. A striking illustration Of this
Vas displayed in the HELPEE-pamphlet out
rage OF 1859.
Yes. Avarice was The most cunning OF
the allied passions, but it needed the sup
port OF them all to comsummate the grand
calamity OF public deprivation and private
ruin which has come upon the land. The
theory of which our author speaks, that oul
Government is, or may be, converted into
machine for money making," has been ex.
tended to making it also a PARTY MACHINE