The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1876-07-19

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/ it has degraded American commerce from
the first to an inferior upon the high seas
it has cut down the sales of American
manufactures at home and abroad, ant
| depleted the returns of American agrlcul
ture. an interest followed by half ou
people; it costs the people five times NOR.
than it produces to the treasury, obstruct
the processes of production and wastes
the fruits of labor; it promotes fraud anf
fosters smuggling, enriches dishonest
officials and bankrupts honest merchants
We demand that all custom house taxa
ticn shall be only for revenue. Reform i.
necessary in the scale of public expenses
Federal, State and municipal.
FEDERAL TAXATION HAS SWOLLEN
from Sl6,0O0,0 900 gold in 1860 to $3.50, 900,
600 currency in 1870; our aggregate taxa
ton from $194,0O0,0O0 gold in 1860 tc
$3.50 900, 900 currency in 1870, or in one de.
cade from less thap five dollars per head
to more than eighteen dollars per head
Since the peace the people have paid to
their tax gatherels more than thrice the
sum of the national debt, and more than
twice that sum for the Federal Govern.
ment alone. We demand vigorous fru-
gality i'll every department and from every
officer of the Government Reform is nG-
cessary to put stop to the profigate
waste of public lands and their diversion
from actual settlers by the party in power,
winch has squandcred two hundred mil
lions OF acres upon railroads alone, and
out OF more than twice that aggregate
has disposed fless than a sixth directly
to tillerS of the soil. Reform is necessary
to correct the
OMISSIONS OF A REPUBLICAN CONGRESS,
and the errors Of our treaties and our di-
plomacy which have stripped our fellow
citizens of foreign birth and kindred race
recrossing the Atlantic of the shield of
American citizenship, and have exposed
our brethren of the Pacific slope to the in
cursions of race not sprung from the
same great parent stock-in fact now de-
MED by law citizenship through naturali-
cation, as being neither accustomed to the
tradition of a progressive civilization, or
exercised i'll liberty under equal laws
We denounce the policy which thus dis
cards the liberty loving German, and toll
crates the revival Of the coolie trade in
Mongolian women imported for immoral
purposes, and Mongoliao men hired to
perform servile labor contracts, and de-
nand such modification of the treaty with
the Chinese Empire. Or such legislation
by Congress within constitutional limi-
tation, as shall prevent the further impor-
tation or Immigration CT the Monaghan
fitce. Reform Is necessary, and can never
he effected but by making it the control
ling issue of the elections, and lifting it
th., t,x,., f,i, 81 Il
otfice-holding class and the party in power
seek to smother it. The false issues with
which they would enkindle sectarian
strife i'll respect to the public schools, of
which the establishment and support be-
long exclusively TO the several States, and
which the Democratic party has cherished
from their foundation and resolved to
maintain without partiality or preference
for any class, sect or creed. and without
contributing from the treasury to any
The false issue by which they seek to
Light anew the dying embers of sectional
hate between two kindred peoples once
unnaturally estranged, but now reunited
in one indivisible Republic and a common
destiny.
REFORM IN CIVIL SERVICE.
Reform is necessary in the civil service.
Experience proves that efficient, economi-
cal conduct of the governmental business
is not possible if its civil service be sub-
jected to change at every election, and be
Il purse offered at the ballot-box as brief
reward of party zeal, instead of posts of
honor assigned for proved competency and
held for fidelity in the public employ
That the dispensing of patronage should
neither he tax upon the time of all our
public men, nor the instrument of their
ambition. Here again professions, falsi-
fed in the performance, attest that the
party in power can work out 10 practical
or saiutary reform.
REFORM IN HIGH PLACES.
Reform is necessary even more in. the
higher grades of public service. Presi-
dent, Vice-President, Judges, Senators,
Representatives, Cabinet officers - these
and all others in authority are the peo-
pies servants. Their offices are not a
private perquisite; they are public
trust. When the annals of this Republic
proclaim the disgrace and censure of
late Speaker of the
House OF Representatives marketing his
ruling as a presiding officer; three Sena-
tors prohting secretly by their votes as
lawmakers; five chairmen of the leading
of the late House of Represent
tatives exposed in jobtery; late Secreta-
ry OF the Treasury forcing balances in the
public accounts; late Acknowledgement
disappointing public funds; Secreta.
~ of the Navy enicbes or enriching
friends by per centages levied off the profits
,f contractors with his department; an
Ambassador to England concerned in
dishonofable speculation; the Presidents
private Secretary barely escaping convic-
ion, upon trial, for guilty completely in
rands upon the revenue; q Secretary of
Var impeached for high crimes and con-
essed misdemeanors; the demonstration is
complete that the first step must be the
public choice of honest men from another
'arty lest the disease of one political
organization upset the whole body polite,
'nd thereby making no change Of men or
'arty, we can get no change Of measures
md no reform.
All these abuses, wrongs and crimes,
he product of sixteen years of ascendancyi
It the Republican party, creote necessity
nr reform confessed by the Republicans
themselves. But their reformers are vo-
ed down in convention and displaced |
rom the Cabinet The party's mass of
lonest votes is powerless to resist the
eighty thousand office-holders, Its leaders
md guides. Reform can only be had by a
peaceful civic revolution. We demand
hange of system a change of administra-
ration, a change of parties, that we may
AVE change of men.
-DEt1oHTFUL little dog story from
Boston "a gentleman living