The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1876-09-21
Auhdfal
AN OPEN LETTER.
Continued from 2nd page,]

posers. You may take the rottenest mon
archy in Europe, go over its history for
hundred years and produce the worst act
Won can find of fraudulent spoilation OF
It's people; and if | do not show some
thing worse committed here under the
auspices Of the party now in power l
will give up the case.
am speaking of the government-of
the officials who rule us for their pleas
ure, and plunder us for their personal
proft--and it is no answer to quote Mr.
Lords speech before the Senate on the
trial of Belknap. His eulogy was on the
virtue and intelligence of the people, and
he argued from that the duty of their
servants to behave with integrity. He
certainly did not mean to whitewash the
administration If he had meant to do
so he could not have succeeded, for there
was not wash enough in his bucket to
20 over the twenty thousandth part OF
the job.
While you were
HUNTING FOB CERTIFICATES OF CHARACTER
among the speeches ofthe impeachment
managers, why did you overlook that OF
Mr.. Hoar? He said in effect (for | cite
him from memory that the one produc-
ton in which our country excels all 9TH
ers in the world is the corruption OF its
government. There was the testimony
Of a candid witness belonging to your
own party, who knew whereof he affirm
ed and spoke directly to the point.
But it is useless to cite the evidence Of
individuals upon great public facts that
are felt and seen and known OF all men.
Nothing was even more notorious than
the general disregard of all sound prin-
ciple by this administration. No people
on earth are now suffering 80 much from
extrayagant taxation, and nowhere does
SO small proportion of the taxes go to
legitimate public purposes, or 80 much to
the rulers themselves and the rings they
choose TO favor. Industry is crushed as
it never was before. Labor no longer
works for itself since all and more than
all of its surplus profits are exacted and
consumed by the hangers-on of the gov
ernment, Now, although we call our
selves freemen or freedmen, we are to all
intents and purposes slaves, 80 long as
YOU continue to make us hand over to
YOU the earnings of our labor; for the
essence of slavery consists in compelling
one man, or class of men, to work for
another without an equivalent. We are
determined to relieve ourselves from this
intolerable bondage, as far as we can le-
gally and peaceably, and If you do not
help us, you must at least cease to mock
us by pretending to be an anti.slavery
man upon principle.
You tell us that the Republican party
"will punish its own rascals." The news
paper report Of your speech says that
this was greeted with laughter from the
Republican side Of the House. Certainly
it sounds like the broadest of jokes. If
YOU meant it in earnest, please to say
what YOU found this claim Of impartial
iusiice upon. You will hardly prove by
showing that Bristow and Wilson sue
ceeded, with much tribulation, in con.
victing certain manufacturers of crooked
whiskey, and thereby got themselves
turned out of Office. 1t is vain to deny
that there is, and has been, a general
susten of dishonesty pervading all ranks
of the civil service, which, so far from
being punished, is protected, encouraged
and awarded by the highest authorities
You have set your faces like flint
against all investigations tending to ex-
nose rascality. Proof of that, if proof
were wanting, would be found in your
own denunciation ofthe present Congress
for pushing its inquiries into those re-
gions where venality and corruption
might otherwise have dwelt in safety.
In all Southern measures you have
shown
A POSITIVE ABHoRRENCE OF HONEST Gov
ERNMENT.
You forced into all places of power
men whose characters were nOtoriousIy
bad. and maintained them while they
perpetrated the most shameless robber-
les. You resist every effort of the ap'
pressed people to throw them off, and
when those efforts were successful in
some of the States, you mourned the fall
of the felons with sincere lamentation
Just look at the crew Of goddess wretchef
by whom Louisiana has almost been des
oiated! In the face Of constitutions
interdict, your administration at Wash,
ington repeatedly intertered to shield
them from justice, and to uphold then
in the possession of power to which they
had no manner Of legal claim. At this
moment they are preying upon the pros
trate people of the Slate, under the pro
lection of the Federal bayonets. Is tha
what you call furnishing your own ras
calls
You may answer that the white people
of Louisiana being conquered, are right
fully enslaved, according to the princi
ples planted at Plymouth, and therefore
It is not for the like of them to invoke
the protection of the law and justice.
will therefore call your attention to an
other case to which the Dahomeian rule
does not apply, and in which the failure
of the Republican party to punish it
own rascals has been equally signal
mean the frauds of the Union Paciti,
Railroad Company and the Credit Mo
billier.
You will pardon me, l am sure, for re
ferring to this affair; you are the las
man upon whom | would make a per
sonal point, and could not do it here l.
Iwould try; for the conviction have
often expressed remains unchanged, thai
your integrity was not stained by suct
connections as you had with that bust
ness. But we both know that it was thu
most gigantic fraud that the history o
modern times discloses. The magnitude
OF the iniquity almost exceeds belief
The entire amount nf the booty already
taken from the public and slowed away
in the pockets of the perpetrators canno
be less than one hundred millions o
dollars, and every six months they make
new demand, which is honored at tht
treasury by an additional payment
am told chat a late Attorney Genera
counts one hundred and eighty millions al
the sum which the United States viii
lose in solid cash, directly taken out o
the Treasury. am not sure thtt thi
calculation is accurate, but it cannot be
far wrong, and it is not equal to one-hal
of the whole steal; for it does not in
clude the value ofthe road itself, nor tn,
land grants, nor the proceeds Of tn,
bonds to which the lien of the United