The Brookhaven ledger. (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1876-10-05
HOu z 8. BLACK.
Some Extracts from His Great Let
ter to Garfield.

Some Extrocts from HIS 0eeat let-
ter to Garfield.
Arraixuaents. OF the
RepublIcna RIA seals.
From . letter Of Hon. Jere 8. Black
to Hon. J. A Garfield, we mako some
e~xtrscts. The letter was written in
rep'y to : speech made by Garfield il
Congress, and 10 one Of the ablest pa
pers OF the present day. We have onl,
room to publish . few paragraphs frou
the letter. but they will show to 81
candid and unprejudiced readers tina
the Republican party is unworthy o
further confidence and should be de
feated at the polls on election day:
The offenses which you are now en-
gagged in committing upon the public
Treasury are the natural sequence O
your crimes against popular liberty
Universal experience proves that pow.
er usurped will always be dishonest,
used. Seeing that the abolitionists
were led by men whom no oath could
hold to the Constitution, and whom nc
pledge could bind to an observance o.
principles, we had no right to expect &
decent regard for justice in their Ad
ministratiOn Of the national finances
I do not mean that the masses Of YOU
- - ~ vvnro ~ AHA Snu Iackkn ~
common integrity. But that was owe
ruled by the the political doctrines Of
of their leaders. Having once sci
aside the established Law of the land
they had no standard by which they
could measure the moral conduct oil
themselves or others, and they became
incapable OF seeing the difference be-
tween right and wrong in public affairs.
The ''higher law" threw the rein.
loose on the neck Of all evil passions
It not Gully abrogated the Constitution,
but the decalogue as well aid the
eighth commandments vas nulified with
the rest.
Yon have consequently made ours the
corruptest government on this side Of
Constantinople. Perhaps YOU will say
this is y mere general assertion. But
l am ready to maintain the truth Of. il
against all opposers. You NAV take
the r%ottenest monarchy in Europe, &c
all owe its history for a hundred years,
and produce the worst act you can find
Of fraudulent s~pOilstiop upon its people,
and if l do not show something worse
committed here under the suspicies OIL
the party now in power I will give up
the case.
l am speaking of the government-of
the officials who rule us for the theil
pleasure aud plumber ns for their per
sonal proft-and it ia no answer &c
quote Mr.. Lord speech before the
| Senate on the trial Of Belknap. Hi
| eulogy was on the virtue and intelli'
gence of the people, and he argued
from that the duty of their ervants Il
behave with integrity. He certainly
did not mean to whitewash the Admin
istration. II he had meant to do 50 HI
could not have succeeded, for there wa
not wash enough in his bucket TO g,
over the twenty -thousandth part Of the
job.
While you wero hunting for certii-
oates of character among the speeches
Of the impeachment managers, why die
you overlook that of Of Mr.. Hoar? HI
said in effect (fnr l cite him from mem
ory) that the one production inwhich OH
country excelled all others in the worlt
Is corruption Of its government. Their,
was the testimony of q called witness
belonging to your party, who knew
whereof he affirmed and spoke directly
to the point.
But it is useless to cite the evidence
Of individuals upon great public fact:
that are felt and seen and known Of al
men. Nothing ever was more notori'
GUS than the disregard Of all sound
principles by this Administration. Nc
people on earth are now suffering &c
much from extravagsnt taxation. and
nowhere does 80 small II portion Of the
taxes 20 to legitimate public purposes
or so much to the rulers themselves and
the rings they choose to favor. INDUS
try is crushed as it was before
Labor no longer works for itself, since
all and more than all of its surplus
profits are e1acted and consumed by the
hanger-on of the government. Now,
although We call ourselves, freemen
or freedmen, we are, to all in
tents aud purposes, slave. so long as
YOU continue to make us hand Over to
Won the earnings of orr labor; for the
essence of slavery consists i'll compell-
ing one man. or class of men. to work
for another without equivalent. We
are determined to relieve ourselves from
this iutolerable bondage as far as we
can legally anu 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.
APHARIsEK's BRAvADo.
You tell us that the Republican party
Twill punish its " ~rascals.' The
newspaper report Of Your speech says
that this was greeted with laughter
from the Republican side of the house:
Certainly it sounds like the broadcast of
jokes. II you meant it in earnest,
please to say what you found this claim
Of impartial justice upon. You will
hardly prove it by showing that Bristow
and Wilson succeeded. with much tribu-
lation, in convicting certain Danufactur
ers of crooked whisky, and thereby got
themselves turned out Of Office. 1t is
in vain to deny that there is. and has
been, a general system of dishonesty
pervading all ranks of the civil service,
which, so far from being punished. is
protected, encouraged and rewarded by
the highest authorities. You have set
your faces like q flint against I'LL inves>
LEGATIONS tending to expose rascality.
Proof of that, if proof we're wanting,
would be found in your W denuncfa-
tion of the present Congress for pushing
its inquiries in those regions where ve>
nality end corruption might otherwise
have dwelt in safety.
In all your Southern measures You
have shown apositive adherence of.hon-
est government; You forced into all
places of power men whose characters
were VIGOROUSLY bad and maintained
them while they perpetrated the most
shameless robberies. Y..u resisted
every effort Of the oppressed people to
throw them of, and when those efforts
were successfuEin some of the States.
YOU mourned the fall of felons with sin
cere lamentation. just look at the