Nebraska advertiser., 1876-08-24
THE CAMPAIGN.
The Claims of the Democracy to Pub.
lie Conference.-The Majority in
the House Arraigned and Dis
sected.

lie Conference.-The Majority in
the House Arraigned and Dis
seeted.
Gen. S. A. Hurlbut, of Illinois, re-
Gently delivered the following power
ful speech in the Representative
Hall at Washington, the House being
in committee of the whole
on the State of the Union. Af-
ter showing from q tabular statement
that the gross total loss on receipts
and disbursements average 1886 for
each 81 900 handled under Democratic
administrations, and only 81 cents
per 81 900 under Republican admins
trations, the speaker proceeded
How has this House applied civil
service reform in its own appoint
ments? Has it retained competent
officers CT appointed new ones for the
sole consideration of fitness? Sir,
the advent of this Democratic House
to power was signaliZed by pilgrim
age such as has not been seen before
Lean, gaunt, famished by long alb
stinence, the multitude of applicants
passed belief. From Maryland TO
Texas came the hOrdes of office-hunt-
ers on the trail of their unhappy pat
rons, whose life they made miserable
by bra2en importantly. They troop
ed to the plunder as the vultures seek
the carcass. You selected adoorkeep-
er on the sole ground of his capacity
in the Confederate Congress, and you
summarily turned him out because he
l., to TO, fsF 10, a \,
YOU all felt but dared not say: that
office was good thing to have. 1t
was hard on FitZhugh for he was the
only man on the floor who felt big
ger than old Grant"
Yon earned out clerk after CirIi.
gray and experienced in duty, and
filled their places with partisans.
You removed disabled Union SOL
diers and filled their places with 9TH
ers of another stripe, and would have
made clean sweep but for the pOpu-
lar Indignation.
You have twice exhausted the con-
tingent fund OF the House by needless
and eXtravagant sums expended for
witnesses on trivial matters, and have
run up bills to be met hereafter of
frightful amounts for making and
printing your investigations.
You have insulted the President
by resolutions demanding his author
ity for the exercise Of his official func-
tions outside of the city of Washing
ton, and have been ANONYMOUSLY con-
victed of ignorance of law and of his
tory by his crushing reply.
You have demanded elaborate re-
ports on all manner of subjects from
the departments, and hindered the
public service by exacting these re-
plies on matters which bad already
been officially reported and were in
print.
So much for sins of commission.
You have had session of eight
months; what single thing can you
show of puplic benefit? What work
has been accomplished, what real re-
form inaugurated
The great question of currency, en-
braciDg in its scope the very life-blood
of national prosperity. has been dal-
lied with and trified with until the
country finds as little hope for relief
in this double-faced committee as
they find in the double-headed Presi-
Dental ticket of the Democratic par
ty. All convictions, if any there were,
on this question have been smOthered
and subordinaied TO success by false
pretenses in the approaching cam
paign.
But the temper and purposes of this |
House are best shown by its debates. |
Protesting large aud true devotion to
the Union, this Democratic majority !
has listened to and applauded the
most violent denunciations of the |
party and the men who saved our ma
tional existence, to defiant an
OF a "united South"
and to justification of rebellion and |
vindicatiOn of treason. 1t has heard |
and applauded the denial in practice |
of the rights secured by the oOnstitu-
tional amendments and the assertion |
of the civil and political supremacy /
of one race and the foredoomed infe-
riority and subordination of the 9TH
er, and has tried by Interpolation into
the appropriation bills to repeal the
law giving TO the nation some super
visory power over elections In our
great cities and the Southern States,
and thus crush out the chief barrier
against fraud and violence against the
citizen.
There are pending in this House
vast number of bills seeking relief,
nearly all from the theater of the late
war; bills for the remission of the
cotton tax and its repayment; bills
or damages done by marching armies,
he amount of all will figure to hun
lreds of millions; bills TO relieve
)0stmasters and mail contractors
bills to repeal restrictions upon COM
Confederate officers into
'uF army; bills seeking compensation
n all manner of ways for those who
uttered because they first rebelled.
These, sir. are to wait until latter
lection" with the implied if not the
promise of Northern Demo-
rats that in the event of success in
hat election they shall be favorably {
considered.
The majority of this House has de-
led the clear sentiment of the nation,
as insulted the enthusiasm of the 8
yorth, and trifled with its unwaver- 5
ng devotion and its vast sacrifices to {
maintain the Union, and has shown q
gain the sickening sight of that
yretched yielding on great questions e
} the imperious demands of the