Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1876-10-11

poor were MADE poorer, produc-
ton was checked, consumption was
limited to the necessaries of life,
and tens Of thousands were driven
by want from the homes of their
childhood and the graves of their
ancestors TO strange lands and
among strange people. Estates
were sacrificed. Fruitful fields
were given up to brambles and
briars. Fences fell TO the ground.
bitches were filed with noxious
weeds. Vagrant thieves unlawful
ly gathered and appropriated the
growing crops. Stock were stolen
in their ranges. The torch of the
incendiary flashed through the
blackness Of night. Life was not
safe from the assassin's blow
Women and children covered in
fear around their firesides. Crime
went unwhipped of justice, for the
officers of the law were in sympa-
thy with the criminals, whose sup
port had clothed them with author
ity. And still the work of ruin
went on. New debts were created.
Heavier taxes were imposed. The
local journals were filed with the
tax collectors advertisements. New
devices were invented for extract
ing money from poverty. And the
fools and thieves invested with
power by the Republican party,
grew rich and clothed themselves
in fine raiment and rode in gaudy
equippages. No pen can picture
the horrors of these long and
dreary years, not yet ended in
Louisiana and South Carolina, when
an eternal night appeared to have
settled over those States, when it
seemed that want and wretched-
ness and woe were the only inner
itance this people could bequeath
to their children, when carpetbag-
gers and scalawags bore undisput-
ed sway and wrought their will I'M
questioned.
But merciful God strengthened |
and sustained the victims of these
wrongs, and directed their efforts
to throw off the CALLING bondage
under which they had existed.
One by one, the States overthrow
the administration which had
blighted and shamed and prostra-
ted them; and one by one their
governments came under the con-
rol of honest, intelligent and 10y
i citizens. Day dawned from the
darkness of the pit. Hope revisit
d breasts to which it long had
'een stranger. The sun of
romise rose upon the land and
hone through the dark clouds ,
'hich had enveloped it. Careful !,
lords were substituted for the lam
uage of despair. Flowers bloomed
mid the desolation. The sweet :
lsense Of thanksgiving ascends to =
leaven. But the end is not yet.
hat malign power which to per- -,
citrate its existence had Inaugural =
ID hell from the Potomac to the
10 Grande, could still mar the re- :
lrning beauty it could not wholly !,
revent, could still disturb the re-
lrning peace it could not entirely !,
lbvert, could still check the re- :,
lrning prosperity it could not al .
,gether prohibit; and new pre-
KITS were invented, new devices ,
r its work were discovered, and :
it'll the spirit of calumny, with !.
le spirit of detraction, with the
'ngue of misrepresentation, with -,
civil service prostituted to parti- n
IN uses, with sword and bayonet, q
it'll yawning prisons for innocent '
en-, it still mutilates and wounds Z
here it cannot kill, and by the OPP
ression of ten millions of peace
il, law-abiding and industrious y
eople seeks to retain its control VI
yer forty millions. g