Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1876-08-18

Departments. Twenty-Five stanolng COM
mittees and eight select committees, up to
the 10th Of june, in all thiry-th-ee com
mittees, have been raking all the Sums Of
the nation, to find, if possible, some savory
morsel with which to impregnate the air
during the coming election.
And what have they found3 Has any
one Of these committees found that single
dollar has been stolen from the Treasury of
the United States2 If so. let them declare
It Why, sir, the Republican party for the
last three years has been investi9atiOn in.
own administration far more effectually
than you have investigated II It has had
mt only the courage of its opinions, but
/ the courage to punish its owu rascals,
But, gentlemen, after all that NAV Be
said of corrupions and wrong doing, do
you show, on that ground, any good reason
why the Republican party should surrender
the Government to Democracy Would it
be better2 1t Is a matter of Official record
that the Treasury suffered far greater per-
centage Of loss, By nismaazgsmsnt and
defalcation, under your administration than
it has suffered under our.
In an official letter to the Senate, under
date of June Is, 1876, the Secretary of the
Treasury copies from his records the aggre-
gate losses BY defalcations and the loss per
| 900 in each period Of four years Eiacs
i 1884 in all the Departments and Bureaus Of
the Government. Without quoting the
table at length, the grand aggregate stands
| thus:
From January l, 1884, to July l, 1851,
the total disbursements Of the Government
were 81, 1855, ,977 ,502. 81; the total defalca-
tions we're So, ,36l, ,722 81; or 4 loss Of 5000
to the 81 600.
From July l, 1861, to July l, 1875, the
total disbursements were 81 :, ,666 1872 569.63;
the total defalcations were $9,9O5, POS 81;
or loss of tWenty-six cents to the 81 600.
In the latter period the disbursements were
nearly ten times as great az IN the former,
and the defalcations One-third less.
Is this country SO given over to eorrup-
| ton as the gentleman from Mississippi
suggests I will answer by quoting two
Distinguished witnesses. In his able speech
on the impeachment trial, one Of the Dem
ocratic managers, the gentleman from New
York, Mr.. Lord, said:
Senators am one Of those Who believe In pro-
/ gress. 1 believe that this age is the best age
there Is more Of religion, moTs Of humanity,
more Of love, more Of charity iE this age than in
any age that has preceded it.
There is now higher and healthier ssntiment
| than In any former age. Men are held to od1cial
responsibilities now, thank God, that they never
were before The time has been in the recollec-
| ticn OF many Of you when person thought he
had right to use his official position for his own
advantage; but that time has gone by, and good
i deal Of what we see and hear which leads great
many so mournfully to say that the age is going
backward and we are receding to barbarism, very
1Sn Enea men. occasions % M tne ;sgPareas ineFs@ q
greater civilization. from the higher plane Of an
enlightened people.
Now, ask the Clerk to read paragraph
which have marked from the centennial
address Of Rev. DR.. Storms, man fit to be
the teacher Of his race.
The Clerk read as follows:
I scout the thought that we as a people are
verse than our fathers. John Adams, at the head
Of the War Department. 1776 wrote bitter aments
| Of the corruption which existed in even that In
FAINT age Of the Republic, and Of the spirit Of
venaltty, rapaciOus and insatiahle, which was
then the most alarming enemy Of America. He
declared himself ashamed Of the age in which he
lived. In Jeferson's day all Federalists expect
! ed the universal dominion Of French infidelity.
In Jackscn's day all Wings thought the country
gone to ruin already. as II Mr. Biddle had had the
entire public hope locked up in the vaults o. his
terminated bank. In Polk's day the excitements
Of the Mexican war gave life and termination %
many seeds Of rsscality. There never has been
time, not here alone, in any country, when the
fierce light Of tncessant inquiry blazing on men
in public life would net have revealed forces Of
evil like those we have seen, OF when the con-
domination which followed the discovery would
have been sharper. And it Is among my deepest
convictions that, with all which has happened to
debase and debaueh 1t, the nation at large vas
never before more mentally vigorous or morally
sound.
Mr.. GARFIELD Now, Mr.. Chairman,
after all the fearful corruption Of his time
described by John Adams, our fathers never
thought 1t necessary to call the tories back
20 # fko-r
ties.
Iwil close by calling your attention again
to the great problem before rs. Over this vast
horizon of interests North and South, above
all party prejadices and personal wrong
doing, above our battle hosts and our victo-
rious cause, above all that we hoped for
land won, or you hoped for and lost, is the
grand, onward movement of the Republic
to perpetuate its glory, to save liberty alive,
to preserve exact and equal justice to all,
to protect and foster all these priceless princi-
pies, until they shall have crystalized into the
form of enduring law, and become in
wrought into the life and the habits Of our
people.
And, until these great results are accom-
plished, it is not safe to take one step
/ backward. It is still more unsafe to trust
interests of such measureless value in the
hands of an organization whose members
have never comprehended their epoch,
have never been in sympathy with its great
movements, who have resisted every step
of Its progress, and whose principal function
has been
To lie in cold obstruction
across the pathway Of the nation.
1t is most unsafe of all to trust that or
ganization, when for the first time since the
war, it puts forward for the first and second
place of honor and command, men whom our
daysof greatest danger esteemed party above
country, and felt not one throb of patriotic
ardor fer the triumph of the imperiled
Union, but from the beginning to the end
| hated the war, and hated those who carried
our eagles 10 victory.
No, no, gentlemen; our enlightened and
patriotic people will not follow such lead
ers in their rearward march. Their myriad
faces are turned the other way; and along
their serried lines, still rings the cheering
cry, aForwardp till our great work is fully
and wOrthily done. Loud and continued
applanse.]
About eleven years ago the last cannibal
/ r L Il - NJ kha Efsf