The weekly Oskaloosa herald. [volume] (Oskaloosa, Iowa) 1855-1885, 1876-08-24

deemed by any good measure, presents
the question whether he is promising
material for a great reformer. Reform
should be the normal condition of every
political party. Abuses are constantly
arising; old ones are being discovered;
new improvements in administration are
necessary. Reform should be steadily
made, as a daily business and not merely
by fits and starts just before an election.
THE WORD DISHoNoRED.
The very word reform" becomes odious
when it is used as mask to conceal the
repulsive features of men who have
championed every great abuse in the past,
who have been unfaithful to their coun-
try; who have brought upon the country
its chief misfortunes, and whose names
are indissolubly connected with the great
est political crimes of the age.
WHO ARE THE REFoRsIERs.
Think of it, the leaders of the rebellion,
the Ku-Klux and White-Leaguers, the
organizers of murder, the plundering
hacks and humbugs that have come down
to us from twenty years of Democratic
misrule before the war, the broken-down
fugitives from the Republican party who
had been kicked out for incapacity and
fraud, and in short, all the authors of the
great misfortunes that have fallen upon
our country for the last quarter of cen
tury, uniting together and shouting them
selves hoarse with the cry of reform
With such men plumber is the purpose
and reform the pretense. They are as
incapable of reform as they are of max
ing reparation and atonemcnt to the
country for the innumerable crimes they
have committed Many of them are
bankrupt from the rebellion, lank, starv-
ing, fierce, and ravenous as famished
wolves, and at the first opportunity will
bury themselves in the public treasure as
the vulture does its head in the newly
found carcass.
These relics of tho rebellion, these
lingering remains of the sons of Liberty,
these connecting links with former gener-
atoms of frauds, robberies, and shames,
these putrescent "reminiscences of slavery,
at ST. Louis and dubbed
themselves reformers
Remember that they are the men who
brought the war upon the country, who
have buried half a million Of soldiers,
who have piled up billions of debts, and
who have peopled the land with widows
and orphans.
What think you of such reformers?
With them we may say of reform as was
once said of patriotism, that it is the last
refuge of scoundrels. What think We
when the wrecker of railroads, who has
amassed his millions taken from ruined
stockholders, when the land grant states
man, the voter of subsidies, are put
forward as the champions of reform and
the protectors of the people? 1t would be
another illustration of the fable of the
wolves who procured themselves to be
elected guardians of the sheep whom they
devoured.
DEMOCRATIC IDEA OF REFORM.
1t is Democratic idea that the relics
and debris of rebellion, the pardOned
traitors of an inhuman civil war who
we're reared in the lap of slavery; that
the graduates from the high-schoOls of
the Ku-Klux and Whitc-Leaguers, the
and defenders of Ander-
sonville aud Salisbury, and the alumni
Of Tammany Hall, constitute the true re-
formers of the day. To the Democratic
mind the education furnished in these in
situations gives the highest guarantee for
reform and integrity in Office.
Every profession in favor of Civil
Service reform by the Democratic
party is utterly hypocritical. Should
it come into power every Republican
officer will at once be turned out, and
it is for this the battle is being fought.
Tilden and Hendricks as Cows. have
had the power to introduce this re-
form into their States, but their ad-
have been remorseless-
ly partisan. If they were in earnest
in their profession on that subject
they could stop it any day, and show
their faith by their words.
We are asked to forget their histo-
ry and to accept as an atonement for
the past the promise that they will
become great reformers in the future.
This reminds us of the fable Of the
two rats, who after having laid waste
the cheese-room and the pantry, ask
ed admission to the new kitchen up
on the ground that they were reform
ed rats who wished to change their
business, and knew how to keep out
other animals of the same character.
GREENBACKS.
When greenbacks were first Great
ed as q war measure in 1862 they
were violently opposed by the entire
rs unconstitutional, which
they held as to everything calculated
to help put down the rebellion. Mr..
Hendricks stated in 1868 that the pa
per of the State banks was a better
currency, when he knew the war
could not be carried on with that pa
paper. In 1867, after the war was
over, Mr.. Pendleton conceived the
idea of adopting the greenbacks and
issuing enough to pay the National
debt. This would at once repudiate
the debt and destroy the greenbacks
and kill off two Of the hated agen-
cies in putting down the rebellion.
Hendricks accepted this idea, and
made his race upon it for Governor
in 1868, as will appear by his speech
in convention on the Sth Of Janua.
ry of that year. In 1870 Chief JUS
tice Chase delivered the opinion Of
of the Supreme Court of
the United States that the legal ten
der feature of the greenbacks was un-
The Democracy again
bobbed around and hailed the deci-
sion with delight. The next year a
majority of the Court reversed this
decision, and the Democracy with
one accord charged Grant with hav-
ing packcdthe Court TO sustain an in
famous War measure. After that
they again bobbed around and said
that grcenbacks were the best curren-
cy the country ever had; that all
banks ought to be abolished and the
alone furnish money TO
the people.
FINANCIAL RESOLUTIONS.
To cap the climax of their shutting
and see saving on this subject, at the
late ST. Louis Convention they adopt
ed the following resolution:
We denounce the failure of all these
eleven years of peace to make good the
promise of the legal-tender notes, which
are changing standard of value in the
hands of the people, and the non-payment
of which is disregard of the plighted
faith of the nation.
After thus arraigning the Republi-
can party for having failed to force
specie payments, in the next resolu-
Il A