The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1876-08-17
Democratic Reform and Retrenchment.

to compare with the brazen effrontcry OF the
Democratic party, as now organized, in its
claims to be considered ''Reform" party, es-
sentially necessary to the purity of government
and the s'restoration of national credit The
record it has made during the present Con-
gress, where it has almost q two-thirds MAORI
ty, goes to demonstrate what kind of reform It
would institute were the entire government
placed under its control. During the session
extending through nearly nine months, it has
not suggested or favored 4 single measure the
operation of which would tighten the burdens
of the people, improve financial or administra-
tive policy, or in any way change the methods
Of levying, collecting and approprating the
revenues for the support of government. Start.
ing out with bold clamor about corruption
and the infidelity of the Republican party to
public trusts, the whole session has been devo-
ted to Investigations, without the development
of a single case where the government had
been defrauded or public officer been implica-
ted in efforts to misapply the revenues. With
twenty-six special investigating committees
formed. actively at work to discover something
to justify the assumption of corruption, they
haye been unable to expose single transac-
ton where an officer of the government has
been guilty of robbing the people by misap-
propiatiag public funds. They have drawn
upon the lunatic asyums, the gambling sa-
looms, the haunts of adventures and bummers,
whose education fits them for any mercenary
employment, to assail the character of almost
every high official OF the government, and par
tcularly directed their efforts to blacken the re-
putation of the President, without succeed
ing in attaching even a grave suspicion to
those whom they had assailed. All the official
wrong-doing that has been unearthed has been
the work of Republicans themselves, under the
directions of the President. Not only had he
inspired the utmost zeal in exposing Credit
Mobilier, Pacific Mail and Whskey Frauds,
but he endeavored to remove obstacles and re-
spond to every demand of the democratic COM
mittees to ferret out every man, high or low,
who might be suspected of having betrayed the
trust reposed in him. During their nine
months of investigation, there has been moth
ing to reward their endeavors, or to give them
return in political capital with which to appeal
to the people, except the case of Belknap.
They come now with the cry of Reform"
with the expectation Of captivating the people
by the specious sound, and yet place at their
head two men for the highest offices in the
gift of the people, who are notorious for their
identity with schemes and enterprises and as
sociations of corrupt repute and infectious
odor. With history present and past that in
vitcs the severest condemnation for its reck
less disregard of national faith,-which is GRIM
inally connected with the insane attempt not
only to destroy the government, but after fail
ure, to blacken our national name, and degrade
it in the eyes of the civilized world, it comes
before the people in the name Of Reform"
and asks that it be entrusted with the mission
of elevating official character and purifying
the administration of government.
What earnest has it given the people, during
the present Congress, that it means what it
processes? We have the statement that the
extra expense of the various investigations it
has instituted, without resulting in any tangi-
BILE good, has cost the people not less than
$500, 900, and probably 81, 100000. Bills have
been introduced, mostly from the Southern
States, which only await the ascendency of the
Democratic party in all the departments of
government to become laws, which will aggre-
gate nearly three Thousand million dollars AT |
The organization of the present House, when |
there were several hundred subordinate offices to
fill, at least twenty thousand lean, guant. hungry
wendell their way to Washing.
ON in the hope of securing favor, many of |
whom had to depend upon the charity of their
representatives to get back to their homes.
From the Potomac to the Gulf the multitude
locked there, and out of those selected, five or
Tx of them were found to be so utterly I'M
worthy of the positions, that they had to be
dismissed. Competent officers of long service
md tried integrity, were supplanted by ncom-
,etent and inexperienced men; new clerkships
reated, and new employments devised, and
where the Republicans had employed two Ste
ographers, the democrats engaged and paid fif-
cen, and in corresponding spirit has been the
istory of the entire Congress. To attract at
ention and deceive the people with the assur
nee OF retrenchment, they have cut down the
stimates of the heads of departments so as
} partially paralyze the administration of gov
and have thus thrown out of employ
lent at least eight hundred clerks, whose SER :
ices were deemed absolutely essential to the /;
roper preparation of the work of the depart +,
tents. They refused to allow an appropria-
on for the awards of the claims commission. :
to 100000, thus virtually repudia- .
ng the obligations OF the government. They s
ave crippled our diplomatic service, reduced j,
IL consulates, abolished ministerial offices, =
ID lowered the standard OF the American gov j,
nment in the eyes of the Dations with which !,
e have commercial intercourse. By their cur
ilment of the necessary appropriations for
e Navy, thirty thousand employees will be 0
duced to idleness and want. whilst the pro- "
rty of the government will go to decay and '
IS. Not less than one hundred thousand b
miles will be deprived of the means of sup S
'rt by the ''retrenchment'' of the Democratic t
.rty, when the appropriations asked were ne p
ssary for the indispensable demands of the le
And what has all this been for? v
} make sham record OF economy. And yet OF
is same Congress has passed bounty bill G
at will take from the treasury, if it becomes Of
law, from $100,000,000 to s150, 1000, 900, for g
e federal soldiers OF the late war, who have
ties! :.
The retrenchment they propose, and which G;
III have tn ha endured until ha no1yt coce;o,, |