The Osceola times., 1876-09-30

1
were before. the very darlings of IL,
party. Even that is not the worst of IL
These swindlers are periodically swell
ing the colossal proportions OF theil
crime by taking out of the treasury ad
J ditional millions which they claim a'
| the "precious results" of their original
fraud. They have no better title to
them than a wolf has TO the mutton he
slaughters by moonlight. The legal
remedy against these exactions is 20
plain that ignorance alone could hardly
miss it. But your officers have found
cut the way not TO do it. They permit
the government to lie down and be rob
bed semi-annually, by a corporation
which Tilden would leng ago have dis
armed of its power, and whose criminal
abettors he would have swept into the
penitentiary by scores.
HAYEsIsM ALIAS GRANTIsM.
! repeat that do not blame you az an
active accomplice in this wickedness.
But you ought 10 have come out from
the evil and corrupt fellowship as soon
as you saw how evil and corrupt il was
You owed it to yourself, your church,
and your country to break off at once
from political associates capable of such
indefensible conduct. But your accept
ance of the doctrines planted at Ply
mouth by the Yankees blinded yeur
judgment, and made your conscience liz
accessible to the principles planted in
Jerusalem by the people first called
christians at Antioch"
You would have us believe that Hayes,
il elected, will reform abuses and give us
pure administration. Your statement,
and that of other gentlemen equally re-
liable, make it certain that Mr.. HAYES
bears an irreproachable character in all
his private relations. | do not doubt
his possession of that negative honesty
which it il a disgrace to want. | accord
him those tame household virtues which
entitle him to the respect of his neigh.
bors and the confidence OF his family;
but he can no more stem the torrent of
republican corruption than he can swim
against the rapids of Niagara. His
whole history shows that ne would not
even make an effort to do so. lie has
been most happily called "a man of
tired subserviency."
A reformer in these times must be made
,f stern material lie must have no
connection with, and be under no obl-
cation to, the authors of the abuses
which need reform. Above all things,
he must not have consented expressly or
mpliedly to the commission of the pub
ic wrongs which his duties as a reiormer
would require him to punish. When
he comes to oppose wickedness in high |
places tn e consciousness that he himself |
$ pari detiot0 will make even strong
nan as nerveless as infancy.
To show how hard it would be for a
nan like Mr.. Hayes to resist the worst
,rders of his own party, | must cite a
,ase directly in point, and certainly
within your recollection as well as mine.
In the case of Milligan, you made an
eloquent and powerful speech before the
supreme court for those free principles
which !, at the same time, supported in
my weaker way. You showed the indie
right OF every citizen to a
legal trial you proved that Magma
Charta did not perish on the battlefield;
you demonstrated by irresistible logic
that the constitution was as supreme after
the war rs it WAS before; you spurned
with lofty contempt the brutal idea that
law was extinguished by the victory of
the forces called out to defend it; and
you closed with that grand peroration
ON the goddess of liberty, which. if
spoken at Athens in the best days of her
" fierce democratic" would have shook
the arsenal and Illuminated over Greece"
These were not the words OF a paid ad-
vocate, for you had volunteered in the
case nor the sudden emotions OF
ncophyte, for you had read and pondered
the subject well. You spoke the delib-
crate conclusions of your mind, and
there is no doubt that in your heart of
hearts you believe them to be true this
day:
Yet when the reconstruction law was
you suffered yourself to be
in, surrendered your conscience
to your party, and voted against your
convictions, for a measure that
every provision of the constitu-
lion, whereby ten millions of people
were deprived of rights which you knew
to be sacred and inalienable.
If this was the case, what subser-
viency may not be expected from Mr..
Hayes, when the party lash comes to be
laid on his back You are his superior
in every quality that holds man true
to public duty. Yes have been care
fully schooled in the morality of the
new testament, you have lived all your
life in the full blaze of the gospel, you
are gifted with logical acumen which
lew can boast, and with moral courage
far above the average. If you fell down
before the Molech Of abolitionism, and
gave up all principle at once, what act
If worship will Hayes deny to that grim
idol?
HoIsTED BY HIS OWN PETARD.
Speaking of reconstruction, and seeing
your broad accusations OF treason, ! am
tempted to ask if you are sure that you
yourself and your associates did not
commit that crime.
In March, 1867, the then existing gov
of the union was supreme all
over the country, and every state had
separate government of its own for the
of its domestic concerns.
That government was entitled then, il it
ever was, to the universal obedience of
all citizens, and you, its officer, had
taken a special oath of fidelity to it.
you made deliberate ar
not only to withdraw your
support from it, but to overthrow it
totally in ten Of the states; and this
you did by military force. In all the
south you levied war against the nation
and against the defenseless states, de-
stroyed the free government of both,
and substituted in their place an un-
t,mncred and absolute dpsnotisn