The Russellville Democrat., 1877-03-01
THAT sEDITIoUs ARTICLE
The Words Which Brought
 Trouble to Dom Piatt-

In the W aSutuSLOu Napteti ot cuu day Feb. 18th. It is the article for which President Grant and his cabinet had the editor of the pa per indicted under the double charge of libel and exciting sedi- tion:
 The sickening apprehension felt by the people, to which we referred last week, that the Su- preme Court would be found as rotten as the other powers of our unhappy government, has at last been realized. The swift decay that in the last ten years has made our self-government sham and mockery, and in the Execu- tive branches shamed us before the world, has been silently work ing it's way through the Judicia- ", until now, in it's first trial, 1t offends with it's stench the nos trils of all honest citizens.
 The appeal made to the Judges of the Supreme Court from the people. sorely distressed and per plexed, was to save them from the wicked conspiracy of men they had repudiated at the polls. They saw their faithless agents for years robbing the Treasury of their hard earned taxes. They saw their highest officials indict- ed for the meanust crimes. They saw carpet -baggers, sustained by bayonets, manipulating the polls, that ignorance and rascality might tyrannize over the South. They saw rings organized in the lobby control their Congress. They saw huge monopolies creat- ed by their Government eating out their substance. They saw themselves reduced to want, trade paralyzed, and labor without em ploy, and they made desperate effort to right their wrongs thro' the ballot.
 | With subsidized press against them, with an army of hungry otficeholders that-counting those of the general Government with those of the States horde of Treasury eaters greater than any standing army in Europe; :; with all the accumulated capital in the hlnds of monopolies ar rayed on the side of their oppres- sors. they made one despairing effort, and came up from the polls with a majority of over half a million in their behalf. And of what avail? Through dishonest Returning Board, made up of criminals who have escaped con viction and punishment under the protecting arm of a corrupt government, enough votes are thrown out to render all their efforts valn, and saddle upon them the old corruption and the old horde for another term of years, perhaps forever.
 From this, appeal was taken to five Justices of the Supreme Court. For that, no more and nc less, was the commission created
 It was believed that by sach proc
 ess the question at issue, being | cnarge of conspiracy against cor
 rupt men, could be lifted from the political arena to a tribuna
 of high toned, impartial Judges
 who would decide in accordance
 with law and justice. To the
 amazement and disgust of al
 thoughtful minds the Justices
 divided, as the partisans had, or
 political line; and three indc
 pendent old men joined with tht
 enemies of the people in fixing
 corruption upon us, and destroy
 ing all confidence in the very
 foundation of our political struc
 tme-the ballot. They decide
 that fraud does not vitiate, ant beyond this that they hay, noth
 ing to decide, and so send thu question to the people.
 ;. We have not the patience t
 argue what the people, in thei broad common sense, will no considerable fne-spun legal tech , nichalities under which thes , aged scoundrels seek to hidc thei , shame. Their real brief to b found in tie utterancc of one f their commission, James A. Gar I field, who said boastingly, You
 have to grln and bear it. w f hold the cards and intend to pla. | them" Poor political gambler f The stakes for which he plays ar 5 the rights of 40,000,000 of people f the peace and prosperity of tn
 only republic known to humanit,
 For all that freemen hold mos [ dear, these hands, stalned wit plunder. gamble as the soldier i. of Pilate severed ln derision tn e garment of the Crucitied Chris As we said a week since: "Thl
 IS not law, it Is revolution; and o the people tamely submit, we ma | bid a long farewell to constlts ! tional Government. Fraud n e longer vitiatcs. A corrupt As