The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1878-08-28
RADICAL RECORD.
The Brazen Impotence of the Demand
for n Further Lease of Power.
Man, Work Cuu

New York Sun.
After a prolonged possession of power, ex-
tending over a period of IL years, and en-
bracing every department of the govern
ment, except the house of representatives
since 1875, the republican leaders, with rare
effrontery, are now appealing for vote OF
confidence at the congress elections this fall,
and De Goyler Garfield. whose record is
stained all over with corruption, audaciously
declares that 1.-THE continuation in power OF
the republican party is necessary TO protect
the treasury from spoliationm In other
words, he asks that public plunderers shall
mount guard over the vaults holding the
public treasure.
There is no example in the history of free
government which compares with the open
defiance of constitution and law, the ex-
cesses of power. the prodigality, the corrup-
ton, the nepotism, the disregard of social
restraints, and the license which mark the
career of the republican party since the close
of the rebellion, and ESPECIALLY during the
era of Grantism, when even the external
forms of decency were thrown aside, and a
government of rings ruled the country like
an absolute despotism. The rings controlled
every branch of the public service. There
was a treasury ring, military ring, naval
ring, q postal ring, a whisky ring, customs
ring, a land ring, judiciary ring, railroad
ring, a patent ring, Washington ring, an
-. lks
and ramifications extending in all directions
Though independent OF each other, they
made common cause, furnished the money
for presidential campaigns, and for the cleo
ton of senators and representatives, in order
to preserve their ascendancy and to continue
the atrocious system by which they were en-
riched at the cost Of the taxpayers. They
owned the committee in congress that pre-
pared legislation dictated by their attorneys,
and by combinations were always sure OF
subseryient majorities in both houses Even
now, after all the exposures, some of these
rings, under new forms, are as powerful as
they ever were.
Under this sway the carpet-bsg and bayo-
net rule in the south was created, not only
to fill the pockets OF the swarm OF adventur-
ers who rushed there under the promise of
the fullest protection, but to secure the
votes of the states thus held in bondage for
the presidency, and to swell the majorities
in congress by frauds, miscalled senators
and represen tatives. When the end came
there was a legacy of two hundred millions
of debt for an impoverished people to stag
ger under, in addition to their other misfor-
tunes.
The civil service reform commission, head
ed by Mr.. G. w. Curtis, reported that one
hundred millions a year had been stolen
from the revenue from imports, by devices
that depended for success on the collision of
the custom houses with the fraudulent i'm
porteIs at home and abroad, who organized
the msthods by which this wholesale swim
ding was carried on to the injury of honest
merchants, whose legitimate trade was sacri-
feed by the underselling of fraudulent
class that were enabled TO drive them from
the market. .t-..r. ..-.ar -
Different republican congresses voted away
two hundred millions OF the choicest parts of
the public domain to railroad corporations,
besides sixty-four millions of subsidy in
money and the interest on this large sum,
not dollar of which, under decision of the
supreme court, is payable until 1900. After
establishing one OF the greatest monopolies
in the world, and appropriating to its use
the most valuable lands. the party which
did this, at their national conventions now
''reaffirm opposition to further grants of the
public lands to corporations and monopolies,
and demand that the national domain be
devoted to free homes for the people"-when
they had already given the best of these
lands to rings.
The record of expenditures in the last ten
wears of profound peace, as compared with
the decade Immediately preceding the civil
war, is appalling to contemplate in Its exhi-
bitlon of extravaganza and reckless waste of
the peoples money. Between 1868 and 1877
the total expenditures for the CIVIL service,
war, navy and Indians, exclusive OF pensions
and interest on the public debt, aggregated
81 .463, liz, 1866 ~ In this statement, the last
fiscal year is included, when the house of
represen tatives, against the efforts Of the
executive and the vote OF the senate, re-
duced the appropriations more than twenty
three millions.
Between 1852 and 1861 the total expendi-
lures for the civil service, war, navy and In
dams, exclusive of pensions and interest on
the public debt, aggregated $572. $40, 260.62.
The difference between the two periods of
peace is $500, 299, 9o6.10 or more than $s9,-
600 600 a wear in round numbers. Taken in
with the waste of the civil war,
thissystem which burned the candle at both
ends was bound to end in the bankruptcy
and ruin which for five years have prostrat-
ed all business. This is the corsummation
of republican policy, administered without
check or effective resistance. And De Col
yer Garfield aud the men who brought
il about cry aloud that they must be
acontinued to save the treasury from spolia-