The daily gazette., 1878-06-29
Contempt for Law mt Washing
ton.
BY COL. A. X. MCCLURE,

\
Turn ta the fountain of national All
shortly at Washington, and note the con.
tempt for law that pervades legislative
and administrative circles. The terri BILE
crucibe IN whicn the vitality of free
& gIvernment Was tested 10 enable to sur
we opposing frauds in the choice OF a
| ruler, seems TO have efi,aced almost the
last semblance of sauctiGv for law or JUS
| ice, not only i'll pres. partlsaa con-
| f1tcts, but als o in the exhaustive strategy
OF what we must call our statesmaaship,
in MAJ nuvring for future political bat
ties. When it became appafenG that un.
der our laws sovereign States could Dr
| made the Dlaythings of trickste s, and
the solemn verde cts of their people toss
ed from post to pillar between contend
ing parties, by perjury, t. rgerv, venalty,
and violence, who that Ieverenced law
| and government would have been con-
tent until the Integrity of free people
had been emphasized by the most com
plete statutory safeguards against the
posi- BILE villiany of succeeding contests!
And yet year and half of lawless par
| ilsan efforts, ever multiply Sing in partisan
devices to serve only partisan ends, have
| been the effering to humiliated and
| distracted people from their one sanctu-
ary where the majesty of justice and the
| majesty of law should be- unchallenged.
A feeble voice has occasionally been
heard proposing a remedy for the wrongs
which all confess in the abstract and
which all dispute in application to their
own political households; but while un-
faltering party lines could bs command
ed TO shield or 6Xpose crime as party in
| terests dictated, there has b en- no party
Wiling to protect our free institutions by
| making future electoral crimes imposs-
BILE. Ard II we could pause with tire ac-
cusation OF mere neglect to perform this
| imperious duty, the cloud would not be
entirely without its silver lining; but
when the truth commands me to warn
you that trusted leaders of the great op-
posing political organizations are strug-
CLING for advantage of position TO profit
by the lawless solution of the Presiden-
tial contest of 1880, you must appreciate
how contempt for law is scourging
even government itself from it's own
sanctuary
Steadily and stealthily the contempt
for law has spread through partisan mad
| ness and the tolerance OF our better citi-
zenship, until ii has invaded the most
| sacred authority of the Republic. The
test has been made, the people have pas
sively assentea, and crime Is now the ac-
cepted reserve force of the leaders of
both parties for future struggles over
Presidential titles and public spoils. If
any party had declared such purpose it
would to-day be impotent as the tempest
that sweeps oyer your eternal hills, but
| The evil comes as the voiceless trickling
strean and the silent dews and the win
ter frosts and the summer suns, which
wear away the seamless rocks of your
mountains. 1t was not the corruption of
rulers that bereft imperial Rome of her
power and left her widowed in the ruins
OF her grandeur. 1t was by the vices of
the people that the last of the Roman
Tribunes fell; and it is by the popular
contempt for law to-day in the most eu-
lightened government of the world, that
our free Institutions, the noblsst offering
of Christian civilization to the galaxy OF
nations, is more gravely imperilled than
when armed rebellion besiged the capital
and summoned a million men to sacri-
hce.