The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1878-04-24
PARTY CORRUPTION.

The fact that political parties are but sell
dom held to any direct responsibility makes
it almost impossible to arraign them with
any promptitude before the people. They
are too much crowded with the rush of their
party manipulations to admit of individual
detection. Hence the tide of party rule
Tolls steadily on, like a ball under the i'm
pulse of its own velocity. Leaders are often
traduced and policies criticised. Indi-'
vidual greed is condemned and per-
sonsl corruption is censured and yet
it is only now and then that the public
storm can be aroused to destroy or defeat
any corrupt manifestations Of a party in
Iower. The great masses of men in all gov
ernments are usually passive. They are ab.
sorbed in the obligations of their own per-
sOnal callIngs and have bat little time or
inclination to watch the movements of party
leaders or government spectators. The
most of them think if they vote at the cleo
ton they have done their duty, but in
government like ours where there is quiet
indifference among the people there is apt
10 be corresponding moral failure on the
part of party leaders. 1t is in this and in
similar ways that party corruption
grows up in government. The people are
indifferent of their birthrights. They seem
not to care who wields the power of the gov
eminent, or who lives off of the public
treasury. Many even seem to think the
government can run itself They take no
interest in public affairs because they are
not paid. for it, and, therefore in many in
stances a half a dozen men at a county seat
manage the political interests of the county,
while the voters, the true sovereigns of the
land, raise corn and hogs or make plows in
mechanic shops. 1t is sometimes hard to
tell who is 10 blame for political or party
corruption, for it is often the
result of indifference on the part
of the people, who leave to the
demagogues ond office seekers Of the coun-
try the sinister manipulations of primary
Assem- 5lies and of nominating conventions,
and In this way men often get into Office who
care nothing for the interests of the people
or the purity of the government or for the
prestige of republican history. They seat
themselves in the chairs of Office, and at once
enter upon what they conceive to be schemes
of personal emolument. If they make
money and get rich on the spoils Of Office,
with them the world goes well, and that is
enough They ask no more.
The sky may be dark over the
masses of the people. The stagna-
ton OF trade and the shrinkage
OF values may have driven thousands to
bankruptcy and millions to poverty and
ldleness, but none of these things move the
Office holder He lives on h. public taxes,
plants about the calamities Of the times
His fortune comes down to him as the rain
cOmeth from heaven, and why should he
care2
God, who rules in the fields of nature, has
given us food in abundance. The products
OF the land have been enough for two
such peoples as we are, and we have been
favored with nationa. health and blessed
with peace, and with all this our people still
mourn. The shadows of financial death
have been upon us and the blight and
mildew of destruction has gathered
over us. The glee and gladness of other
years are gone, and tens of thousands of our
people sit in sackcloth and ashes.
Fortunately for the poor people, our last
winters have been mild, and they could
keep warm without much fire, and then the
skrinkage in manufactured goods has been
30 great that very little money would buy