The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1878-03-21
QUESTION OF THE TINES
FRAUD MUST BE SUPPRESSED AS
GOVERNING POWER.
Speech Of the Hon. Montgomery Blair, Delivered
In the Maryland Legislature, March 10,
1878, on the Resolution Urging Judicial
Action to Unseat Hayes.

The question winch underlles lne moVe-
ment is, whetL err the organized money
power shall continue to prey upon the
people, or whether the people shall be
masters and their interests protected by
the Government. The most authentic
statistics show that the actual expenses
of the Government exceed the whole
earnings of our people, The debts of the
various Governments, national, State and
municipal, and corporate debts, amount
to seven billion dollars. Emigration has
been arrested. Bankruptcy continues
and increases. The failures last month
exceed those of any previous month.
Twelve hundred thousand tramps are
wandering over the country. And while
the people have been becoming poorer,
millionaires have been increasing in
number. In 1880 John Jacob Astor was
the only man in New York worth half
million now, there are thousands worth
that sum many whose incomes exceed
that sum, and some whose incomes are
ten times thatsum. Vanderbilt's income
was said to be $4,000, the wages of &c.,
600 laborers. at Sl,25 per day, while that
ofO'Bryan & Co., in California, is report
ed at $40 600, equal to the earnings of CO..
600 laborers.
This accumulation of wealth in the
hands of the few, while the masses of our
countrymen are reduced to poverty, and
multitudes to vagranGy results from the
fact that the Government has ceased to
be controlled by the people, and has be-
come the mere instrument to plunder
labor We have already in consequence
witnessed the humihating spectacle of
having to call for United States troops TO
put down riots. We must march on to
military government or 60 back to popu.
lar government. Is it not time to array
ourselves on the side of the people and
attempt by some decisive, but peaceful
measure, to put down the usurpation that
has already proved so disastrous and is
certain to entail greater disasters than
we have yet witnessed if it continues :?
The 100000 tramps will soon swell to
100000, and we shall require immense
armaments to keep the peace and protect
the property OF the wealthy few.
The great railroad spectators of the
country are the leading spirits in the
anti popular organization. They are in
alliance with the national banks and
what are called the protected interests.
These allied interests are the creatures
of legislation, are partners, and the con.
trolling partners in the business of the
Government, and have managed it and
will continue to manage it for their own
interests exclusively.
These interests dictated reconstruction
the Enforcement acts, and that series of
brutal measures enacted since the war
respecting the South which disgrace the
age, merely to possess themselves of the
political power Of the South. Sumner
and Greeley, and all the great lights
among the emancipationists saw that it
had become mere plunder organization,
and quit the Radical party. The enor-
nous expenditures by the general Gov
ernment since the war itselfdemonstrate
this. During Grants Administration
exclusive of pensions and payments on
account of the public debt, the expendi-
lures were nearly equal to the entire
amount paid for conduct of the Govern
ment from 1889 till 1861, including the
expenditure for the war of 1872 the Al
gerine war the Mexican war, the payments
for Louisiana and Florida, and all the
Indian wars
The whole ofour politics resolves itself
into ssrt Of brigandism, which has sue
cessfullY availed itself of the sectional
feeling to procure immunity for it's ope-
rations. The destructive nature of these
operations has at last awakened the pub.
lie mind to their true character. Even
before the great collapse of 1873, which
was produced by them, the leadingmind
ofthe Republican party saw through them
and set up Mr. Greeley as a candidate for
the Presidency to expose and oppose
them. The Democrats in body suppor-
ted this movement, and though Greeley
was defeated by the lavish use of money,
the movement produced a great revulsion
of feeling, and set on foot the Credit
Mobilier investigation, which exposed
the corruption of Washington, and show
ed it was not confined to one party.
This was followed by the Tweed expo.
sure in New York, where although those
holding the control in the Democratic
party were the chief criminals, the man
by whose untiring zeal and skill they
were unearthed and the criminals bro't
to punishment was a Democrat. The
great mass of the Democracy and large
numbers of Republicans rallied to his
support, made him Governor of New York
and then President, to avail themselves
of his capacity to protect them from plum
der. But large numbers of the old DEM
cratic leaders in New York were vindic.
lively hostile to Tilden for his unsparing
reform as Governor. They were his
most conspicuous opponents at st. Louis,
and one of the most able and respected
among them wrote a letter to Justify the
Electoral Commission in deposing him.
He was a rival of Tilden, and was sup.
ported by the Rings upon which Tilden
warred in the interests of the public.
But the local Rings which had held
New York, and upon which Tilden sue
cessfully warred, were utterly insignif.
cant when compared to the gigantic or
ganization which holds power in Wash
ington. Some idea of its formidable
power may be formed when Judge Thur
man estimates the amount at stake in the
Central and Union Pacific bill alone at
S240, 100000. The Texas Pacific origin.
ally involved about $l00,OOO,0O0, and
there are multitudes of affiliated money
interests. With these are associated the
political interests of able and experienc.
ed public men who receive no part of the
plunder, directly perhaps, but who are
the recipients of political power at the
hands of the managers of these great
moneyed interests.
1t was by the power of these political
and money interests that Tilden was de-
posed and it is by this power that he is
kept out of his seat, now that it is appar-
ent to every djspassionate man that the
vital interests of every honest citizen
requires that it should be given up to
him.