Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1878-04-24

D mmablei There no metes and bounds to
falsehood. 1t is only truth that is hemmed 10 by
rigid lines and impossible barriers.
Accepting these limitations of TRUTH let me
| give you the actual facts, which did not know
| until your wild harangue shocked me into a search
| for them, which put upon your statements more
monstrous mendacity than ever suspected, and
which stand over against them papably and
| defanty as TO cast upon them a shadow not only
| blackening, but baleful. | discover then, upon
inquiry, that Congressman whom you dishon-
| orsbly depict did, during the administration of
President Grant, abolish more than two thoussn
offices, and did decrease taxes for the salaries
| of these officers by far more than two millions
| per annum. | assert, on the authority of official
and undeniable reports, that soon as the
| closed the republicans in Congress began the
| great work of retrenchment, and that
| every Congress reduced enormously the
| number of offices, and reduced taxation IN
every form; not merely by 1.-TWO millions
annually, but by tens OF millions, snd-it will not
shock your large generic sense of arithmetic to
hear it-hundreds of millions in the aggregate of
the several years. SO that not merely is your state
ment unvorihed but the opposite of your statement
| is true. Not only is il untrue that offices were
created and taxes levied for the support of friends
of Congressman, hut these very Congressmen
abolished by the hundred and the thousand Offices
| held by their friends and repealed by the tens of
millions the taXes levied on the people.
Not only was this true under President Grant;
| it true under the Republican Congress- of
President Johnson's time. Under every year of
both Johnson and Grants Administrations, more
Offices abolished and more taxes repealed
than during the one year of President Havess adj
ministraton.
TO one who has so lofty a dsdsin for facts, it is
difficult to join logical issue in argument. To
maintain the total depI ity of Congress the
Silver Bill, you put laws of your own manufsc-
tuIc into your country $ code. To give yourself
ground for assallng the relations of Congressman
to the Civil Service, you stand before your peo-
pie aud create offices Just at the point where they
have been motor lously abolished; you levy and
increase taxes at the precise time when they were
diminished and repealed. Then you press val
isntly through serted columns of your own fan
ces to prove that Congress is coiruptly aggregst
ed through the fundamentally OF the officers they
control, and that this s 1.-The cause of the de-
terioration OF Congress"
"DTTERIoRATIoN OF CONGRESS"
Is not this also a fancy You give no reason
for believing that Congress has deterioratcd, ex-
cept that this Congress has not voted according to
your views on finance, aud search your scriptures
IN vain for any Divine illumination. Ga the con
trsry have lately heard from the lips of a ven
cradle man, who has been distinguished alike in
the official, the diplomatic and the literary world,
the declaration that Congress had steadily grown
in its average ability; that during the forty years
since he first entered the public service, the num
Der of capaple men, OF large requirements and
great facility in debate, had incl essed beyond all
proportion, both in Senate and House i've are
continually quoting Clay. Calhoun and Webster"
said my accomplished informant without de-
tracing from their greatIess-in MANY respects
eXaggeratcd-they had swarns of adherents In
Congress who knew just enough TO follow them.
No such leadership could be asserted nam
tanned to-day" his Is only the opinion of man
who has been officially and tamlialy associated
with Congress. Ga what personal knowledge do
you, Mr.. uncks, base your unmodiied assump-
ton of the deterioration" Of Congress Do you
find il in Your own dstrctf In the DAYS be-
fore "deerioration" did your Portland send ADLER
and stronger men than the brilliant Mr. Reed, n
new member, who, only last week, made speech
in the House, that for ability discrim nation,
style, effectiveness, and value, would do honor to
tue wisest and most experienced statesman Do
you find it in your own State Have your new
men generally been more quickly successful in
gaining the attention OF the House than Mr.. Pow
ers, more marked for dignity and courtesy aud
intelligence than Mr.. Lindsay Are Mr. Hale
and Mr.. Frye notably IN the front rank of the
representatives of forty five millions of people
are your Senators. Mr.. Hamliu and Nc Blaine
skilled only in the arts OF the bank robber,-sre
these men, term after term, by their corrupt "vil
lsge postmaster claiming down in the interior OF
Maine some brighter man than they, while their
own lives are sedulously devoted to Congressional
deteriora'ian If So let Maine arise 10 her might
and send that superior man to Congress, and give
Washington the luxury Of a genuine surprise.
And while you are about it, Mr. Eincks, be
good as to explain why three of your first repre-
sentatives are new mem How comes it that Mr..
Reed, 10 your own district, was elected over the
incumbent, who, by your own showing had all
the sources and springs of official influence under
his control How comes it that since Jack
sons administration, for time covering the whole
period Of that patronage" to which you trace all
our deterioration" there has been only a single
Congress in which majority of any House of
Representatives has been chosen to the next
house; and that there has been no instance in
which majority OF those members sustaining the
administration in powei-the very ones who are
declared to control the patronage-have been re-
elected :! From the NNVth TO the NLNth Con
gress, the proportion OF Representatives re- elect
ed has been about 40 per cent. That is, of every
five Representatives in given Congress, only two
have been chosen to the succeeding Congress.
Regarding only the party in power, the rat is
much less. That is. more men elected with
out patronage than with it. That is, patronage is
more powerful to put out the men who control"
IT, than II Is TO keep out the men who without
1t. That ls-what every reasoning man knows
that patronage to the representative is an ele
ment of weakness and not of strength, and that
10 the apportionment of the offices whose distrbu
ton he is supposed to influence, he gains ten dis
appointed and active enemies where he secures
one lukewarm or lmprudent friend.
The truth is. Reverend sir, that such claim
over patronage as you declare has ever been made
by Senators or Representatives; that Senators and
Representatives have "A stronger personal interest
than any one else IN good appointments, be-
cause no man suffers so palpably so personally
and so promptly as themselves from bad and
therefore injurious appointments. But here is
where your clerical stream OF detraction merges
into the secular pool of reform, snd-to vary the
hgure-lt is Just as easy to DIVE two horses as
one when both are harnessed in the same team.
ln this letter design only to point out to you
those fallacies, falsities and folles peculiar to
your Fast Day sermon
am not OF those who believe that ministers
should not medde.%th politics Politics is the du-
ty of every American citizen. But if you come
into the arena Of politics, come as a man, armed
and equipped as the law OF reason directs not as
minister lording it Gods heritage. If in
deed YOU can bring to the stress of real life only
such foul, false gospel, then, indeed is better
that You should betake yourself to the friendly
shelter of theological obscurities. Nothing is so
fatal to your claims as to be Ineligible.
Reverend sir, you demand higher ideal for
the requirements and requirements of Congress
men. Have you reflected upon the spectacle YOU
present as a Christian minister al am hoer than
thou Is the spirit that breathes through your Fast
Day sermon upon all those who disagree with
you. SOphisiy and slarder the gospel you
preach. Ignorance and arrogance are your spirit
ual weapons. DO you not know that II Is you and
such as you who are tul ming the tide from our
churches into our music halls DO you not know
that it IS the dragons teeth of detraction and
ialsehood sown by You that are sprngng up all
around US, in armed scotlers strong headed and
defiant II is you and such as you that make the