The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1880-11-24

to destroy It in his eight years of war. The
result he brought about is more terrible
than violent ending; for il is that decay
which not only proceeds death, but sickens
one of the living. and 50 fetches republic
an form of goyernmentintoc contempt.
You know that from the first to the last
hour of his administration he was on the
make, to use avulgar but expressive phrase;
and the associate of prostitutes and the
patron of thieves, he made the Executive
Mansion a resort of plunderers-the eivil
service so rotten that Republicanism became
a by-word of reproach and shame to the civ
ilized world, while his constitutional adj
visers were men upon whom he held lien
in common with the penitentiary.
Now don't frown and turn away. Let us,
before you are lost to a knowledge of truth
through an Inauguration that will surround
you thousand deep with sycophantic liars
indulge, as We have so often in the past, the
luxury of expressing our convictions.
1t was your Committee that investigated
that National shame called Black Friday
wherein Fisk, Gould and Grant sought
through use of the National Treasury, to
enrich themselves at the expense of honest
men.
1t is not my purpose to recall the details
of that infamy The chief criminal was
| tracked to the threshold of the Executive
Mansion, and your Committee passed a res
olutiOn calling upon the President to appear
before the Committee and defend himself
from the damning proof that made him the
chief conspirator.
The night of the day that resolution was
passed you called with it upon the Presi-
dent. 1t was after midnight before you left
the White House, amazed and sick at heart,
and at your suggestion, that very day, the
resolution was revoked.
need not say that you and ! know why
that resolution was so suddenly abandoned
The fact that under the circumstances it
was revoked tells the whole story. The very
Democrats of the Committee shrunk from
threatened exposure.
The conspirators who put this man to the
front with this evil design have seized upon
your campaign as they purpose to seize upon
your administration. Underth the prodigious
noise they have made they claim the merit
of your election. and in electing you they
nominate Grant for his third term, and thus
make you our last President
If you are weak enough to be thus hood
winked and used, you will justify all that
your deadliest enemies have asserted against
your character and of your past career. If
you possess the courage you will have the
opportunity. The power given a man as
Presii dent is immense. There is no mon
arch in Europe endowed with the irresponsi-
BILE exercise of the sovereign will with which
our President is clothed. The fathers
feared the people, and while they secured fire.
quente returns of power to its source, they
made that power in the Executive so great
that the Office itselfis despotic. To this the
abuse of our civil service, that makes of the
offices only rewards for political effort, and
the official agents dependent retainers, not
OF party, but of party leaders, has aug
mented the power of the President until he
can build up or destroy, if he so wills, indie
pendent of the party itself that gave him the
office.
BY depriving these conspirators against
the peace and dignity of the United States
of political patronage you doom them to
immediate death They are made up of
on politics. would have starved in any other
pursuit Shut off the office and they die.
President Hayes could have killed off Conk-
ling the first year of his Administration
If he had possessed the nerve. 1t will not
do to fight these men with an open hand.
Hayes parleyed and palavered and we have
before us the ludicrous result of the man
disposseSsed of a subordinate Office and con-
demned by the Senate now called upon by
a vote of the people to preside over the
Senate.
Were you really great man, did you
possess the moral courage equal to your in
tellect. l should expect YOU AZ President to
kill off the faction that elected you. As
party made up of measures without prin-
ciples, and each measure shaped TO benefit
some one class at the expense of the indus
trious many, in its jealous creed it shuts us
out from the intellectual progress of the
world; and while in Europe statesmen are
discussing grave questions of political
economy, and the people are clearing away
such barbarism tariffs, land tenures, civil
service reform and corporated mOnopolies,
We are shouting ourselves hoarse over politi
cal differences 10 man can define, while the
combined few are accommodating property
through processes scarcely one remove from
open theft. The Republican party is dead
weight on and hindrance the conscience
and intellect of the people. 1t is as void of
craftsmanship as faction in Mexico or
mob in England. 1t ought to be killed
But you are not a great man. You read
in your library of heroic achievements; your
soul swells over poetic expression; you are
full of thought and impulse, and all ends in
a support of men You despise and party
with which you have nothing in common.
Wishing you all health hap; mess and
prosperity, l remain,
Yours sincerely,
DOM PIATT.
Mac-o-chee, November 10, 1880.