Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1880-09-29
THE REPUBLICAN.
-<s'aAy'-
CI.pARETFTD pa
oLEARFIELD, pa
WEDNESDAY MORNING, SEPT. 20, 1850,
rConlinned from frst paqe. |

teriered to shield them from justice,
and to uphold them in the possession
of power TO which they had no man
ner OF legal claim. At this moment
they are proying upon the PROSTATE
people OF the State under the protec'
ton of Federal bayonets. Is that
what you call Furnishing your own
rascals ?
You may answer that the white
people of Louisiana, being conquered,
are rightfully enslaved, according To
the principles planted at Plymouth
and therefore 1t is not for the like Of
them to invoke the protection of law
and Justice will therefore call your
attention to another case to which the
Dahomeian rule does not apply, and in
which the failure of the Republican
party to punish its own raseals has
been equally signal | mean the frauds
of the Union Pacific Railroad Com,
pany and the Credit Mobiier.
You will pardon me, / am sure, for
referring TO this affair. You are the
last man upon whom would make q
personal point and | could not do ii
here if | would try for the oonvic-
ton | have often expressed remains
unchanged, that your integrity was
not stained by such connection as you
had with that business. But we both
know that it was the most gigantic
fraud that the history of modern times
discloses. The magnitude of the in
iquity almost exceeds belief. The en-.
tire amount Of the booty already taken
from the public and slowed away into
the pockets of the perpetrators can
not be less than one hundred million
dollars, and every six months they
make new demand, which is honored
at the Treasury by an additional pay
ment. | am told that q late Attorney
General counts one hundred and eighty
millions as the sum which the United
States will lose in solid cash directly
taken out Of the Treasury. l am not
sure that this calculation is accurate,
but IT cannot be very far wrong, and
it is not equal to one-half of the whole
steal, for it does not include the value
OF the road itself, nor the land grants,
nor the proceeds of the bonds TO which
tho lien Of the United States was post
poned, nor the equipment bonds. As
this swindle was the largest, so il was
one of the most inexcusably base. 1t
was perpetrated at time when the
nation was swamped with debt when
the people were loaded with taxes, and
when the most rigid economy was i'm.
peratlvely required. All circumstances
as well as the direct evidence, show
that it was no sudden act of thought.
less imprudence, but was wilfully,
deliberately and corruptly prearranged
and determined. There is nothing to
mitigate it you cannot defend it even
by waving the bloody shirt.
How did the Republican party pun
ish its own rascals" in this cass Not
a hair on the head Of any rascal was
touched. On the contrary, they were
promoted, honored and advanced the
most guilty Of them are now, as they
were before, the very darlings of the
party. Even that is not the worst of
it. These swindlers are periodically
swelling the colossal proportions of
their crime by taking out of the
Treasury additional millions which
they claim as the "precious results :"
Of their original fraud. They have no
better title to them than q wolf has to
the mutton he slaughters by moon
light. The legal remedy against these
exactions is so plain that Ignorance
alone could hardly miss it, But your
officials have found ont the way not to
do it. They permit the Government
to lie down and be robbed semi.annu.
ally by corporation which Tilden
would long ago have disarmed of its
power, and whose criminal abettors he
would have swept into the penitentiary
by scores.
i repeat that do not blame you as
an active accomplce of this wicked.
ness. But you ought to have come
out from the evil and corrupt fellow
ship as soon as you saw how evil and
corrupt il was. You owed il to your
self, your church and your country to
break off at once from political asso.
Citations capable OF such indefensible
conduct. But your acceptance of the
doctrines planted at Plymouth by the
Yankees blinded your judgment, and
made your conscience inaccessible to
the principles planted at Jerusalem by
the people first called Christians in
Antioch.
You would have us believe that
Hayes, il elected, will reform abuses
and give us pure administration.
Your statement, and that Of other
gentlemen equally reliable, make it
certain that Mr. Hayes bears an ire
proachable character in all his private
relations. ] do not doubt his posses.
SION of that negative honesty which it
is a disgrace to want. ! accord him
those tame household virtues which
entitle him to the respect of bis neigh
bors and the confidence Of his family !;
but he can no more stem the torrent of
Republican corruption than he can
swim against the rapids of Niagara.
His whole history shows that he would
not even make an effort to do so. He
has been most happily called "a man
Of tried subserviency.".
A reformer in these times must be
made Of stern material. He must have
no connections with, and be under no
obligation to, the authors of the abuses
which need reform. Above all things,
he must not have consented expressly
or implicitly to the commission of the
public wrongs which his duties as re.
former would require him to punish.
When he comes to oppose wickedness
in high places the consciousness that
he himself is in pdri delicto will mako
a strong man as neryeless as infancy,
Speaking of reconstruction, and sec.
ing your broad accusations of treason,
! am tempted to ask If you are sure
that you yourself and your associates
did not commit that crime.
In March, 1867, the then existing
Government the Union was supreme
all over the country, and every State
had separate Government of its own
for the administration Of domestic con.
Germs. The Government was entitled
then, if it ever was, to the universal
obedience Of all citizens, and you, its
officers, had taken a special oath or