The Brookhaven ledger. (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1881-06-30

{ the state or the OOyern
ment be rcInanded TO The Republi-
can party BY those who sold out
to that party when in power, and
then sought refuge in the Demo
cratic camp and claimed a bounty
for having deserted their flying
comrades?
The average reader is likely to
regard the evils suggested by the
foregoing questions as merely imag-
inary-as topics inspired by a love
of controversy or a desire for sensa-
ton. They are far from it. They
are real issues which the people of
Mississippi have soon to meet and
deal with practically. In preparing
to meet them, it is not amiss to re-
call to mind the thraldom from
which the State was rescued by the
Democratic party in 1875.
Grooming under a taxation such
as the people of this State had nev-
er known, to support an army of
corrupt office -holders, strangers to
the State and inimicable to our peo-
pie, pensioned in %sinecure positions
created for political use and main
tanned in power by the unqualified
suffrage of an ignorant and super
stitious population just emancipa-
ted from slavery, the people with
one accord rose up against this
combination of ignorance, corrup-
ton and magHgnlty, and thrust it
from power. This was not a tri-
umph of one political party over al
other, due to the skill of adroit
party leaders, or to the preferred
principles of the Democratic party
as announced IN it's platform. So
far as the platforms of the two par
ties were concerned, they were both
about equally meritorious. But the
people Dad learned from a hard ex-
perience that a platform, with the
Republican party, meant nothing.
Its members, save those who held
and hunted office, and who made
platforms for mere forms sake,
could not read. They were inspir-
ed to vote the Republican ticket by
appeals to their prejudlces, and by
the creation of hopes by which a
people blinded by ignorance and
controlled by the most slavish SUI
perstiticn only, could be seduced.
They paid comparatively nothing to
support the Government, and it's
burthens were not felt by them.
The Democratic party was compos :
ed of the taxpayers, the white peo-
pie mainly, of the State, and they
were in the minority. The debt of
the State was fast accommodating.
Her warrants were selling for little
more than half their face value.
The prospect was a gloomy one, and
in this dark hour of our history,
some of our members, who had been
honored by the Democratic party
beyond their merit, went over to the
enemy and trafiicked for office, and
were assigned fat places as a reward
for their perfidy; thus adding their
skill and trickerte to the
of the Republican, party, while they
inflicted no injury on its efficiency
by an infusion of superior morals.
The triumph of 1875, then, was a
triumph of the people over corrup-
ton and anarchy; q triumph of hon
est home government over alien mis-
rule and oppression. This was self
preservation, an object which jrsti-
fed any means necessary to its &C
complishment. The Democratic par
" has been in power a little
more than five years. During this
short period it has reformed every
branch Of the public service. 1t has
reduced the number of officers de-
pendent upon salaries raised by tax
alton about one-half, thus reducing
the judiciary expenses of the State
about seventy thousand dollars per
annum. Her Legislature has clos
ed the leaks to her treasury by
shutting off extravagant appropria-
tions for imaginary services never
performed. The credit of the State
has been restored; her warrants are
payable in cash, and her bonds
command a premium. She has re-
duced taxation from fourteen mills
on the dollar to three mills, and on
this levy she is d~efraying all her
current expenses and rapidly liqui-
dating the debt transmitted to her
by the Republican party. On a
smaller assessed valuation of prop
erty, and a levy of three mills, her
revenue officers paid into her treas
ury in 1880 more money than was
ever received, during any n year
of Republican rule, on any levy
made by the Republicans; excmpli-
flying, not oaiy q superiority of eff
cheney and ldelity in her officers,
but in the increased ability TO pay
taxes under a Democratic Govern
ment. Having improved the gener-
al Legislation Of the State and set
her government to rights, she has,
in her recent legislation, approach
ed the citizen and made it practica.
BILE for him to have many wrongs
~redressed by a cheap and simple
process, which heretofore cost him
an expensive suit in the courts, or