The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1881-04-28

{ Ion or contrary 10 puOi4C tAtOA a
ty, and should be denounced by every faI
minded and right-thinking man. Where ac'
alition is made simply for power, for ofhe
without community or mutually of oplnlo
il verges upon a corrupt coalition, If II Is NJ
i. actually one When the younger Pitt stoo
n upon the floor of the House of Common
q and denounced the coalition between Lor
: North and Charles James Fox as a damns
> | bic and incestuos union, and said 'In tn
r name of the people of Great Britain, fol-
= bid the banns," the whole civilized worl
+ said famen'' TO that denunciation and th
, people ofGreat Bratian did forbid the bann
| They stamped that damnable and incestnou
union under their feet. North and Fo
went into retirement, and Pitt assumed til
+ control of the government OF all the states
Z men, in my judgment, whose names emblaZ
/ on with glory the pages of English history
+ the name of Charles James Fox Is the nrsf
But he, advocate of human rights hero o
the truth, orator. statesman and soldier il
civil warfare, ever at the front, even he, Wit
his great name and talents was strickeI
down by that fair-minded instinct for con
sistency and fair play which courses in the
blood of all AnglO-Saxon people.
In our own political history a suspicion
was raised in regard to that great common
er, Henry Clay, and Adams. OF that coali
ton, denounced by John Randolph, of Roam
a coalition in my judgment never based up
on any corrupt motive, the bare suspicion
terminated the public career of one man and
haunted the death-bed of another.
Mr. President, what is this coalition? l.
there any mutually of opinion or principle
between the Republican party and the Sena-
tor from Virginia? Where is it :? Does
the Republican party in the Senate cham
Der sympathlZe with the opinions of the
Senator from Virginia in regard to read
justing the State debt of that Common
wealth When did the Republican party,
the great party of public credit and Nation
| al faith, the party that says "an honest dol
lar for an honest days work, !" the party that
says mo discount in the way of silver or
| greenbacks or legal tenders but gold
did that party become the ally, the sympa-
| thizer, with gentlemen who propose not to
| repudiate but to eliminate portion oftheir
State debt? Eliminate ;" good word, a
word very much like occupy" which Doll
| Tearsheet said "was an excellent good word
| before it was f1l-sorted ;" good word but
"most damnably abused" Eliminate por-
tion of the State debt.
Sir, the Senators on the other side stand
here and assail the Southern States, they
call them the solid Democratic South and
the repudiating South, and assuming that
we are so ignorant that we know not the
point to Republican community that has
engaged in Reputation. point the Senator
to FIVE hundred. The records of the federal
courts are full all over the Northwest of
suits on repudiated municipal obligations.
l speak of it the more freely because my
own State has $50, 100000 or more of such
bonds outstanding. Unjust as they are,
unjust as the bonds the thieving carpet bag
governments put upon the people of the
South iniu npholtr hrop6o1
with fraud and corruption all over as is the
history of this bonded indebtedness in the
State of Missouri, it came from the Repub>
lican party; it came in that dark era of
prescription and Acknowledgement when the
intelligence and the property of the State
stood by the side of the ballot-box and saw
the pauperism, the ignorance, the fraud, the
vice, the iniquity of the State taking
possession of her revenues and squandering
them for their own party purposes. For
five years | stood an unwilling but not dis
interested spectator and saw my property
voted away by irresponsible vagabonds. |
saw ministers of the gospel driven from the
pulpit and forbidden to teach the religion
of Christ; teachers expelled from the
schools; even those blessed women, the
Sisters of Charity, who know no nationali
ty or color or cline or sex in the admins
tration of relief, were forbidden to go to
the bedside of the dying. For five long
years this was done in the name of Repub-
licanism.
| saw men who had carried their muskets
in the war Of 1912, who had never even
sympathized with the South in her revolt |
against the Union, who came on their
lettering limbs to the polls to put in their |
ballots in regard to the destiny of the land |
for the mastery of which they had fought |
against the Indians and the wild beasts, |
when with rifle in one hand and pillow in |
the other they had blazed the pathway of |
Civilizations saw those men driven away |
in the name of Republicanism All this |
was done under the Drake Constitution |
the author of which lately figured in the |
papers of this city a most orthodox |
Christian gentleman who proposed to drive |
a clergyman from the ministry because he |
had married Catholic woman.
In Missouri the county courts in those days |
were bought and sold like sheep in the sham
bles. We who owned the property in the State
were forced to be silent. Inscriptions mill
tia roamed through the borders of Missouri |
pistol in hand, and whenever man declared |
himself a Democrat he was disloyal to the
Union and DISTINGUISHED at once. Why, |
sir, in a county ad jacent to the one in which |
lived three judges of the county court, |
that tribunal and having the /
power to issue bonds, issued 100000 of
fraudulent bonds at the dead hour of midi
night, and they were thrown upon Wall |
street and there sold to innocent purchasers
for valuable consideration! One of the
county court judges, shining and leading
member of an orthodox church, being at
tackled by that dread disease, typhoid fever,
as his feet touched the cold waters of the
Jordan of death, his conscience awakened, |
and he sent for the minister Of his church. |
With his relatives around him, weeping
and sorrowiug friends, he con-
fessed that in a certain stable at certain
hour he got $4,000 from a certain leading
for issuing those bonds. That
confession was made at IL O'Clock at night. |
At 8 o'clock in the morning the crisis of
the disease came and to the wonder of the
he recovered. He Immediately
swore that his confession was the raving of
delirium! He was reelected by the Re
publican party and was vindicated at the
polls The disfranchised Democracy pro-
ceeded to pay the bonds under the mandate
of the Federal tribunal. My friend from
North Carolina (Mr. vance, suggested that
he could be received with Riddleberger. He
would have been received by the Repu5li,,
can party of this Senate with avidity and |
gulped down without single word of pro-
test or question.
One hundred million dollars of such Sc
curiGies were repudiated in those States
and yet the Senator from Ohio tells US that |
no Republican community was ever known
to repudiate any obligation at all l have
no doubt many of the bonds repudiated are
fraudulent, but so were the bonds of the /
Southern States, and all l ask is that even
handed justice may be done to both sec
tions.
But, Mr. President, the great, overwhelm-
ing, stupendous argument Of gentlemen on
the other side in favor Of this coalition, a
coalition without congeniality of principle
or opinion, is an honest ballot and fair
count They can swallow Reputation, they
can take down elimination, they can lunch
on re-adjustment, if you will just give them
a fair ballot and an honest count Now, Mr..
President, let us look at that for a moment.
If there was one issue in the last presidential
election which overshadowed all others, it
was 'the solid South" the tissue-ballot, the