Weekly Chillicothe crisis. (Chillicothe, Livingston Co., Mo.) 1878-19??, 1881-06-02
Shall the Republic Fallt TO Pieces From
Inward Rot2

| lUWdIu nOl
h. National View.
Can it he possible that history shall
be SO permitted to repeat itself in this
America that the republic shall fall TO
pieces from inward rot? DO we mean
to let history rctell the story told of
Carthageuia, of Greece, of Rome, of
every former republic? Have we, rs
Americans, in the first century of our
lives, reached that elimination of cor
ruptiOn which makes dissolution inev-
liable?
1t is idle TO talk wholly of parties, to
define the extent of the disease or
limit its results to any one party. The
corruption, the venality, the barter and
sale runs throughout the nation rioting
like a fever in the blood Neither mar
cOtic nor cooling lotion can stay its
ravage the waters of ALBANIA and of
Pharpar will not avail to wash the
nation clean. 1t is in the people, in
their mad desire fol luxury, in their
growing disgust for labor, in their con-
tempt for regularity, in their vitiated
appetites, in their stimulated tastes
which makes all things clean insipid-
it is In the effeminacy of men and the
lush Overgr0wth of women; it is in the
warped and drugged children, it is in
the precOcity of youth, it is in the
badness and falsehOOd of theories, it
is in the INSCRIPTIONS hearts of Il gen.
Grafton mad with lust for all that is
strange and forbidden. smother it as
you may, deny it as you may, the world
at large and the world of America has
run mad with license.
Corruption in public life is the out
come of corruption in private life.
Men and women trained to look with
unilinching eyes and unblushing faces
upon harlotry, suicide, adultery, muir
der; upon jewelled women who sweep
in.o privileged places with the price of
their sale upon them; men who are
sought by cormOrant and knelt to by
sycOphant industry, who sell the hos
pitality Of their houses, whose family
ties are made snares for their uses
who deal in the flesh of the poor as the
slave dealer sells his ware to the high
est bidder are not the men and women
to evolve clean government? A
people the streets of whose cities
reck with crimes, committed without
hndrance and read without horror; a
people whose daughters, are snatched
from their home and made a pollution,
whose sons are veritablc beasts seeking
something to devOur; country with
blood crying from every foot Of its
ground for retributiOn, what can it
hope for but the death of all that was
noble, and the rcvcning life Of all that
makes Il world Il hell? Read the col
umns of daily papers and say if these
words are oycrdrawn; look upon the
streets and say if we have named a
thing that does not exist. We are Il
people falling as swift as did the an
gels that fell from heaven; and while
we 60 on, witnessing, yet never stop
ping these things, we have no right to
demand either honesty in Office or pro-
bity in power.
Every man and woman who in their
own lives do protest againts all these,
are guilty Of the public dislonor and
the private downfall of the whole.
The people wholaugh at sharp practice,
and applaud duplicity, deserve to feel
their cords tighten about themselves.
Amcricr has demanded smart men and
elected them TO Office, ,smartncSS, the thing
that can compass chicmcry, can meet
cheating for cheating has brought them
what? Public Office without honor,
and nation without distinction. In
telligcnce without purity sinks to the
level Of INSCRIPTIONS trickcry; and
long since purity was left out of the
demand made upon officials. America
has intelligent men; brilliant men
magnetic men; powerful men. Alas,
where are the good men? There is
no law Surcr than the law of cOmpcn-
sation; none more eXacting than the
law of rctributiOn. America has turn |
ed from the first, she is reaping the
fruits of the last, and retributivc JUS
ticc is the power which alone can save
her. And it is the worst punishment
of that justice that the innocent in in
tent must suffer with the guilty, 1t is
our pleasure to know that there are
wide portions of our country which
would be and remain clean if they
could. 1t is our sorrow to know that
even these uphold guilt by II passive
acquiesccnce, and will become demor-
allied by like passive acceptance.
Yet, in these are our hope. Rouse
men, who do not love corruption, and
send it fleeing from as your yet UNI
stained doors.