Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-11-06

man, but you all remember what followed,
Bills precipitate fight to Canada. and
your representative in Congress was roam
ng among the deserted fields of the Cana
das, hiding from the pursuit OF the officers
of your government.
WE had AFTER THAT
the campaign in which Mr.. Washburn was
a candidate against myself. And now I
will ask DR.. Ames to be kind enough to
read two or three passages from the re-
port of the committee of election of the
congress of the United States, and would
call your attention to the fact that these
deductions are all based upon known tes-
timony and this report was signed by the
majority of the committee. For, although,
as I honestly believe, he went
and bought that committee.
Colonel Crooks-That is true
Although honestly believe he bought
in the chairman of the committee. never
theless, those men, those very men, were
compelled by the overwhelming nature of
the testimony to assent to the proposition
of this report and to agree that Mr.. Wash
burn should be expelled from congress.
Now, it is very short and I will ask my
friend to read one or two passages.
Mr.. Ames arose and being greeted with
loud cheers read from the report above
mentioned as follows:
1.-The first question which they considered was
the question of bribery, They find that bribery
was committed OF behalf of the sitting member,
Mr.. Washburn, by his friends, by members of
his district committee, and by personal, polite
| al, and business agents; that this bribery was
mt Offh a RI fr,
any one town or county, but that it extended
| throughout region of country nearly four hun
| dred miles long and one hundred miles wide:
| and they further find that in many cases the
bribery has been traced home directly to Mr..
Washburn himself
Mr.. Donneliy-Here are all the different
cases, in all some three or four hundred
cases, where
| THE COMMITTEE FOUND BRIBERY
| had been committed and was proved.
Dr.. Ames then read from the report the
following passage:
| "Under these circumstances, when it is shown
that in an election over 800 cases of bribery and
attempted bribery are proven, the presumption
is not violent that FOX every case that was by
| accident the indiscretion of the parties
brought to the Light, there were three others that
were never revealed. The records of the con-
tested election cases in congress will be searched
in vain for parallel to this case. 1t shows
| that the people of this congressional district
were debauched to the last degree. The witness
es in many Cases defend the practice OF buying
| up voters to forego their principles. The par
1 ties who received the brides IN many instan-
ces boosted to their neighbors of the money they
had received, and seemed to be proud of the
| high price at which they had sold themselves,
and the sitting member did not think it at all
4 N tn call fn lpOv ayrlo in
away this overwhelming mass of corruption.
Nothing could testify more strongly to the de-
generacy Of the age and the depths to which
popular suffrage has fallen than the revelations
made in this extraordinary case.''
| In Minneapolis the whole atmosphere WIS
ciouded with bribery. The evidence shows that
| large sums of money, many thousands of dollars
| had been expended for corrupt purposes. A
startling revolution in the political feelings of
| the voters was accomplished on the eve of the
election and all the testimony il the case lrdi-
| Gates that this was brought about by bribery and
| Intimidation. There was 10 attempt on the part
of the sitting member to account for this extra
ordinary revolution or to answer the testimony
! showing bribery.
The speaker proceeded: shall not take
up your time with reading farther from
this report, but there it stands.
YOUR MEMBER OF CONGRESS.
branded by the majority Of the committe e
of elections with this statement and with
the resolution that he be expelled from the
house. Now, my friends, he comes back
to you for reelection and he comes back
to you with such record as have pointed
out.
Let me call your attention to the RESULTS
that must follow from this. Our politics
have become, to a large extent, more or
less means for the distribution of money.
I might almost say for the distribu-
ton of overcoats. Where ever I
go in the state there
exists, more or less, this condition of
things. In the Fifth district it has become
absolutely shameless and the result will
i, be, my friends, in time, that our institu-
| tions must disappear in this overwhelming
sea of corruption. 1t is covering the
whole land. It is taking out the moral
character of the people, and it will termi-
nate, as. it terminated in the old Roman
times when the armies who had control of
the country put up the Office of emperor
to the highest bidder. It will be but lit
tie while, my friends, when this awful brib-
cry, scarcely covered with the mantel of
shame--it will be little time before the
| candidate will advertise in the newspapers
SO many thousand men wanted to work
at the election, SO many thousand men
wanted with their teams to bring out the
voters and all the other fnesse guises in
which this rascality covers itself.
I say to you, my friends. that the Amer
lean republic was never in such terrible
danger of destruction when Lees legions
were within sight Of the grand old capitol
| and the thunder of their mighty guns
! could be heard within the senate chamber
as those institutions are to-day. Why?
Because the people, more or less, can
understand and can appreciate an armed
| rebellion, they know what the cannon and
| the bayonet means. But here is a some
thing that spreads over Us like great
honey comb, rotting, mining and destroy
ing the moral structure of the people,
and, which, if the republic is
to endure, it must under
mine from its foun 1atiors, Applause
because. it follows as naturally as Gle
night follows day, that a man that cor
rupts the people will steal back to get tho
money he expended, Applause and then
consider these increasing appropriations
which my friend, Gen. bragg, referred to,
which rose from $144.0OO,O0o in-1S7S to
$685., OOO, 900 in the last congress.
Well. now let me- turu one or two points