The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1882-10-12
MODERN POLITICS.
Rev. Talmage Goes for POlitica
Corruption.
ats Foul Smelling carcasses ROttlng
Every Public Place, Filling the Land
With all UncIeanuess.


TExT-Jeremiah xix, 8: a"This piece
shall no more be called TOphet, nor the
Valley Of the Son of HinnOm, but the
Valley of Slaughter"
This was Gehenna lin the suburbs Of
Jerusalem, a place where the earcasses
of beasts were cast, and the Offal of the
city. Perpetual fires were burning there
to hinder 1t from breeding pesiilence.
1t was a God fOrsaken spot, and has. by
religious writer's and speakers of all
ages, been used as a symbol of perditiOn.,
1 shall use 1t as a symbol OF modern
politics. But instead of being in the
Suburbs. this Gehenna is now in the
center of all our towns and cities. Its
carcasses rot on the steps Of city halls,
and its fires siss, and simmer, and
crackle through the long night of pOliti-
cal corruption, and those who have seen
the bodies, the minds and souls of men
going down under its pestiferOus inhu-
enee can see that like the Valley of
HinnOm, spoken of in the text, it may
well be called the Valley of Slaughter.
The present degradation of State and
national politics is appalling. | speak
without any allegiance to any political
party. l have purpOsely keep myself
aloOf from any party organization that
might, as a religious teacher, be inde-
pendent in moral discussion of each, or
both of them. BY that / do not mean
that sit ON the fence in matters of poll
ties, for have always voted since COM
in @ of age, except when, through change
of residence or necessitated absence at
the time of registration, l had no right
to vote. But have never voted the en-
tire ticket of either party. A. man be-
Titles himself in my estimation when he
says he always votes the entire ticket.
IA l., 4, horr
| of apples and bOasted that he ate them
all, not only the good ones. but the worm
eaten and the gnarled and the rotten.
We have had in the different States dur
| ing our remembrance the supremacy of
| both parties, and there has been grad
ual descent into lower depths of cOrrup-
| ton. Ever and anon the party of power
promises, If it gets in, a great reform.
The party out goes into power, and the
only difference Is new roll OF officers.
We hear a great crash! What is the
matter nOwP Some Republican or Demo-
cratic machine is broken. We say,
THANK God for the demoralizatiOnP
But by the time the next election arrives
new machine has taken it's place, one
of larger crank and stronger wheel and
wider hopper. We have been killing
bosses for the last fifteen years, and we
never had so many bosses as to-day.
There are many young men now start
ing out for the performance Of their
civic and public duties, and / want them
before they enter the arena to under
stand some of the wild beasts they will
have to fight; or, to come back to the
| figure suggested by my text, l want
them to come forth with shovel and
plOw to turn under the carcasses of the
awful Gehenna Of modern politics.
r,ixyo ,op,a fIInofrofiOno Of tho
debasement, drawn mostly from the past
year.
The purity Of American politics has
never been anything to boast of. 1t has
been long scene of seurrility and de-
| famatiOn. Aaron Burr, the debauchee
| came near being the President of the
United States. He had as many votes as
Thomas Jefferson, the patriot. The vote
| being tied the election was thrown into
| Congress, and then Jefferson beat him
by only one vote. In 1898, in the great
American Congress, Lyon spat in Girls
wOld's face; then Griswold struck Lyon
with hickory stick, and Lyon seized
the tOngs, and the affair ended by the
two combatants rolling on the floor in
the National Legislature in fight,
from which other members had to extri-
cate them. On the Inauguration of
Thomas Jefferson as President the Cen
tinel, Of Boston, published long Obitu
ary of the American nation, saying:
Monumental Inscription: Yesterday
expired, deeply regretted by millions of
grateful Americans, and by all good men
the Federal Administration of the Gov
ernment of the United States; aged
twelve years. AS one tribute of graft
tude in these times, this monument of
the talents and services of the deceased
is raised by the Centinel." President
Martin Van Buren was always PICTORIAL
lied as rat. Horace Greeley was mauled
into his grave. The election campaign
document against Andrew jackson was
q picture of ten or twenty coffins, in al
lusiOn to the deserters whom he had
ordered shot. Last year people seemed
surprised at the spirit of assassination
in high places. But it tried to shoot
President Jackson on his way from the
funeral of a Congressman, and would
have succeeded but for the fact that his
assailant was struck to the floor. 1t at
tempted to poison President Buchanan
at the National Hotel the day before his
Inauguration. So that we ought not to
have been so very much surprised at the
successful assaSSinatiOnOf two Of the fol-
lowing Chief Magistrates. In 1882 Hon.
Mr.. Houston, of Texas, bludgeoned Hon.
for some derOgatory remarks, and the
President of the United States approved
of the assault by saying: "AfteF few
more examples of the same kind mem,
bers of Congress will, perhaps, learn to
keep civil tongues in their heads" The
two political parties of thirty years ago
perished through corruption. The old
Whig party went out of existence. II
compounded with iniquity and was hung
by the neck until dead. The old Demo-
cratic party went out of power, as the
ablest member of the present Democratic
party in our city said in an editorial
last Monday, because "it happened to
the Democracy as to all political organ
izatiOns, that long continuance in Office
spread abuses for which no cure could
be obtained short of turning the party
out of Office" 1t was the corruption OF
these two parties that killed them.
But the last year, from October, 1881,
to October, 1882, seems to me to have
been the hlackest year Of American poll
tics. give few Illustrations: First,
the Yorktown carOusal. On the 10Th of
October, 1881, the British forces under
CORVALLIS, surrendered to Washington,
and the long agony ofOuF Revolutionary
fathers was ended. Last October the
centennial was to be celebrated. The
descendants of eminent foreigners who
had assisted us in Ghe achieving of