The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1883-10-06


you see the corruption and fraud that
has been practiced upon the people,
when you see all these elements Of cor
ruptiOn In these sovereign creatures of
the Government, this grasping of the
railroad mOnOpOlists, tell you the time
has come when the. Democratic party
must rise in its strength and overthrow
them. A bill known as the Thurman
bill was introduced, fixing deposit of
moneys from time to time from the earn
ings of these roads. what at the time
when due as compound interest, will
amount to $170,OO0,0O0 of money. That
was step in the right direction, and 1
am glad to have the honor of carrying 1t
through the House of Representatives.
lApplause. But there are over 100000
900 of acres of the public land now held
by railroad grants, on which not one
inch of work has been done in further
ance of the grant or the fulilmeDts
thereof, and when we endeaVOred in the
last Congress to bring a vote upon it
even an adverse report made-it is al
ways packed-it was packed in this
COngreSs-and submit it to the House
when | raised the point of order that we
had right to vote on 1t, so as to save
this question, and let it be presented to
the people of this country, your Ohio
Republican Speaker ruled it out of or
Il
from the point Of order, we made a re-
cord on this, gentlemen, and that record
remains to the everlasting cOndemna-
tiOn of a list of jObbers sustained by the
Republican Representatives. Applause
Why, sirs, by the condition of these
land grants they were to carry muni
tiOns of war for our armies and the
mails free and without compensation for
this. They stood themselves up as SOW
N ha
ent sovereign powers. Why, such a con-
ditiOn of things were never known be-
fore in any land, where men have come,
in twenty-five years, to be worth from
$5,0OO,00O to $I00,000,000, and who, by
means of their wealth, have not only
sOiled the ermine of our supreme bench,
not only placed their creatures in the
United States as Senators, not only
hired the best legal talent in the land
to subsidize the members, but they go
farther; they come with their money and
corrupt the Legislatures of other States,
and even the very sanctity of public law
and public justice. | defy the people
of this country to touch them even with
the edge of the law. 1t is about time,
as Judge Black said not long ago, that
these great corporate franchises were
restricted; for, he said. if the people
don't throttle them, 50,0O0,000 of people
same old story.
THE USES OF A TREASURY SURPLUS.
The people must be vigilant of their
own rights, not only as to lands and
franchises, but as to their money in the
Treasury. Why, did you ever hear of a
Government on the face of the earth
that could run so long as this adminis-
tTatiOn has run without becoming cor
Tupt If they have kept a surplus of al
most 500000O0 in the Treasury Why
so much surplus at WashingtOnp You
don't make surplus in your county
Treasury, nor in your State Treasury.
Then why this large surplus at Wash
ingtOn? 1t is cOrTupting thing. 1t is
a temptation. People go in and make
raids that never were equaled by John
Morgan and his men. They go right
through the Treasury when money is so
plenty. Oh, for the days of old General
jackson once more. lApplause.l The old
hero said that the best place for money,
which was more than necessary to carry
on a frugal Government, was not in the
Treasury, but in the pockets of the peO-
pie, for then thieves could not get i'll and
steal it. have no epithet that correctly
expresses this state of affairs. can't
express it unless l use very harsh Ian
guage. For, as 1 said in the country to-
day, many of us Congressman sat down
one day to find an expression for the
ruinOus temptation and cOrrupting ten
denotes Of a large surplus in the Treas.
ury. Some Of the members standing
around me tried it by writing it over
with us, and l told them l thought it
had all been expressed once in Ohio by
old Governor Allen better than we could
possibly do it again, when he said thai
yeu might as well try to run an honest
Government with an OVERLOOKING Treas
ury as to run powder house in hell. 1t
can't be done. Applause. There will be
an eruption somewhere. 1t is true Mr..
Arthur suggested that the taxes should
be reduced to some extent, that we
should take off some of the tariff and
that we should remodel the system Of
internal revenue-that the temptation
is too great. But did the Republican
Congress do itP How did they do IL?
The surplus was about $143,OOO,OOO in
1881; $133, 100000, last year; this year, as
l am assured, at least 800, 100000. True
they did take off some of the taxes; they
took off the tax on matches, God bless
'em. Laughter and applause. They
took it off of patent medicines, cOrdials,
soothing syrups and things of that kind.
Laughter. And they were careful to
take the tax off bank deposits, for there
is where they come to deposit their
gains; they took some off tobacco and
some off Of spirits, but the great bulk
of the internal revenue remains as it
was.
MONEY IN ELECTIONS.
II there is one thing that is more de-
spicable in public life than another, it
is a great party of moral ideas who have
to use such mercenary modes for carry
ing elections. / hope and trust that
the old party, with its, Lincoln, its
Chase, it's Tod, it's Blair, its Seward, and
Sumner, and men of that stamp, who
started the great idea of abOli
tiOn of slavery in their first platform
that they would keep the lights of the
State inViolable, and who said that the
party was only a temporary expedient,
those men are or rather were, the best
men of the Republican party, for the
men have named have gone to their
reward long since. We have some of
the old Republicans still remaining,
like General Palmer and Lyman TTum-
bull, of Illinois, Slocum, of New York,
and others, but they are not in the old
sanctuary, but are found in the Odor of
sanctity in the bosom Of the Democratic
church. [Applause.] One thing will
saw hafOra p0nalnda and that ia this.