The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1883-06-29
The Republican Party must go.

Inc Starroute defendants were Re-
publicans They were prosecuted by
Republican Administration, tried by a
Republican Judge, and acquitted by a
Republican Jury. But the country has
seen greater crimes not only condoned
but approved by the party which has
held continued possession of the Govern
ment for twenty-five years.
The scandals of Grantism did not
weaken the hold of the President on his
pI,y. The Treasury Ring, the Navy
Ring, the Post Office Ring, the Army
Ring, the Indian Ring, the Land Ring,
the Pension Ring, the Printing Ring, the
Whisky Ring, the Washington Ring,
all tlourished under Grant, and some of
their villairies were traced quite to the
door of the White House itself. Babcock
Was indicted, when private secretary
OF the President, for completely in the
Whisky King, Gen. Grant saved him
tro 4 the pcnitentiary by direct Execu-
tive interference.
Black Friday was one the incidents
of Rep lblican misrule. Credit Mob
lier was an illustration of it. The
Freedman's Bank was robbed and gut
tea by Republican phllanthropists, who
shed tears over the sufferings of the
colored brother and stole the savings
o. his wife and children. Tire San Do
mingo job was whitewashed by con-
spicuous Republicans. Republicans
loo ed the Navy. The Emma Niue
exposure, the corrupt Venezuelan Com
mission, the fraudulent Mexican claims,
the Indian tribes, the speculations in
public loans, and the collusion in the
departments with outside thieves swell
the Republican Record.
When Republican Congress passed
the salary grab and the back pay steal,
they only kept time to the quickstep of
robbery, with Secor Robeson's marine
band furnishing the music And after
indignant public opinion compelled a
retreat from that barefaced scheme of
spoliation, the doubled salary of the
President was preserved as a special
compliment to Grant.
Fhe jobbers, the ringsters, the plum.
derers, the adyenturers, and the thieves
who infested the White House deman-
ded a third term for Grant. The third
term conspiracy failed only because the
party feared a crushing defeatif the ex-
pertinent was tried.
Great corporations are now CONTROL
ing legislation on many matters in
which they are interested They have
corrupted and packed courts, and they
keep Republican sentinels posted along
the avenues leading to all the depart
ments.
Repeated Investigations have shown
the g,eat 'edgers of the Treasury have
been mutilated. the balances involving
many millions of dollars have been
forced, that erasures and interpolated
hgu es exist by thousands, and that
boo.ls of account Ea'e disappeared.
The Presidency was stolen in 1876,
and some of the bene6caries of that
crime are most conspicuous in pretend
ing to deplore the fail dre of justice in
the Star-iou cases.
The party that applauded the Great
Fraud which carried Hayes into the
White House and Sherman into the
Treasury, and appropriated all the pro-
ceeds OF the crime, did not SC. uple,
-our years later, to support a candidate
whose whole pablo career was stained
with jobbery.
The men who commi ted the crimes
in this 'ong catalogue, or their creatures
and representatives, are still in office.
They hold the fort, and resist all intru-
sion. They know how to turn aside
dangerous Investigation, They sound
the alarm at the first approach of the
enemy They mount guard by day
and by night over the records, They
know how the Navy Depai .ment was
fired tour times within few weeks.
There is no possibility of reform, or
of purification of the public service,
while this condition of things exists.
All the essays ID rules of Eaton, Gre
CORY ard Thoman are worth no more
for that purpose than the ehattering of
so many monkeys in menagerie All
other issues sink into insigni6cance
when compared with the magnitude of
this que ,ion, Fir-t of all, the country
must have a charge of party the infu-
sion of new blood into the manage
nent of public affairs, and clean hands
in every branch of the public service.
---Sila .I