Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1884-07-10

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The time was when the platform O.
the Democratic party was as broad al
the continent, and as well defined as thu
alphabet. For so years it bore on 1t.
crest in emblaZoned characters as it;
rallying cry strict construction, fret
trade and state rights, but in this cam
paign it has no policy to present, no leg
islation to suggest, no improvement L
propose. The platform on which i
hopes to win is-"Turn the raScalS out
and let us put in honest Democrats" Ii
regard to the leading questions of the
day it is like the Egyptian sphinx, deaf
dumb and blind. not nearly SO loqua
cious as Balaam's ass. During the wal
it was the party of opposition; it oppos
I'd every step taken to suppress the re-
bellion and restore the Union. Since
the war it has been simply party OF
At present it stands before
the country and the world as the con-
sort of wiekedness and as an impede
ment to legislation. To illustrate the
masterly inactivity and total depravity
of this party desire to show its con-
nection with some of the most impor
tant measures before the present cen-
gress.
FEDERAL AID TO EDUCATION.
The recent Chicago convention con-
an emphatic declaration in
favor of the government making an APP
to remove the llliteracy
which endangers the life of the republic
and the liberty of our people. Senators
md tat hn hnGIf.Ifn IN
say that this is the most important
measure before the 4Sth congress, and
some of them say that it is the most
measure that has been before
any congress since the war. Congress
has been memorialized 10y legislatures
and petitioned by thousands and tens of
thousands of cur people to pass this
measure. Only last week l received
from Judge Tourgee, of New York, a
bound volume containing the names and
postoffice addresses of five thousand
men pleading for the passage of this
measure. The South, where nineteen
tweDtieths of the seven millions of our
cOlored people reside, to whom the bulk
Of this money would be paid, is clamOr-
ous for the passage of an educational
bill. A national convention, held at
KY, in September last, call
ed at the instance of the governor of
that state, appointed a commission of
twelve eminent men to secure the me-
legislation. Five of these were
from the North and seven from the
South, and yet the bill they prepared
was neglected by the Democratic mem
Ders of the Educational committee be-
cause it coDfiIcted with their notions of
state rights, and the committee reported
A bill that took from the government all
control of the money which it proposed
10 give, denying to the government the
right to insist that the recipients of the
money should give security that it
should not be embezzled or stolen. Be-
ing a member of this committee / made
, minority report, protesting against the
committee bill, and recommending the
plan of the. commission, and we have
been trying for several months to have
Jhe question considered, but Demo
cratic House refuses. More than six
millions of our people are unable to
read or write; more than one fourth of
The population of the fifteen Southern
States are unable to write their names !;
The balance of power in the electoral
college is held by the illiterates; the
treasury is overlooking with money, and
yet this parry of obstruction stands in
The way Of the consideration of this
important measure.
The Blair Educational bill was passed
by the Senate and came to the House,
and its friends have pleaded for its pas
sage, but it lies on the speakers table
Illiteracy is on the increase
and yet no steps can be taken to remove
it because some Democrats do not think
such bill is constitutional, while 9th
ers do think the colored race should be
educated at all.
POLYGAMY IN UTAH.
l wish to call the attention to apoth-
Or important matter which is also. one
Of the planks of the Chicago platform,
and to show you how it is treated by the
Democratic House, which has been in
session seven months without passing
4 single great measure. The course now
pursued 10y the Mormons, has leo to
the conclusion that, if all power is not
at once wrested from the diSloyal Nor
mons of Utah, we will in few years at
most be involved in another bloody civ
il war. The population of Utah is now
100000, and it is increasing as fast as
and immigration can accom-
plish the result. Mormon proselytes
are coming from Ill parts of the world
by the hundred and Thousand. Two
ship loads, 500 in each ship, landed in
New Yoak within few weeks. Every
office in Utah, except the few Federal
appointees, is held by Mormon. Eve
ry election is dictated by the head of
the church. George @. Cannon, the real
Mormon leader, can sit in his Office and
dictate the elections in all the region
between the Rocky Mountains and the
Pacific ocean, except Oregon and Califor-
mia, so as to have absolute control, as in
Utah, or the balance of power as in
Idaho, region as large as the u S
east of the Mississippi river. Judge
Goodwin, of Salt Lake City, who as
sures me that this statement is true
gives it as his opinion, that few years
delay will involve the country in an ex-
haustive civil war.
The iron grip of the Mormon church
is fast taking hold Of the fertile valleys
and gold producing mountains of the
great West, and the keys of her kingdom
are fast unlocking the doorway of the
great treasures of that wealth+yieldine
country. The Mormon system, with its
despotic priesthood, and religious fanat-
acism, will sooD control amillion people
aHd set at defiance, as is doing now, all
lawful authority. 1t is now the oper
and defiant enemy of the government
claiming to have authority from on higl
to ignore the laws of the general gov
ernmeBt, to teach its own heresies, tc
govern its own people and to flaunt in
the faces of the officers of the govern
ment, their defiance and arrogance. The
Mormon church is secret, oath-bound
malevolent hierarchy, pretended theo
cratic union of church and state: il
claims to be higher than the constitution
of the United States, and in fact has
nothing of the reality of republican
form of government about it. The noun
tain meadow massacre, the fearful prac
ticaS of what fhav call shlood otona,oo,t