The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1885-06-03
For the Farmer and Mechanic
The Robbing Of the People.

1t is pitiable, ,humiliating, slckening, to
hear that the chosen and trusted repre-
sentives of one OF the greatest and
wealthiest nations on earth, are accused
of petty larceny OF the following kind !:
That the session (of Congress) is ebb-
ing fast, is probably as well indicated by
the fact that on Fridays, when the mem
bers, scatter to their homes, each of
them may be seen carrying along, with
his regulation grip sack, brown paper
bundle, which contains what the mem
bers themselves facetiously style
''plunder; this plunder consisting o.
public documents, hand-books, stu
tionerv. ETC.. etc.,-indeed any little
loot which may be lying around loose
in the legislative halls and the va
rious departments. The other reports
and documents which the members are
lawfully entitled to, are shipped, freight
free. at the end of the session to their
homes. .'-(Phila. Ttmes.)
Now these honorable gentlemen"
who thus degrade themselves and the
nation, by APP ropriating national pro-
perty which they have no right to.
would have any one of their own SER
wants arrested for stealing if he took a
book or quire of paper from then own
private writing tables.
They would not hesitate to call this
servant a thief, and discharge him with
out a character.
We cannot wonder that foreigners are
beginning to call Us nation Of knayes. :
Not only knaves are they, but the most
uublushinJ Of knavcs, making a Joke Of
their own infamy. a vast deal OF lee
slative action from such men must nee
essarly be dishonest. They have not
the principle Of honesty in them, and a
stream cannot be purcr than its source.
They vote the peoples money away
with no regard to the interests or wishes
of the Taxpayers to whom this money
rightlullv belongs This is simply rob
berry; and robbery of the worst kind for
it is also a breach of trust. They are
the guardians of the nation: Of the help
less people who have placed their treas
ury in their keeping. Just as the phys
icians and nurses of a hospital are the
guardians Of their patients. During the
war. a certain hospital, in a certain city,
was said to have a very dishonest set Of
guardians. Wine and dainty food WEI e
high priced and scarce. Yet the wives
and mothers of the sick and wounded
soldiers denied themselves everything
they would have given their hearts blood
to supply tho idolizcd ones whom
they could not reach, with the stimu-
lants ana the tempting food which they
needed. Boxes of wine and fruit and
everything nice were sent. But the dark
tale came to their ear, tt at the physicians
and nurses Of this hospital assembled IN
little parties. and ate and drank those
very things which had cost the friends
so much to purchase and to prepare; and
without which the sick soldiers must
die Probably they too, made a joke OF
the ''plunder," which they thus dispos-
ed of. Their conduct was certainly as
infamous as that of the honorable thieves
who sit below the splendid dome of the
American Capitol.
An old heather poet, who wrote when
history was in its dawn, thus speaks ot
the certainty of the punishment OF these
perjured men:
The Pythian priestess to a Spartan
sung,
While indignation raised her awful ton.
que:
The time shall come when even thy
thoughts unjust,
Thy hesitation to restore the trust,
Thy purposed fraud shall make atone
ment due;
i Apollo speaks it, and his voice is truc!'
Scared at this warning, he who sought
to try.
If happy Heaven might wink at perjury.
Alive to fear, though still to virtue dead
Gave back the treasure to preserve his
head
Vain hope, by reparation now too late
To loose the bands of sdamantine fate
! BY swift destruction seized, the caitit
dies,
Swept from the earth nor he sole sac
| One general doom o'erwhelms his ours
ed line.
And verifes the Judgment Oft the shrine.
! IEONIDAS.