Richland beacon., 1888-09-22
REPUBLICAN, MISRULE
Secretary Villas Reviews the
Corrupt Acts Of the Re.
publican Party,
Twenty Years of Jobbery and
Plunder..-Splendid Record Of
Cleveland's Administration.

Colonel William F. Villas, Secretary OF
the Interior, opened the Democratic
campaign in Wisconsin the other night
with speech in Milwaukee before
large asscmb!age. Here is summary Of
his speech:
VI invite you 10 contrast the condi-
tions, the principles and professions Of
the opposing parties in this contest, and
the promise of the future afforded by
them respectively. What is the Repub.
lican party of to-day, aud wherein is it
better or more worthy of confidence than
IT was In 1882 1t was in the beginning
more popular uprising than = political
party. 1t found origin end quickening
power in the high appeal of justice and
tenderness for human brethren in op-
preston, and in the honest zeal of deep
con' icton its following was well nigh
fanatical. 1t was crusade against a
great national sin, and fell upon the time
appointed of heaven for the publication
OF the Republic by fire. So it rose to
rapid power like the whirlwinds, and,
like the whirlwind, it swept its coulse
Of destructive though wholesome vio-
lence.
"Within decade the ell which had
engcndered its being was more than de-
strOyed; it was rooted ont as by dyna-
mite and the land was strewn with the
mighty wreck. That was the logical
psriod of the party's existence. 1t stood
upon or possessed no doctl ines of gov
eminent, no principles for the guidance
OF the institutions of freedom in the re-
pose of peace. 1t was not national but
sectional; a party for civil war, not for
national fraternity. But the heart of a
victorious people was in its grasp, and
the rage of war was long unspent. The
party retained unslackened control of
all legislation and taxation, with all
their possibilities of fraudulent gain. 1t
was the opportunity of opportunities
for political freebooters. And never for
one moment did they suspend their
effort, nor even spare the exhausted
people. Upon one pretext and another,
from almost the earliest grasp of Repub-
ilcan domin on, corruption began its
work and schemes for d shonest enrich
ment of the few to prevail.
ut WAS in 1872 that, pursuing the
sentiment that national defence required
q transcontinental highway, the Pacific
Hallway legislation begun, and In 1864
that, with unrelenting unity, it was so
amended to diabolical perfection that the
Government really built the roads. aud
gave them, with land enough for an
Empire, to the successful conspiratOrs.
Then, also, the esrles: act for laying
taxes. and afterward with greed that
heightened with each new gluttony,
every revenue measure was distorted BY
ingenious touches, impcteptible to any
but the practiced eye, by which private
tribute was cxtorted from the people
live times greater than the tax that went
to the Treasury. Then it was that the
monstrous vampire hidden in the tariff,
which seductivcy fans with the wings of
protection the labor whose hearts blood
it sucks, was begotten in sin to rob the
toilfng producers in the fields and for.
ests of the wealth they create.
"And, when war had ceased, great
people with its Golfers unlocked, and its
resources exposed, lay before the spoiler,
while in the exhaustion of struggle and
the heat Of rage, national guardianship
was gone. Then followed such seizure
of the national wealth by various devices,
50 rapacious, so gigantic, so ingenious in
the methods by which the grasp wa.
laid as has never been exhibited in his
tory. Nothing is comparable to it but
India under Warren Hastings. Other
nations have been despoiled by conquer
ors in the open force of unlicensed con-
quests This people was robbed by the
deviiish manipulation of its own legis "a
tion ara emergencies of administration
In the hands of its supposed friends"
The Secretary then referred to corrup-
ton in public contracts, touching upon
the partnership af Grant d Ward; to
Custom House scandals, undervaluations
OF imports, navy jobs, and star route
contracts, and declared that these and
other things of kc character had driven
the best men in the Republican party out
of it, instancing Summer, Chase, Gree.
lev, Tiumbull. and others. These lead.
ers, he declared, hal gone into the
Democratic party, and their places Ia
been taken by those whom the reno-
cIatic patty could best afford to lose
He declared that the only policy of the
only branch Of the Government rema n
ing republican since lS.4-the Senal G
was comprised in two words, obs;iuc
tiOn and Misrepresentation as to every
thing for the general good. and instanced
the tardy confirmat on of Chief Justice
Fuller; the rejection of the fisheries
treaty, and delay in passing the retalia-
tion asked for by President Cleveland.
This proposed legislation. he declared.
was calculated to inhict the heaviest
damage on Canada with the least hurt to
this country. The interests of northern
New England, he asserted, were not to
lie compared with those of the great
West; besides the trouble was all on
New England's behalf The Republican
party, he continued, has become the
Bourbon party.
Turning to the remocratic party, the
speaker said that the challenge in the
National Democratic platform of q scru
tiny into the results of Democratic ad-
ministration was q safe one.
eff you turn to the Department oil
State, you find that everywhere the
national dignity has been maintained,
national rights carefully and firmly pro-
tected, and the epublic is in peace and
good will with all the powers of the
earth, save only as epublican obstruc-
tion leaves us needless hostility with
our northern neighboc
'sIf you take the Treasury, its guard.
ianship of our financial interests CON-
msnds respect on every hand. You re.
call tho disturbed financial rela( >ps OF
1884 and the early part of lssaS II the
Painful apprehension of impending disas-
ter under which the lamented Manning
began his wise care Of that department;