Sacramento daily record-union., 1888-12-04
THE MESSAGE.
THE PRESIDENTS VIEWS PRE-.
SENTED BEFORE CONGRESS-.
His Tariff Views Reiterated and a
General Review of Governmental
Relations Given.
EsrrcAL DISPATCH TO THE REconD-US1oS.l

you have assumed as the representatives of
free and generous people, your meeting
is marked by an interesting and impress
sive incident. With the expiration of the
present session of Congress, the first Gen.
tury of our constitutional existence as a
nation will be completed. Our survival
for one hundred years is not sufficient to
assure Us that we nd longer have dangers
to fear in the maintenance, with all its
promised blessings, of a government
founded upon the freedom of the people.
The time rather admonishes US to soberly
inquire whether in the past we have
always closely kept in the course of safety,
and whether we have before us way
plain and clear which leads to happiness
and perpetuity.
When the experiment of our Govern
ment was undertaken the chart adopted
for our guidance was constitution, and q
departure from the lines there laid down is
failure. 1t is only by strict adherence to
directions therein set forth, and by re-
straint and keeping within limitations
therein fixed that we can furnish proof to
the world of the fitness of the American
people for self-government.
The equal and exact justice of which we
boast as the underlying principle OF our in
stitutions should not be confined to the
relations of our citizens to each other. The
Government itself is under bond to the
American people that in the exercise of its
f1Dafinnc and will u,
body of our citizens in a manner scrupu-
lousy honest and fair and absolutely Just.
II has agreed that American citizenship
shall be the only credential necessary to
justify the claim of equality before the
law, and that no condition in life shall give
rise to discrimination in the treatment of
the people by this Government.
The citizen of our Republic in its early
day rigidly insisted upon full compliance
with the letter of this bond and saw
stretching out before him clear field for
individual endeavor. His tribute to the
support of his Government was measured
by the cost of its economical maintenance,
and he was secure in the enjoyment of the
remaining recompense of his steady and
contented toll. In those days the frugality
of the people was stamped upon their Gov
eminent, and was enforced by the free,
thoughtful and intelligent suffrage of their
citizens. Combinations, monopolies and
aggregation OF capital were then avoided or
sternly regulated and restrained. The
pomp and glitter of Government less free
offered no temptation and presented no de-
lusion to the plain people, who, side by
side in friendly competition, wrought for
the ennOblement and dignity of man, for
the solution of the problem of free govern
and tha achievement of bo
destiny awaiting the land which God had
given them.
A century has passed. Our cities are
. the abiding places of wealth and luxury;
our manufactures yield fortunes never
dreamed of by the fathers of the Republic;
our business men are madly striving in the
race for riches and immense aggregs-
tions of capital and outrun imagination in
the magnitude of their undertakings.
We view with pride. and satisfaction this
bright picture of our countrys growth and
prosperity, while only closer scrutiny de-
velops somber shading. Upon more care
full inspection we find the wealth and lux
ury of our cities mingled with poverty and
wretchedness, and unremunerative toll A
crowded and constantly increasing urban
population suggests the impoyerishment of
rural sections and discomfort with agricult-
ural pursuits. The farmers son, not salts
lieu Will Ills ldluSI SlLnplc anu
life, joins the eager chase for easily acquired
wealth. The discovery that the fortunes
realized by our manufacturers are no longer
a reward of sturdy industry and enlight-
ened foresight, but that they result from
the discriminating favor of the Govern
ment, and are largely upon undue exactions
from the masses of our people, the gulf
between employers and the employed is
constantly widening and a class is rapidly
ertul, while in an another are found the
toiling poor.
As we view the achievements of aggre-
gated capital we discover the existence of
trusts, combinations and monopolies while
the citizen is struggling far in the rear, or
is trampled to death beneath an iron heel
Corporations, which should be the carefully
restrained creatures of the law and the serv-
ants of the people, are fast becoming the
peoples masters. Still congratalating our
selves on the wealth and prosperity of our
country and complacently contemplating
every incident of change inseparable from
those conditions, it is our duty as patriotic
citizens to inquire at the present stage of
our progress how the bond of the Govern
ment made with the people has been kept
and performed. Instead of limiting the
tribute drawn from our citizens TO necessi-
ties of its economical administration, the
Government persists in exacting from the
substance of the people millions which,
unapplied and useless, lie dormant in its
treasury.
By this fagrant injustice and this breach
of faith and obligation to extortion, and the
danger attending the diversion of the cur
rency of the country from the legitimate
channels of business, under the same laws
by which these laws are produced the
Government permits many millions more
to be added to the cost of living of our peo-
pie and to be taken from our consumers,
which unreasonably swells the profits of a
small but powerful minority. The people
must still be taxed for the support of the
Government under TIE operation of tariff
laws, but to the extent that the mass of our
citizens Is inordinately burdened beyond
any useful public purpose, and for the
benefit of favored few, the Government,
under pretext of an exercise of its taxing
power. enters grstuitouslyjnto partnership
with these favorites, to their advantage,
and to the injury Of vast majority of our
people. This is not equality before the
law. The existing situation is injurl0us to
the health of our entire body polite. 1t
stiles all patriotic love of country and in
stitutes in its place selfish greed and grasp
ing avGrice. Devotion to merican citizen
ship for its own sake and for what il should
accomplish, as q motive to our nation s
advancement ana the happiness OF all cur
people, is displaced by the assumption that
The Government, instead Of being the en-
bodiment OF equality, is but an instrument
alisy through which especial and indiyid-
ual advant ntsges are to be gained.
The arrogance Of this assumption is IN
concealed. It appears in the sordid disre-
gard OF all but personal interest in the re-
fusal to ahate, for the benefit Of others, one
iota OF selfish advantage, and in comhina.
tiops to operpetuaie such advantages through
efforts to control legislation and impr1 1perly
control the suffrage Of the people. The
grievance Of these not included Iithin the
circle Of these beneticisries, when fully
realized, win surely arouse irritation and
discomfort Our farmers. long suffering
and patient, struggling in the race o. life
with hardest and most unremitting toll
viii not fail to see. IN spite OF TDisrepFeseui-
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