Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1888-12-28

| lie ~ as RoOu az the trnth, III IL only can
be made 10 work. Is so much done toward
puncturing the sensitive nerve Of integrity
and therefore so much towards consuming
the fiber ot national strength and perpe-
tuity. Better have any man on Gods
footsiool President than to foist into the
position either Democratic or Republican
drchdngel even, by dint OF organized mem
| dacity.
Still worse in certain respects is the
effect produced upon onr citizenship by
The attempts made 10 debauch it by money
offered in bribery. 1t looks as though
never, perhaps, has the bribery business
been carried to the pass that il has this
year; at any rate. IL has probably never
been done Ss openly and uhblushngly.
| This has come out by frank confession.
and it hns leaked out unintentionally.
| The frantic appeals for money made BY
the managers OF both parties during the
| final days OF the campaign mean the same
thing. III MIR. Cleveland had been elected,
| lie would have been in measure elected
by votes purchased from men who were
| advised to sell their American birthright
| OF suffrage for a mess OF pottage. He was
| defeated, and one reason of the defeat was
that there were two that could play at
the same devilIsh game. The effect Of all
this Is that it makes cattle out OF citizens
makes the incalculable boon Of civil
privilege computable in terms of dollars
and whiskey; converts citizenship into
power; makes shambles out of every pol
ling place. augments prOdigiously the
number OF low-grHde ballot-throwers who
f.,e ,.,I &
corn-hn puts our Institutions more and
more at the mercy of the demagogue, and
the animals whose cribs they fill, and saps
the foundations Of the Republic at the
same time that ollgarchc furniture is be-
ing moves into the upper stories. Aud
this is not all OF it, Suppose you contrI-
butte 10 campaign purposes (that is con-
venient euphemism), suppose you contri-
butte to campaign purposes S50,000, which
you cannot say you kno,C, but which you are
morally certain is going TO be applied in
purchasing votes. Now, you don't do that
hoping for nothing again. That is busi-
ness: you expect IN some way to get ii
back agair. That is Investment; il is in.
vesling in futures as you call 1t on the
street, as much as when you buy wheat
that is not grown yet. You take stock
in the prospective Administration you
lay down so much cash, and you take
trust mortgage on the Administration, and
no matter how good man the Presi-
dent may be, the first thing he will have
to do when he gets established in office
will be to pay off his mortgages. Men
are already beginning TO camor for
their dividends, and next March Wash
ington will be crammed full of coupon
holders. Now, in q way, we have a
great deal TO be thankful for. l am
sure you cannot any of you be offended
if | say that 1T ID n great occasion for
rejoicing that Gen. Harrison is n man
of, believe, unquestioned moral and
Christian character The question is
how much good that iS going to do him.
He is not the Administration. The Ad-
ministration is made up of the Preai-
dent and those who have put their
hands into their pockets to make him
President. You say if you we're IN the
White House you would shape your own
policy and select your own suuordin-
ates. Well, you could not. A man has
to serve his maker. A President has to
serve his makers. If Gabriel were cleo
ted to the Presidency, and anywhere
from one to ten millions had been spent
in electing him, the first thing he
would have to do would be to reimburse
the boodlers. do not mean in money,
but in some position that would bring
them the money. Call it Democrat or
call it Republican, that does not alter
the law of give and take. And the
greater the outlay in purchased ballots,
the closer the Administration will ap-
proach to the character of joint stock
| corporation, wherein the larger investors
have the larger say. So long as We
move in this way and pursue policy
of election that admits Of purchasable
ballot, not only will the debasing and
debauching process go on, but whoever
goes in as President, of whatever char
| acter and of whatever party, will go in
! handicapped-go in with rope around
his neck, with bits between his teeth,
with machine on his back; and by
machine we mean those of any politi-
cal complexion who are working the
principles of their party for the sake OF
the Doodle those principles Will yield.
They are the political devils that infest
our two organizations and if they
could be gotten rid of, it would be
worth as much to their respective par
ties as was the expulsion of the evil
spirits worth TO the poor bowling dem
oniac at Gadara, and it would take a
great deal bigger herd of swine, too,
than the one chosen IN Gennesaret to
accommodate them.
And the saddesl feature of the bribery
matter is that it seems accompanied by
no symptoms of remorse on the part OF
the people that are mixed in 1t. ThS
question was vigorously treated in a sIr-
} ring indictment Of present political meth
ods made before the Congregational Clul
Of this city. Referring to That indictment
a religious journal, published yesterday
contained the following paragraph:
> mir. lVins' vigorous indictment OF III,
: corrupt methods OF our elections has re-
ceived singular combinations from an un-
expected source in a startling article IL
the Mail and Express (Republican) o
e New York city. The gist OF this article il
I that $3.50. 900 was paid by the Natona
, Committee, Tor use in the city Of New
York, on the Saturday before election, I,
be used IN negotiations for Republican
u votes from Democratic voters. And tn
n Mail and Express complains that 5000
less votes We're delivered than were pro-
missed. What is singular about this ar
iiclc, and about an analogous one in th
= New York Tribune, is that il ontain
" no hint OF reprobation OF this attemp
4, to buy votes, but reserves all 10 iuu..
nation for the trailor who took III
. money and did not deliver the goods"
The reluctance / have had in quolin
u that paragraph is On the ground lhat
. contains allusion 10 u specific party. No,
y let it be distinctly said that the probs
& lily Is that the political workers OF bot
= parlies did as much OF this kind VI thin
1t as they had the genius and the none
:, for; and we here make bold to allow ouI
u selves this definite reference, becaus
r, here is concrete instance VI briber
u that in allnost so many words is frankl
n confessed and one concrete instance
worth more for illustrative purposes tha
'e fifteen hundred suspicious; and as said
d the sad feature Uf the case ID that ller
n IL no expression Of remorse accompanin
it. Aud the idea of men who are in til
=, bribery business indulglng in moral yitu
1t peration against their agents, who hay
It iricked them out OF the profits of thei
lr iniquity, Ia deporabe enough TO dra,