The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-03-20
BRIBERY IN ELECTIONS.
TALMAeE DENouNces BOTH PARTIES.
a Strong and scathing Arrangement of the
DemoraIizing schemes to Force
Ballot-Box Victories-Trust
Funds aIisused.


strangers in the vast assemblage. The
Rev. Dr. Talmage preached an impressive
sermon upon some of the inlquities OF the
day, notably bribery and the misuse of
trust funds. These are the main features
of the discourse, which was listened to
with breathless attention:
''They that will be rich fall into temDta-
tion and a snare, and into many foolish
and hurtful lusts, which drown men in
destruction and perdition. u Timothy,
Vi. 9.
propose to speak this morning about
some of the ruinOus modes of accumu-
lating property. We have recently passed
through a presidential election in which
S30.000,000 was expended; l think S20,-
100000 OF it in out and out bribery. And
neither of the great political parties need
jeer at the other, because they both raised
all they could for legitimite and illegiti-
mate purposes. But that was only on
large scale what has been going on on
smaller scale for the last fifty years in all
departments. Politics, the science OF
good government, has often been thrown
into a synonym of truculency and turpi-
tude. There is monster sin; it has been
making its wav through this land and
hands are rotten with leprosy Its right
hand it has deep in the pocket. Its
LETT hand, with its ichorous knuckle, has
knocked at the door of court rooms and
legislatures and congresses and parlla-
ments. The door swung open, this mon
ster has moved through the aisles OF the
council chamber softly as slippered page,
and has swung out its hand in salutatiOn
20 Judge and to legislator. II the hand
be taken and the palm of the intruder
once crosses the palm of the official, the
leprosy spreads In a round blOtch IN the
shape of a gold eagle from palm TO palm,
and the victim perishes. While 1t IS an
infamous thing 10 offer brIbe, it is very
poor compliment to the man TO whom it
is offered. have not much faith in any
body who goes about Boosting how much
he could get if he would only sell out. If
a woman complain that she is often in
suited, let me tell her il is her carriage
which incites the insult. And
If a man be offered brides, there
Is something in his character that Is
very wrong to incite the bribe There
are some men at Albany and at Harris
burg and at Washington who would no
more be approached with a bride than a
pirate boat with few cutlasses would at
tack a British man-of-war with her banks
of guns on either side all loaded to the
touch-hole. Those incorruptible men
II You don't know any of them l am sorry
for you; you move in bad company-these
incorruptible men are under God to save
this country and tosave the world. Mean
while, let me say to all men who are not
thoroughly settled in their moral charac-
ter, keep out of politics. You know
whether you are strong or weak. A man
may know Just how strong he is by how
he feels in the presence of bad oppOr-
tunity. II you are weak in your moral
character you have no right to run an un-
worthy craft into euroclydon. Let me
Hay also, that parents ought TO be on
their guard and remember that it is in
the family circle and in the nursery that
very often this evil starts. Do not bride
your children. Teach them to do thing
because 1t Is right and because the
opposite would be wrong. A reward for
virtue is a very different thing from max
ing the profits of that virtue the impelling
motive. When a man is honest merely
because honesty is the best policy he Is
morally bankrupt and a scoundrel,
whether he knows it or not. If there is
any man in this assemblage who has
gotten money by bribery, surrender it.
That one dollar or those ten dollars or
those thousand dollars will burn a hole
into your pocket, and if you do not die In
the pOorhouse 1T Will be a wOnderment.
No man is safe, | care not how much prop
erty he has, if he has in all that posses
zion one farthing that does not belong TO
him honestly. You know, my friend, as
well as l know, it is time that this whole
land be walked up on this subject. and,
while we deplore the influences that are
abroad in all our elections and the infu-
ences that 60 to our state capital every
winter and to the doors of the house
OF representatives and the SEN
ate chamber of the United States. While
we deplore those influences and all these
influences, let US pray Almighty God for
some old-fashioned revivals of religion
that shall sweep through all legislative
halls and bring a great many leading re-
publicans and democrats to their knees
at an anxious bench in repentance. There
Is another wrong use of money l
want to speak of, and that is
the abuse of trust funds. Every
man comes during the course
OF his life, if he be an honest man, to be
trusted with the property of others. 1t is
a compliment TO you. That property
would not be intrusted to you if you had
not reputation-at any rate, with one
person-for honesty. Now, that is a
sacred trust. You are the safety deposit
in that case. You are the administrator
upon whose fidelity the financial welfare
OF bereft household depends; or you are
an attorney and the funds passing from
debtor TO creditor come into your custody:
or, you are a collector for some CONNER
cial establishment and they compensate
you for the responsibility or, You are the
treasurer of some charitable institution,
and through your hands pass moneys con-
tributed for the relief of the suffering; or,
you are a state, city or national
official, and taxes and subsidies and sala-
ries are placed in your hands. Now, that
Is very solemn trust, as solemn as God
can make it. 1t is q concentered and null
tiplied confidence. Do what you will with
your own money, but if you take the
property and speculate with it, you are at
one and the same time acting the thief,
the liar and the perjurer, and you are in
the most intense meaning of the word a
miscreant. Oh, how many widows and
orphans there are who have nothing be-
tween them and starvation but a sewing
machine, or are held up from the vortex
by the thread Of a needle, red with their
own hearts blood, who only a little while
ago had by husband or father been left a
competency. What is the matter? The
administrator or executor took the
property that did not belong to him and
ran risks with it that he would never
have dared with his own money And