Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1889-12-09

missioners have been industriously,
though with an inadequate force, engaged
in executing the law.
The reform of the civil service will
make no safe or satisfactory advance un-
till the present law and its equal admin
istration are we'll established in the con-
fidence of the people. 1t will be my
pleasure, as it is my duty, to see that the
law is executed with frmness and i'm
partlaity. If some of its provisions
have been fraudulently evaded by appoint
ing officers, our resentment should not
suggest the repeal of the law, but reform
in its administration. We should have
one view of the matter, and hold it with
a sincerity that is not affected by the con-
sideration that the party to which we
belong is for the time in power.
No one will deny that it is of the gray
est National concern that those who hold
the ultimate control of all public affairs
should have the necessary intelligence
wisely to direct and determine them
National aid to education has heretofore
taken the form of land grants, and in that
form the constitutional power of Congress
to promote the education of the people is
not seriously questioned.
Such aid should be, as it always has
BEEN suggested by some exceptional con-
ditions The sudden emancipation of the
slaves of the South, the bestOwal of the
suffrage, which soon followed, and the
impairment of the ability of the States
where these new citizens were chiefly
found to adequately provide educational
facilities, presented not only exceptional
but unexampled conditions. That the
situation has been much ameliorated
there is no doubt. The ability and inter
est of the States have happily increased.
But great work remains to be done and
I think the General Government should
! lend its aid.
The colored people did not intrude
themselves upon US; they were brought
here in chains and held in the communities
where they are now chiefly found by q
cruel slave code. Happily for both races
they are now free. They have, from 6
standpoint of ignorance and poverty
which was our shame, not theirs, made
remarkable advances in education and IL
the acquisition of property. They have
as people shown themselves to bt
friendly and faithful toward the white
race, under temptations of tremendou:
strength. In civil life they are now the
toilers of their communities making theil
full contribution to the widening stream:
of prosperity which these communities
are receiving.
In many parts of our country Wher
the colored population is large the peopl
of that race are, by various devices, de
prived of any effective exercise of thei
political rights and of many of their civi
rights. The wrong does not expend it
self upon those whose votes are sup
pressed. Every constituency in tn
Union is wronged.
It has been the hope of every patrlo
that sense of justice and of respect TO
the law would work gradual cure @
poses that the present can be accepted a
a permanent condition. No question i
our country can be at rest except upo
the firm base of justice and of the law.
1 earnestly invoke the attention o
Congress to the consideration of sue
measures within its well-defined constitu
tlonal powers as will secure to all ou
people free exercise Of the right of suf
rage and every other civil right under tn
Constitution and laws of the United State: