The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1894-03-20
IS 1T SLAVERY1
A Democrat Who Has Voted the Ticket
Thirty-seven Years Does Some
Plain Talking.

| AN0 nA41OuS IOr pensions the current
year. Seven hundred thous and appli-
cants for pensions laundering at the
doors of an empty treasury, thirty
years after the close Of the war. Three
hundred thousand pensioners admitted
by Harrison's Commissioner Raum,
Total appropriations for the past three
years $500, 900, 600 in excess of total
revenue collections for that period
Hundreds Of millions in subsidies to
steamboas and railroad lines. Hun
dreds of thousands in the past few
weeks to builders Of steamers on judg
ment Of excess of power and speed over
that contracted for. A billion dollar
Congress from an overdowing treasury
giving away hundreds of millions of
the people money, and the Secretary
OF the Treasury now asking for law
to issue bonds for hundreds of millions
more, to be added to the debt under
which the people stagger, and all this
In time OF profound peace.
Among all free states and free people
everywhere it is universally admitted
that no government has right to col
lect money beyond the limit fixed by
the people. Under our system, this as
is well known, was an economical ad
ministratlon of the duties imposed on
the general government.
Have our rulers stopped here7 In one
of the seven articles of the constitution
as framed by the fathers it is stipulated
that the writ Of habeas corpus shall
1aeUer Se suspended In time of pro
found peace a tyrannical Congress
passed and a despotic President ap-
proved an act authorizing the Presi-
dent, under certain circumstances, to
suspend the act and to use the army
and navy to suppress insurrection.
Have they stopped here9 Adepraved
oligarchy, basely subservient to British
dictation in the person of John Sher-
man, feloniously and clandestinely, as
an amendment in the renewal of the
uank charters, inserted a clause de,
monetizing silver, and the Congress
that passed the act and ;the President
who signed it said he did not know it
was there.
The horrors of the burning of COlum-
bia by W. T. Sherman, the thousands
of chimneys without houses and farms
without fences, provisions Or stock and
the sufferings and destitution Of the
people from Chattanooga to Augusta
are but a bright oasis IN an ocean Of
sorrow compared to the sufferings en-
tailed by this act. The ineffable hor-
rors of the battle of the Wilderness, in
which thousands of brave men of both
armies, wounded and famishing with
thirst, are slowly consumed by the de-
vouring flames, conveys no conception
of the material anguish Of myriads
the world over who are now suffering
from the demonstration of silver. The
strong man, the bread-winner of the
family has fallen beneath the blow,
and the pale faces of hungry children
cry aloud for vengeance. The mother,
yearning over her homeless and help
less babes, sleeps beneath the sod.
But the lion of England ,plows with
a golden plowshare. The oligarchy
gather up the glittering coin, and the
lion takes the lions share of the blood
earnings of patient toll.
The debt of the government under
which the people stagger is doubled
and the interest, too, and SO Of all pri-
vate and municipal debts. Debts con
tracted on basis of two metals must
now be paid on basis of one, and the
tiller of the soil gets one half for his
produce of what he got before. Have
you heard of bill to repeal this acti
Where was the silver tongued orator OF
Kentucky and the tall sycamore of the
Wabash and the persuasive eloquence
of Raneom7 Alas! their salaries are
doubled, too, and the clerkship they
give their boys, and the 10 cents mile
age both ways, and so of all your Con-
gressmen. A wall of anguish goes up
from the people, the oligarchy smiles,
and the laWy ers fatten.
Do they stop here3 The President
says let the regular army be reorgan-
lied, let them be recalled from the out
posts and massed at available points
Such language from an English King
would cost him his crown. Can it be
that the navy your toll is building at
a cost of hundreds of millions is in
tended to lombard your own citiesi
What do you hear of coast defences3
These might fall into the hands of an
outraged people. While the doctor
sleeps the patient does, and while your