The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-06-05
TO HONEST REPUBLICANS.
BURKE WRITES A LIVELY LETTER
WITH CAUSTIC COMMENTS.

BURKE WRITES LIVELY LETTER
WITH CAUSTIC COMMENTS.
no the Rank and File of the Republican
Party of the State of Minnesota:
In view of the fact no bitter animosi-
Ties of a national campaign can at the
present time blind your eyes or pervert
your judgment, I appeal to you to give
me your undivided attention and dis
passionately weigh what may say.
Iassume that majority of the men,
bers Of all parties would rather act hon
estly than otherwise, hence if in the sue
ceeding lines 1 arraign that party to
which you have given too blind allie
glance, you must not assume that 1t is
m attack on every member thereof, but
rather on the leaders, who have never
had any principles-political or other
wise-save to use you and yours as blind
dupes to enable them to carry out their
schemes of villainy, rapine and plumber,
securing active allies in many of the
leaders of the opposing party-and may
hap dividing with them a share of the
spoils.
Politicians, as a rule, have no party
Affiliations, though they howl never so
loudly about their loyalty, and succeed
in making you believe they are men OF
integrity and veracity, when in fact
most are devoid of both, and ever ready
to trade their country, their party and
their souls-if they had any
to satisfy their inordinate greed; hence
1t may be that while you are nominally
voting for a simon pure Republican he
is the while a Democrat in thin dis
guise or under the domination of some
Democratic leader. You remember that
Jay Gould once remarked under oath,
che was a Democrat in Democratic To-
calities, and Republican in Republican
localities, but an Erie man all the time"
Hence it may have been some such spirit
that actuated Jim Hill in the support he
Is said to have given to Knute Nelson.
remember we'll that at one time, and
mayhap still, the controlling element of
the Republican party of California was
q Democrat-and Southern one at that
one who never pretended to be other
than Democrat, yet he controlled alb
solutely the nominations and destinies
of both parties, while the rank and file
OF each frought blindly, like cats and
dogs, sincerely believing they were other
than mere puppets and jumping jacks
in the hands of one man.
It is unfortunate that there has not
been more individuality of thought and
action in all parties, since thereby the
interests of the whole would have been
better subserved, and the nomination,
election and appointment of corrupt men
to Office could not have been so gener-
ally accomplished.
Party prejudice and sectarian bias
have been two of the greatest enemies
with which this country has to contend,
since they serve to keep in official posi-
ton corrupt officials and false teachers
by binding the eyes, deafening the
ears and dulling the senses of their adj
herents.
For over a quarter of century you
have through your leaders controlled the
destinies of this state, and they in turn
have often, by corrupt means or other
undue influences, silenced the press of
all parties so that you have never been
: able to get at the real facts Of any meas
ure or dement's Of any Official.
Your administration has often been
rascally and your leadership almost al
ways so. Hence, if you have any hope to
retain or hold the people of this state
you must abandon, once for all, your
barnacled, fraud-laden leaders, of all
grades of crime, and infuse new blood
into your organization, else the people
of this state will do the job for you.
Your schools have been robbed, and
your children deprived of their heritage
to enrich a gang of sanctimonious, hypo-
critical. snivelling scoundrels, who by
lying statements, long prayers and ras-
cally crimes have hoodwinked you and
bribed or overawed the press and pulpit.
They have used their official position
to rob the state and thereby enrich the
railroads, and used that same position
to rob the railroads and enrich them
selves, having recourse in these and
other matters to perjury, bribery, for
gerry and other crimes as l well know.
Yet, despite these facts, what has been
or what will be done to punish these
unconvicted felons?. They have organ
ized so-called banks and financial con-
Germs to rob the state and you, not stop
ping at any crime to further their vii
lainy.
They have issued stock and so-called
securities in railroads, banks, trust COM
panies and other concerns without the
payment of any money or other consid-
Grafton, while by the use of their posi-
ton money, or other influences they have
bribed, bulldosed or cajoled state officials
into filing false reports, and induced at
last one governor of the state to violate
the law and his official oath.
They have hired detectives to steal
way the evidences of crime, and though
his end was accomplished, have en-
loyed assassins to silence their accuser,
md all because they had not even a
poiety of integrity in their make up.
In all the realms of space 1 know of
b creature so low, so cowardly, so con-
emptible, so dishonest-and fully admit
mat by comparison, pirates are saints,
footpads are Christians, faro dealers
evangelists, and the devil a gentleman.
When l think of them and their acts
am sorely tempted to quote with ap-
proval the words of Suffolk, in Henry
the W.:
''Would curses kill as doth the mandrakes
gone,
ct would invent as bitter searching terms
s.As curst. as harsh, as horrible to bear.
delivered strongly through my fixed
"with full as many signs of deadly hate,
Gas lean faced envy in her loathsome cave
''Mine tongue should stumble in mine earn
est words,
'.Mine eyes should sparkle like the beaten
flint;
Ell every joint should seem to curse and