River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1897-03-11
The Danger of
Money in Elections.
ADDRESS OF CHARLES N. GREGORY. BEFORE THE WIS.
coNslN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES DECEMBER 1894.

After revie ing the history of polit-
ical corruption and legislation for its
suppression both in England and this
country, Mr.. Gregory said:
All these illegitimate expenses, which
the reputable candidates would gladly
be protected from, but which none but
men OF iron dare deny. the official must
make up from his Office by fair mems
or foul. and so it is that the liberal
candidates who are SO profuse in the
campaign are so expensive in their
term of office Ii all falls back on our
patient backs and we must sweat for
their prodigality. Old st. Francis of
Assist used to preach TO the beasts of
the fields and the birds of the air, and
with loving humility he always spoke
to them as brothers, and so it once
happened that he addressed drove of
donkeys as my brother asses, and |
will confess when see with what dull,
base patience we, my brother citizens
and taxpayers, suffer these evil and
corrupt customs whose burdens always
fall on our backs at last, 7 feel that 1t
would be right to az dress each other
as brother asses" The wrong is
upon us and the power to relieve The
wrong is with us. and patience" is by
no means virtue" patience is moth
ing less than sloth and cowardice.
Abraham Lincoln is a name to
charm with still, and how moderate
Mr.. Linolns ideas of expense in cleo
tions and how scrupulous and open his
accounting was shown in his own con-
gressional canvass. His friends raised
$500 for an election fund and placed it
in his hands. After the campaign
honest old Abe" explained that he
would have returned it all but at one
place he go, cornered and hau to buy
a barrel Of cider. and so he returned
only $199.75. Apples were abundant:
We were nearer the garden of Eden
then than now.
When Hon. Horace Rublee, some
years ago served as chairman of the
Republican State Central committee of
Wisconsin, he. in manner greatly to
be commended, published statement
of the receipts and disbursements of
the committee, and it is to be regretted
that so desirable practice has not be-
come a custom. The usage which
gentleman lately holding the place of
an assistant cabinet ofiicer at Wssh-
ingtcl assured me prevails in the ma
tional committees of both parties, is
SuIuticut commentary Oh tuciI luclh-
DDS. At the end of the campaign they
order their records turned. Nothing
but fire can cleanse them. The only
light they ever see is hat of their own
combustion. This is a branch of pub
lie business whose transactions can
not be opened to press or people.
The base and vicious doctrine that
though It is wrong to buy votes.
If we don't the other side will" that
we must fight fire with fire." that
anything Is right IL il succeeds:
these are all niaxims OF evil which sere
and indurate the conscience and the
heart. They sap the foundations of
integrity and ruin all that rests there
on. They touch with lasting blight
the roots OF character and whether
they are In the games of the boys or
the work of the men, in the ball field
or the caucus or convention or at the
polls. they are knavish and unscru
ulous and to be branded as such with
neither honesty, manhood nor good
fellowship in them"
do not so much value the penalties
denounced In tnese new laws against
Tribe givers and bride takers as
value the sworn reports of receIr'
and expenditures with vouchers. viii
are wrung from the candidates AZ
committees alike after every electiN
| trust much to these powerful scar,
lights. | believe in fact that the prev
alence Of truth and justice in tn
world were assure when on that frs
day of recorded time God said Let
there be light and there was light"
remember that the streets of our cities
are perhaps quite as much redeemed
rom lawlessness by the lamp posts as
by the church spires. In politics,
where men rise by the formal approval
of their fellows | do not believe that
public and confessed corruption can
have any continuing hold or advance
ment
IL ambitious and INSCRIPTIONS
wealth is allowed to buy Office there
will too often be found this small per-
centage of degraded or necessitous
voters who will sell votes enough to