Year: 1868

Henry Ward Beeeher and the Whiskey


Ring.


Henry Ward Beecher is prince in Israel
he is a great, gifted, noble, an honest man.
AS an ecclesastic he has peculiarties. An
eccieslastic, in fact in the true sense he is not.
lie Is great teacher, great moralist, great
CENSOR great tribune of the people, rather
than great divine. The divine, however, is
less necessity than in days gone by; the
teacher, the moralist, the censor, the tri5unus
pLebis here and now Is more necessity than
ever. In times like these, when iniquity walks
abroad with unblashing brow, when official
corruption sits in the highest places in the land.
we need the loud rebuke, the tongue Of fire.
the prophets holy wrath, rather than polished,
pleasing but pointless periods or dull, dreary and
dry dogmatics Mr.. Beecher has done good SER
vice to his country on more than one occasion
before. We are glad to find that his eye is still
undmmed and his natural strength unabated,
although we cannot help adding that he has
been too long silent regarding iniquities of the
existence of which he could hardly be ignorant.
Better, however, late than never. Mr.. Beecher
has spoken out, and it is impossible to refuse
to admit that he has spoken out forcibly and to
the point.


The whiskey rings have assumed such gigan-
tic proportions and have become so sweeping
in the range of their corrupting influence that
it is no longer possible for Mr.. Beecher or any
man who loves his country and seeks its
welfare to be silent regarding them. For four
years they have been defrauding the revenue
at the rate Of not less than one hundred mil
lions year. Such gigantic and barefaced
swindling was, perhaps, never known in any
country before. 1t is not wonderful that indi-
viduals have been made rich, that beggars
| have been put on horseback, and that whole
sale theft has become so fashionable and
respectable that honest callings have ceased
| to have any attractions for growing class Of
our population. What makes the matter worse
is the fact that it seems impossible to bring
the offenders to justice. Money is stronger
than law, and the whiskey rings have plenty Of
| money Much as we have reason to blame
the rings, the authorities are even more guilty
than they. 1t is simply impossible that such
| gigantic frauds could have been perpetrated
them to have been ignorant why is
| it that they refuse to look facts in the face?
| Why is it that the whole batch of United States
officials stand in the way of the law and lend
their powerful help to shield the guiltya Is it
possible to explain such conduct on any other
4 Al hat %hnu ohorin ho
| spoils? Either they are guilty or they are
mserably incompetent. What business estab-
lishment in the land would have tolerated for
a moment such gross mismanagement? Not
one. Yet in spite of facts, in spite Of evidence
which would have ruined any responsible man
ager in any private business concern in any
city in the Union, these men continue to hold
their Offices, and the revenue is defrauded as
before We cannot close this article without
| remarking that in this matter President john
son has manifested degree Of incapacity and
imbecility which surpasses all his former efforts
in that direction. Never has he appeared 50
contemplate as now. Moral courage in tho
man there seems to be none.


Let Mr.. Beecher, therefore, 60 on as he has
begun. He has commenced the fight some
what late in the day, but the battle is not con-
cluded and the enemy is strong. His help
and the help Of all such is needed to destroy
the most gigantic evil which ever threatened
the welfare Of this country. IF our republican
institutions are not to become the laughing
stock of the world every honest citizen must
come to the rescue.