Year: 1876

sion with these officers, by bribing these
officers. 1t was by that force these
frauds were perpetuated. And yet Mr..
Morton says we have pure Civil Ser
vice. would like to know what coun-
try has the worst, if ours is the purest?
Somebody may say these are small
cattle you are talking about. These
appraisers in New York are not so
very small cattle. They can cheat the
Government out of millions of dollars.
If you want big scare, just look at the
late Secretary of War. Take an obser-
vation of his frauds. He is about as
stout as any Durham you can scare up.
When he saw every thing was paying he
thought he would do little
trading himself. If it hadn't been
for the Democratic House of Rep
resentatives he would have been
trading in post-traderships to this day.
But the Democracy said: "We didn't
like such to pay you 81 200 year, in all
amounting to $4,000. What are these
poststraders? They are the fellows who
sell goods to the soldiers; and if they
have paid Mr.. Secretary Belknap Sc, 900
or $4,000, he must clap that on the
price of the goods, and the soldiers pay
it. And the Secretary of the Govern
ment at the head of the Department,
man sworn whose duty it was to take
care of that soldier, was the very man
who was robbing him to fill his own
pocket. Yes, my friends, what poor SOL
dier was there who fell on that terrible
day, when Custer led his head-long
charge on the Indians, and whose white |
bones, now bleaching on the burning
plains, who didn't contribute to the
wealth of this Secretary of War? And
yet there isno official corruption, and yet
we have the finest civil government the
world ever saw. l can't say anything
doit, but haven't time to show how that
million of expenses has grown up. 1t is
now two millions more than it used to
be in Democratic times.


You know at the close of the war the
philanthropists who were taken with our
colored brethren got up a Freedmen's
Bureau, which they maintained by mil
lions of dollars taken out of your pockets.
The chief end was 10 make them
promise of that mule, etc. That was the
principal business down there of the
Freedmen's Bureau. They got up what
they called the Freedmen's Bank-asav-
ing institution. 1t was to be a great
thing; it was to make all the negroes
rich; it was to teach them how to save
their money, and in order to make it
growing they got Congress to give it
charter and the principal institution at
the City of Washington, and then
branches all over the United
States. 1t was like the old Bank of the
United States. Wherever there was a
negro or two there was branch of the
Freedmen's Bank among them, and
Cufy and Sallie were told, Master Grant
has sent this here bank for you to save
your earnings, and you must put your
money in this bank. The Government
is responsible. 1t proved to be by the
proof most overwhelming all over the
country. They establish their banks,
and they got the negroes deposits from
the poor washerwoman's twenty-five cents
up to ono dollar that some would deposit.
and the thing ran on for while. Pres:
emily what came? They began to loan
their money out at Washington as col
lateral stock, any portion of the Com
pany's stock on the Seneca Stone Com
pany, that was owned by the ring there
at Washington; stock in the Paving
Company, and that was another Ring
Company stock in this thing and stock
in that thing, until finally they had all
collapsed, and no money. Then came an
investigation. What do you think was
the result of that investigation? Why,
all that Committee could make out was
that those poor negroes put all their hard
earnings they saved into those banks at
Washington, Charleston, and New
Orleans, all around about not less than
three millions of dollars Now, isn't that
perfectly monstrous? Under the code of
offenses to teach the negro to take care of
himself, making him save his money,
and not spend it unwisely; that he
ought TO put it up; that it will grow up
and be a good thing for him and his wife,
Dinah and his papooses, and then, when
they get them to contribute all their
earnings in the end, just turn right
around and loan it out ON collaterals to
the rings at Washington. Now, this
Freedmen's Bank, why it was the most
pure establishment that you ever saw. 1t
would hardly let Democrat walk by the
house, it was so pure and loyal Republi-
can. 1t built immense banking houses
throughout Washington with Seneca
fronts. 1t was pure unadulterated Re-
publican notwithstanding care of the
negro and teaching him to be saving and
economical.


Well, now, my friends, what do we
hear from the Republican orator in an
swer to these? Will you have an honest
government? Can you expect the men
who have been guilty of these cor
ruptions to reform themselves? No.
The only thing to do is TO turn them
out. That is the only thing now. Sup
pose they could reform. Suppose Gov
ernor Hayes is elected, could he purify
the Administration and have an honest
Administration The Lord only knows,
I don't. But Sam Tilden, who was
against Bill Tweed and everything else
in New York, can see how he can. But
how, my friends, can Governor Hayes,


who has not got the reform element in
him, clear out these people, who are


maintained there by their contribu-


tions and services to the party ?


How, my friends, Hayes is to reform


them is past my reasoning. The


only way that 1 know of you have got


to change your rulers and then you will


have honest and intelligent servants.


Now, what do we hear from the Radi-


Gals? 1t is the old warning of the bloody


shirt. 1t is the old hackney talk that


was used in the beginning, that the Dem


ocratic party was disloyal in the war, as


if for more than fifty years the Demo


cratic party didn't profit its country, and


all the time it ruled there was peace and


prosperity everywhere. In all these


fifty years there was no man executed for


treason. In all these fifty years there


was no man punished for political Of


fenses, and in those fifty years we grew


from little stripof thirteen States on the


Atlantic coast to an empire reaching


from ocean to ocean. The party of Jeffer.
r Al.