Year: 1876

am speaking OF the government


the officials who rule us for their pleasur


and plumber us for their personal profit


and it is no answer to quote Mr.. Lord


speech before the Senate on the trial Z


Belknap. His eulogy was on the yirtu


and intelligence Of the people, and b


argued from that the duty Of their servant


TO behave with integrity. He certainI


did not mean to whitewash the admins


tration. If he had meant to do 50 h


could not have succeeded, for there wa


not wash enough in his bucket to 90 owe


the twenty thousandth part of the Job,


While you were hunting for certificate


Of character among the speeches Of tn


impeachment managers, why did yol


overlook that Of Mr.. Hoar? He said il


effect (for | cite him from memory tha


the one production in which our countr,


excels all others in the world is the cor


ruption Of its government There wa


the testimony of q candid witness belong


ing to your own party, who knew whereo


he affirmed aud spoke directly to Tho


point.


But it is useless to cite the evidence o.


individuals upon great public facts that arr


felt and seen and known of all men


Nothing ever was more notorious thar


the general disregard of all sound princi.


pie by this administration. No people on
earth are now suffering so much from
extravagant taxation, and nowhere does
SO small portion Of the taxes 60 to legit-
innate public purposes, or 50 much to the
rulers themselves and the rings they
choose to favor Industry is crushed as
il never was before. Labor no longer
works for itself, since all and more than
all Of its surplus profits are exacted and
consumed by the hangers-on of the gov
ernment Now, although we call ourselves
freemen we are to all intents aud purposes
slaves, 50 long as you continue to make US
hand over to you the earnings Of our
labor for the essence of slavery consists
in compelling one man, or class of men,
to work for another without equivalent.
We are determined to relieve ourselves
from this intolerable bondage, as far as we
can legally and peaceably, and if you do
not help US you must at least cease to
mock us by pretending to be an anti-slayery
man upon principle.


You tell us that the Republican party
twill punish its own rascals.' The news
paper report of your speech says that this
was greeted with laughter from the Re-
publican side Of the House. Certainly it
sounds like the broadcast of jokes. Ifyou
meant it in earnest, please to say what
you found this claim of impartial justice
upon. You will hardly prove it by show
ing that Bristow and Wilson succeeded,
with much tribulation, in convicting GER
tain manufacturers Of crooked whiskey,
and thereby got themselves turned out Of
Office. 1t is vain to deny that there Is,
and has been general system of dishon-
esty pervading oil ranks of the civil ser
vice, which, so far from being punished,
is protected, encouraged and rewarded by
the highest authorities. You have set
your faces like flint against all investi-
cations tending to expose rascality. Proof
of that, if proof were wanting, would be
found in your own denunciation Of the
present Congress for pushing its inquiries
into those regions where venality and cor
ruption might otherwise have dwelt in
safety.


In'all your southern measures you have
shown positive adherence Of honest
government. You forced into all places
Of power, men whose characters were no.
toriously bad, and maintained them while
they perpetrated the most shameless rob
berries. You resisted every effort of the
oppressed people to throw them of, and
when those efforts were successful in some
of the states, you mourned the fall Of the
felons with sincere lamentation. Just look
at the crew Of goddess wretches by whom
Louisiana has been almost desolated In
the face Of a constitutional interdict, your
administration at Washington repeatedly
interfered to shield them from justice and
to uphold them in the possession of power
to which they had no manner of legal
claim. At this moment they are preying
upon the PROSTATE people of the state un-
der the protection Of federal bayonets. Is
that what you call Furnishing your own
rascals?


You may answer that the white people
Of Louisiana, being conquered, are right
fully enslaved according to the princi-
Piles planted at Plymouth, and, there
fore, it is not for the likes Of them to in
yoke the protection of law and justice. /
will, therefore, call your attention to an
other case 10 which the Dahomenian rule
does not apply, and in which the failure
Of the Republican party to punish its own
rascals has been equally signal | mean
the frauds Of the Union Pacific Railroad
company and the credit mobilier.


You will pardon me, 1 am sure, for re-
ferring to this affair; you are the last man
upon whom | would make personal
point, and | could not do it here if I would
Try, for the conviction I have often ex-
pressed remains unchanged, that your
integrity was not stained by such connec-
lion as you had with that business. But
We both know that it was the most gigan-
;ic fraud that the history Of modern times
liscloses. The magnitude of the iniquity
almost exceeds belief The entire amount
IF the booty already taken from the pub
10 and slowed away in the pockets Of the
cannot be less than one hun
ired millions of dollars, and every six
months they make new demand, which
S honored at the treasury by an additional
payment. ! am told that the late Attor-
ley General counts one hundred and eighty
Millions as the sum which the United
States will lose in solid cash, directly taken
,ut of the treasury. / am not sure that
his calculation is accurate bat il cannot
DO very far wrong, aud it is not equal to
,ne-half of the whole steal, for 1t does not
include the value Of the road itself, nor
the land grants, nor the proceeds Of the
bonds to which the lien Of the United
States was postponed, nor the equipment
bonds. As this swindle was the largest,
70 it was one Of the most inexcusably base. |
II was perpetrated at time when the ma
tion was swamped with debt, when the |
people were loaded with taxes, and when |