Year: 1876

| not have succeeded, for there was not
! wash enough in his bucket to go over the
: twenty-thousandth part of the job.
5 While you were hunting for certificates


Of character among the speeches of the
> impeachment managers, why did you
+ overlook that of Mr.. Hoar? He said in
, effect (for cite him from memory that


the one production in which our coun-
, try excel all others in the world is cor
r ruption of its government. There was


the testimony of called witness belong


ing to yodr party, who knew whereof he
affirmed and spoke directly TO the point.
But it is useless to cite the evidence of
! individuals upon great public facts that
are felt and seen and known of all men.
, Nothing ever was more notorious than


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


go to legitimate public purposes, or so


much to the rulers themselves and the


rings they chose 70 favor. Industry is


crushed rs it never WIS before. Labor


no longer works for itself, since Hll and


more than all of its surplts profits are


exacted and consumed by the hangers-on


of the government. Now, although we


call ourselves Freemen or freedmen, we


are, to all intents aud purposes slaves, so


long as you continue to make us hand


over to you the earnings OF our labor;


for the essence of slavery consists in COM
pelling 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.


A PHARIsEE's BRAvAtJo.


You tell us that the republican party
''will punish its own rascals." The


newspaper report of your speech says


that this was greeted with laughter from
| the republican side of the house. Ger
| tainly it sounds like the broadest of
Jokes. Ifyou meant it in earnest, please


to say what you found this claim of inn
partial justice upon. You will hardly
prove it by showing that BristOw and


Wilson succeeded, with much tribulaton,
in cOnvicting certain manufacturers of
crooked whiskey, and thereby got them
selves turned out of Office. 1t is vain TO
p
system of dishonesty pervading all ranks
of the civil service, which, so far from
being punished, is protected, encouraged
and rewarded by the highest authorities.
You have set your faces like flint |
against all investigations tending to !
expose rascality. Proof of that, if proof |
were wanting, would be found in your
own denunciation of the present con-
gress for pushing its inquiries into those |
regions where venality and corruption !
might otherwise have dwclt in safety. /


In all yeur southern measures you |
have shown positive adherence of
honest government. You forced into all
places of power men whose characters
were VIGOROUSLY bad, and maintained
them while they perpetrated the most
shameless robberies. You resisted every
effort of the oppressed people TO throw
them off and when those efforts were
successful in some of the states, you
mourned the fall of the felous with sincere
lamentation. just look at the crew of
goddess wretches by whom Louisiana has
been almost desolutedl In the face of
constitutional interdict, your administra-
tion at. Washington repeatedly iute l1ered
to shield them from justice, and to un-
fold them in the possession of power to
! !
At this moment they are preying upon
the PROSTATE people of the state, under
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
rightfully enslaved, according to the
principles planted at Plymouth, and
therefore it is not for the like of them to
invoke the protection oflaw and justice. |
will therefore call your attention to an
other case TO which Dahomeian rule does
not apply, and in which the failure of
the republican party to punish its own
rascals has been equally signal l mean
the frauds of the Union Pacific railroad
company and the Credit MObilier.


THE MOST UNKINDEST CUT OF ALL


You will pardon me, am sure, for
re erring to this affair: you are the last
man upon whom | would max personal
point, and | could not do it here if |
would tiy; for the conviction | have
often expressed remains unchanged, that
YOUR integrity was not stained by such
connection as you had with that busi-
ness. But we both know that it was the
most gigantic fraud that the history OF
modern times disclOses. The magnitude
of the iniduity almost exceeds belief
The entire amount of the booty already
taken from the public and slowed away
in the pockets of the perpetrators can
not be less than one hundred million
dollars, and every six months they make
a new demand, which is hOnored at the
treasury by an additional payment. |
am told that a late attorney general
courts one hundred and eighty millions as
II
lose in solid cash, directly taken out of
the treasury. | am not sure tLat this
calculation is accurate, but it can not be
very far wrong, and it is not equal TO
one half of the whole steal, for it 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 equip
ment bonds. AS this swindle was the
largest so it was one of the most mex
cusably base. 1t was perpetrated at a
time when the nation was swamped with
debt, when the people were loaded with
taxes, and when the most. rigid economy
was imperatively required. All circum-
stances, as well as the direct evidence,
show that it was no sudden act OF
thougbtless imprudence, but was will
fully, deliberately and cOrruptly pre-
arranged and determined. There is
nothing to mitigate it; you can not de
fend it even by waving the bloody shit.


How did the republican party pun
ish its own rascals" in this case? Not
a hair on the head Of any rascal was
touched. On the contrary, they were
promoted, honored and advanced; the
most guilty of them are now, as they
were before, the very darlings of the
party. Even that is not the worst of it.
These swindlers are periodically swell
ing the colossal proportions of their
crime by taking out Of the treasury ad-
ditional millions which they claim a.
the "precious results" of their original
fraud. They have no better title to
them than a wolf has TO the mutton he
slaughters by moonlight. The legal
remedy against these exactions is 80
plain that ignorance alone could hardly
miss it. But your officers have found
out the way not to do it. They permit
the government to lie down and be rob
bed semi-annually, by a corporation /
which Tilden would long ago have dis