Year: 1876




against all opposers. You may take tn


rottcnest monarchy in Europe, 20 owe


its history for hundred years, and pro


duce the worst act you can find of fraud


ulent spoilation upon its people, and ii


do not show something worse committe,


here under the auspices of the party nov


in power will give up the case.


am speaking of the government-o


the officials who rule us for their pleasure


and plumber us for their personal profit


and il is no answer 10 quote MIR. Lords
speech before the senate on the trial o


Belknap. Hiseulogy was on the virtue and


intelligence of the people, and he argued


from that the duty oi their servants Ia


behave with integrity. He certainly did


not mean TO whtewash the administfa.


ton. II he had meant to do SO he could


not have succeeded, for there was not


wash enough in his bucket to go over the
twenty -thousandth part of the job.


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
ruption of its government. There was
the testimony of q called witness belong
ing TO your 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
extravagaDt taxation, and nowhere
does SO small a portion of the taxes
60 to legitimate public purposes, or so
much TO the rulers themselves and the
rings they chose to favor. Industry is
crushed as ii never was before. Labor
no longer works for itself, since all and
more than all of its surplus profits are
exactcd and consumed by the hangers-on
Of the government. Now, although we
call ourselves freemen or freedmen, we
are, to all intents and 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-slavcry
man upon principle.


A PHARlsEEs BRAvADo.


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
tanly it sounds like the broadcst of
jokes. lfyou meant il in earnest, please
to say what you found this claim OF i'm
partial justice upon. You will hardly
prove it by showing that Bristow and
Wilson succeeded, with much tribulation,
in convicting certain manufacturers of
crooked whiskey, and thereby got them
selves turned out of Office 1t is vain to
deny that there is, and has been, a general
system of dishonesty pervading all ranks
of the civil service, which, 80 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 rascalty. 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 yenality and corruption
might otherwise have dwelt in safety.


In all ysur southern measures you
have shown a positive adherence of
honest government. You forced into all
places of power men whose characters
were notoriously bad, and maintained
them while they perpetratsd tn, 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
the fall of the f,lons with sincere
Just look at the crew of
goddess wretches by whom Louisiana has
been almost desolutedl In the face of a
interdict, your admnistra-
tion ut Washington repeatedly interfered
To shield them from justice, and to un.
fold 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, under
the protection of federal bayonets. Is
that what you call Furnishing your own
rascalsY


You may answer that the white people
of Louisiana, being conquered, are
rightiully enslaved, according TO the
principles planted at Plymouth, and
therefore il is not for the like of them TO
invoke the protection ofaw 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 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
rererring to this affair; you are the last
man upon whom would max personal
point, and could net do it here if |
would tIy; for the conviction | have
often expressed remains unchanged, tha,
your integrity was not stained by such
connection as you had with that bust
ness But we both know that it was the
most gigantic fraud that the history of
modern times discloses. The magnitude
of the iniquity 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 he 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
the sum which the United States will