Year: 1875

the following very pertinent and
sensible article in recent number
of The Western Rural, which is
worthy the perusal and considera-
tion of every reading person


The whiskey frauds now being
investigated by the Government
should furnish fresh incentive to
renewed action on the part of tax
payers and patriots in behalf of
political reform. The developments
thus far made are of the most as
founding and alarming character.
Men who have hitherto been re-
garded as the governments most
trusty supporters, and whose lives
have been to all appearances, par
agons OF virtue and integrity, have
been found at the very bottom of
this pool Of corruption which the
uthorities have been stirring at ST.
Louis. The false covering of char
acter has been torn from them, and
they stand before an astonished and
appalled, country, reeking with filth
and blackened with the most de-
liberate treachery, conspiracy and
per jury Of which a body of Amer.
lean citizens were ever guilty. The
expose has a deploIabie stroug ten
dency to destroy al! faith in the
reality OF patriotism or the capa-
bilities of human nature for anything
except evil and groveling. The
average observer will soon conclude
if such delinquences continue to
multiply in the future as they have
in the past, that opportunity is all
that is needed for the noblest of
the race to become the meanest.
The fall Of men in high places
seems no longer to be question of
temptation and conquered weakness,
deserving pity and forgiveness, but
the result of Il studied exposure to
the influences which blunt conscience
and an intelligent and willing en-
brace of the most fragrant icked-
ness. The more intelligent, ex-
allied and respected men have be-
come, the darker have been their
villalnies in many instances, and
/ the question as to whether our
boasted civilization is not failure,
forces itself upon many mind,
which, in its hopefuIness, is un-
wiling to contemplate it.


1t is true thatthese whiskey frauds
are the fruits Of the most fertile
source of decentralization that exists.
1t seems almost impossible for any
man, however upright in the begin
ming, to have anything to do with
rum and escape moral ruin in the
end. 1t will make a good man a
villain IN an astonlshingly brief
period of time. But that does not


alter the unfortunate fact that men


seem willing, not to say anxious, to
be converted into villains.


But how long can a republican
government exist in the midst Of
such corruption and want of moral
character How long Will the tax
payer look calmly on without
serious remonstrance, upon the
plundering of the public treasury


by government officials and their
friends? Matters in this country
can not go on as they have for
few years past, and the future hold
Ianythlng encouraging for the Amer
lean Republic. We can not con-
tlnue to be Inundated by the expose
of private and official corruption
and maintain our self-respect, and
when, that is gone, country is
gone.


And the saddest thing connected
with the subject is that the people
do not seem to realize this :; indeed
they appear totally oblivious to the
fact that official and private honesty
and integrity are on the wane and
that corruption is flooding the land,
And it is from this criminal sleep
that we would. arouse every reader
OF this paper. "Eternal vigilance
is the price ofhberty." This. repub-
lie is all right, and it's future will be
glorious, if the people do not 90 to