Year: 1873

From the n. Y. Observer, Presbyterian,
THE GENERAL CORRUPTION OF PUBLIC


MEN.


1t was a self righteous Pharisee who
thanked God he was not like other men.
1t may soothe the wounded pride OF an
American citizen to be assured thatSinE
Rome and Athens i'm the days of their
material splendor, public men took bribes
and justice was bought for gold; that Ger
many, and France, and England have
long had Legislators and Judges who bought
their places as they do their meat that
ne who was called the greatest" was in
the same line written "the meanest OF
mankind"


But that is poor comfort. There stands
the fact, black, dreadful fact, that no
Polang Committee can extenuate, and no
Senatorial investigation can wash away,
that our United States Senators have pur-
chased their seats, and our Representa-
tives have taken wedges of gold and hid
them away out CT sght. The saint of
corruption is in the Halls of the National
Legislature.


Not less deplorable is the condition of
things in many of our State Legislatures
and City Governments The history of
the Southern States since the war is SIM
| ply repetition of the story of the Forty
| Thieves. Millions of money have been
raised by fraud, squandered by robbers or
carried of, and debts fastened upon an
impoverished people that no industry
self-denlal or financial ability can redeem.
Our own city is now groaning under a
debt of hundred millions, and after an
oppressed and Outraged people rose in
their might and drove the plunderers from
power, another setis preparing new chains
to tasten upon US, and at this moment
they are threatening TO impress a system
| upon the city that will in time re:nstate
the reign of thieves


We have made this rapid and impertoo
resume of the state of public morals from
the heart to the circumference of the
country, that we may inquire intelligent
/ ly as to the nature and effect of their ep-
ldemlc, and the probability of its being
arrested.


In former periods of our own history,
| as well as IN the history of other coun-
| tries, there have been notorious examples
OF corraptlon In public men, but never
has there been a time in the annals of
civilization when the Cursed lust of
gold" has so widely and generally eaten
| out the moral sense of the public men of
any nation. The Yazoo frauds of the
State Of Georgia will be recalled, when
almost the entire membership of the Leg
lslature took share in a speculation and
voted fer their own emolument.


But what makes the present state of
things SO fearful, Is the universally of the
| disorder. The whole head seems to be
sick. and the whole heart faint. From the
crow Of the head to the sole of the foot,
there is but little else than putrefying
! sores. Oakes Ames Is from Massachusetts
| and Pomeroy halls from Kansas, and the
w hEt he
of them are too numerous to mention
The contemplation of the picture is more
disgusting than the sight of hospital
| filled with the dying. The sick may be
healed Even the field that is covered
with the slain may be clothed anew with
Verdure and enriched with living harvests
But this Is moral corruption. 1t is almost
hopeless case.


The popularity of this disease in the
body polite is that it always and every
| where, a desire to get money. The ambI-
ton that Graves honor and power may be
laudable ana noble; and is, in true pa
-trlot and statesman. But these bad men
IN Congress, and the States and cities, seek
office only to make themselves rich 1t is
the worst kind of moral iaundlce, and the
| color of the complaint appears. This is
It's nature. 1t had a large development
IN the war of l86l-62. Wars always
breed race of Spectators who trade on
their country's need. The haste to be rich
| Is stimulating by opportunity. And with
the return OF peace bad men have pushed
on their schemes of plunder, the people
being their victims still. This is the form
this fraud has taken. 1t makes the pub
lie treasury its object, and in the name of
partisanlsm THAT last refuge of scOun-
drel, 1t fills Its pockets with the money
extorted by grleveus taxation from the
earnings Of an impoverished and conf
ding people.


So generally understood is this fact that
no legislation is thought of as possible,
unless money is freely used. No man
would 60 to Congress with bill, without
expecting to pay many bills before his,
however righteous, was passed. Money
Is the power behind the throne. Money
and money alone rules the State. Never
more tnan now, was mammon god of this
world. And the rebels in the wilderness
did not worship the golden calf more de-
votedly than the world now adores the
dollar. Lhe disease Is the love OF money,
which we have the highest authority for
saying is the root of all evil. And now
We ask, what is to be done about it2


The power is not yet IN the hands of
bad men. The power resides in the peo-
pie, and the people are not wholly lost
We know, for we have seen, that when
the people rise IN their might they can
drive the robbers out of power, into
their dens They did it last fall IN this
city. But Such spasms of virtue are not
cures they are the struggles of the pa
tient in the agony of disease, Even pub
lie journals that were their champions of
reform are eating their own words and
seeking to restore the same dangers from
which the city was delivered. We have
lost all faith IN party politicians. The
time has long since come when the men of
business and thought shold give attention
to their country. Because politics has
become loathsome, good men must take
hold and reform the abuses that make
them loatbsome. They must throw them
selves irto the fight, as they did in the
war, and as they would again if foreign
enemy should threaten our land with in
Vasion.


1t is in the power of no man to redeem
the country. But the responsibility is
upon each man as if he only and he alone
could do it. Thousands of men have re-
tired In disgust from the field of politics,
and many rehave been crowded out
by the machination of crafty and thieving
politicians who 60 not want good men in
their way. But they are bound to assert
themselves, and the people led by them
must taks hold of the best men, draw
them out from their retirement, thrust
power and responsibility upon them and
compel them to bear the honor and toll of
saving the State. We adopt the language
of the nation, and. we wish that the ma
ton would feel its force "If we want to
have men in public life who will not have
Oakes Ameses hanging about them and
offering them little pecpuiary favors, and
when charged with cutting down our
oherry-tree will stand up and own 1t, We