Democratic Sentinel, Volume 6, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 June 1882 — AN UNHOLY ALLIANCE. [ARTICLE]

AN UNHOLY ALLIANCE.

The Republican -and Creenbacker Coalition. [Washington Cor. New York Sun.] The corrupt coalition between the Republicans and Greenbackers of the House of Representatives stands upon the same footing as that made with Mr. Mahone. It is simply an exchange of votes for offices. By this bargain and sale the Republicanshave already turned out four Democrats, regularly elected and certified, and put in three Republi - cans and one Greenbacker, who were not elected. It was a repetition of the great fraud of 1876, on a smaller scale. This coalition was purchased primarily to get additional votes, whereby a quorum might be more securely commanded, but really in the hope of breaking the Southern column at the fall elections. The Republican leaders look forward despondently to the complexion of the next House of Representatives. They realize that the discords in New York, in Pennsylvania, in Ohio, in Indiana, and in other States must endanger many Congressional districts heretofore regarded as certain. They have to confront a large loss in the German vote, caused by obnoxious sumptuary laws. This flank movement by a trade with the Greenbackers was intended to offset these losses partially, if possible. The managers intend to revive the old game of intimidation, .by organizing deputy marshals, internal revenue officials, Postmasters, Collectors and the like into a regular partisan force. The Attorney General set this ball in motion at the recent election trials in South Carolina. The day for this foul business has gone by. Outrages can no- longer be successfully manufactured for partisan effect And force is a two-edged sword, dangerous to handle in politics. • Whoever attempts to reopen the old wounds will suffer in the experiment. The country wants repose from sectional strife, and will have it at any cost. • The disgraceful coalition with Mahone and his freebooting followers has ended in the dishonor of those engaged in it, and in the profit of Mahone and Riddleberger, who gained seats in the Senate at the expense of the administration. The speculators in Virginia bonds who had control of the Legislature at Richmond filled their pockets, and the 90,000 Republicans who served as Mahone’s pawns on the chessboard, and who were duped into a eoalition with less than onethird of their number, came out penniThe best Republicans of Virginia, who have heretofore given character to their parts home and abroad, propose to hold an early convention, at which they propose to repudiate the repudiator. They refused to support his mixed ticket last fall, and the results they then predicted in case of its success have been verified. This movement, in* addition to the break up among the Readjusters, will rout the Mahoneites at the coming election. In fact, that shameless coalition had nothing to stand upon after the offices and the patronage were distributed. So far from helping a crusade in the South, the violent rulings of the Speaker prepared by his keepers before the points were made in the House, and read when they were only partially presented, will go far to solidify the votes of that outraged people. He was backed by a revolutionary majority composed of Republicans and Greenbackers, who strangled free speech and denied the minority rights that have never been disputed under Democratic ascendency. These extreme courses only show the desperation of the party and of what its leaders are capable in their efforts to retain power. The calm judgment of the country will not sustain this violence, which, if permitted to continue, would soon Mexicanize our institutions and leave the republic a prey to the bloodv strifes that are now desolating South America. The remedy for this and for similar evils is to be found at the ballot box. Justice may be delayed by folly or by blunders, but it will overtake the guilty sooner or later. The day of settlement is now near at hand.

Calling In the Party Assessments. The political managers have heretofore carried assessments upon officeholders to an extreme point. In 1880 they levied three separate and successive “voluntary contributions” on the clerks and messengers at Washington, including the poor women in the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, and in the Government Printing Office. The Hon. J. A. Hubbell, of Michigan, Garfield’s “My dear Hubbell,” being Chairman of the Republican Congressional Committee, sent his agents through all the departments on pay day to collect these levies. Refusal was followed by prompt dismissal. That was the law of the party, enforced by orders of members of the Cabinet under the late administration. This practice is now in active operation. All the officers of the House of Representatives have been taxed 2 per cent, on their salaries, and the pages, generally the children of impoverished widows, have been compelled to pay $lO each to aid in electing Republican members of Congress. The recent trial of Gen. Curtis in this city for this very offense is treated as a trifle unworthy of serious thought. Even in high quarters the law prohibiting assessments is regarded as an expression merely of sentimental politics. The lawmakers themselves look upon it with contemptuous indifference. Mr. Van Wyck, of Nebraska, has brought the subject before the Senate in a preamble and resolution which recite a recent circular of the Republican party, as follows: Under the circumstances in which the country finds itself placed, the committee believes that you will esteem it both a privilege and a pleasure to make to its fund a contribution which it is hoped may not be less than . The committee is authorized to state that such voluntary contributions from persons employed in the service of the United States will not be objected to in any official quarter. Please make prompt and favorable response to this letter, by bank check, or draft, or money order. This circular emanates from the ConSessional Committee, and My Dear übbell is the custodian of the fund thus extorted from officeholders of every degree. The administration is in full sympathy with this mode of collecting money for the coming campaign, and it accepts the formula of “voluntary contributions” invented by Carl Schurz and the civil-service reformers under Hayes to cover their forcible levies in aid of Garfield’s election. In this respect there is no practical difference between the professional reformers and the other wing of the party, <bo “spit upon the platform.” The former turn up the white of the eve in horror 1 at assessments, but they collect the samq

toll as the latter imposes, iu the form of “ voluntary contributions,” with a tax gatherer to call the roll, and to compel the payment of the 2 per cent.—-New lorA Sun.

Duties on Luxuries and Necessaries. Many people think our present tariff bears heaviest on articles of luxury. The following table will disabuse them on this point, and afford food for reflection in the present contest between capital and labor. With 99 per cent on steel rails, and with the rapid substitution of steel for iron rails on our railroads one would think that the workers in steel-rail mills should be paid enough to keep them from striking. Here is the table: DUTIU ON LUXURIXS. Per Cent. Lacea, cords, gimps, braids to Diamonds PJ Embroideries J" Fancy articles "*■ Richest kinds of cut glass Jewelry ’’ Musical instruments •«’ Champagne, in pints. Champagne, in quarts, $0 per dosen Still wines, in bottles «2!< DUTIKH ON NXOKSBITUCS. • < /Vr <vnf. Cleaned rice.' Epsom salts Chicory Spool thread "’M Window glass, commonSß'jifti.l Band and hoop iron 75 Boiler plates 6,1 Horseshoe nails Locomotive tiros. Steel rails HU Castor oil UH Croton oil l Paris white 240 Balmoral alpaca 01 Blankets, valued at bf>s.[ cents per pound.. 811'4 Woolen hosiery, valued at CO cents per pound 100J4 Bunting, valued at 23 cents per pound.... 121