Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 September 1884 — STEEPED IN CORRUPTION. [ARTICLE]

STEEPED IN CORRUPTION.

§■ Republican Review of the Re- ■ publican Party’s Record. SB the History of Extravagance and H Shameless Jobbery That Has H Disgraced Their Party H Since the Advent H of Grantlsm. §H The address to the public bv the Committee of labile Hundred, represendng the anti-Blaine P.eof Massachusetts, contains the follow- ■ *We are told that the past of that party is and that we are therefore bound to |Hnpport its candidate to-day. We yield to in our pride at its great achieveor in our devotion to its principles, but the lesson of its past is forgotten its principles are abandoned, its name can not command our allegiance. The is uot what the Republican party lias but what it will do; not what it was, but jHrbat it is; not whether Lincoln and Seward and Bnmner and Andrew and Stanton and Fessenwere great men and leaders, but whether and Robeson and Keifer and Elkins and and Kellogg are men to whom we can confide the future of our coufitrv. bor years corruption in high office has been jjHxmspicuous. It has shown itself in every deof the public service. W T e have seen a 1 resident driven into private life by proof personal dishonesty; a Secretary of War imfor participation in felony; a Secretary the Navy charged with corrupt practices aud office under a cloud of suspicion, only to as a Republican leader in the House of a Secretary of the Interior ■forced from his office by charges affecting his and official character; an Attorney compromised by evidence of petty ■brand, We have not forgotten Colfax and BelKnap and Robeson and Delano and Williams. “In the Treasury Department we have seen officers implicated in Sanborn con■fcracfs and suspected of complicity in the gigantic ■conspiracy to defraud the revenue known as ■the ‘ whisky ring,’ and the private secretary of ■the President indicted as a conspirator, while ■the Minister who sought to punish the criminals ■was dismissed from office, in the Postoffice ■Department we have seen an Assistant Secre■tarv conspiring with Senators of the United ■States in ‘ star-route ’ frauds, and the conspira■tors boldly defying the Government, which was ■powerless to secure justice in its capital city. ■we have seen the last Republican Speaker dis■graced by proof that he had shamefully abused ■his appointing power, and in the face of this evi■deuce, which has destroyed the confidence of ■his constituents, again the chosen candidate of ■the Republican party for the same high office, ■in the Signal Service we have seen a superinfend■ent, in the Treasury Department a chief (jferk, ■and in other departments trusted officers, guilty ■of stealing the public money. We haVe seen ■the guilty protected, but we have yet to see ■them punished. We have seen the whole pa■tronage of tne Federal Government used openly ■to support a leader in Virginia whose principles ■of repudiation and whose methods violate ev- ■ ery rule of political morality. We have seen ■the public business neglected, the reform of the ■civil service sneered at, and political assess ■ ments levied in defiance of party promises and ■public opinion, until the wave of popular indig■aation forced a reluctant Congress to inaugu- ■ rate relorm. The evils of a debased currency ■have been disregarded; our navy is a monument ■of maladministration; the surplus, with all its ■ temptations to extravagance, remains substan- ■ tially undiminished. ■ “Finally, we have seen the Republican party ■relying for its continuance in power not on its ■own achievements but on the mistakes of its ■opponents, and we have seen its leaders not ■-seeking to prevent but to encourage these mis- ■ takes, in order that thereby, at their country’s ■ expense, they might be furnished with argu- ■ ments for their continuance in power. We have ■seen all these things, and have been told that ■ the party must be reformed from within; that ■ our remedy lay in its caucuses and conventions. ■ For years we have yielded to this advice, and ■ have struggled against the men who have ■ sought to use the party for base, personal ends. ■At times we have thought them beaten, and ■ have hoped that the party, which was once so ■ great, might emancipate itself from the control ■of the men who had degraded it, and reassert ■ its original character. Instead, we now see ■ these men promoted and their influence in- ■ creased, while under their inspiration the party ■ turns its back upon its principles, and, in place ■of declaring in clear words its., policy on tbe ■ questions of the day, by equivocal declarations ■ And unmanly appeals to prejudice, seeks to ■ secure votes only to perpetuate the power of its ■ managers, and not to advance the prosperity of ■ thenountry. ■ “Its candidate for President is a man charged ■ with the basest of public crimes—the abuse 4 of ■ official power for his own pecuniary advantage ■ —who for eight years has never dared to demand 9 that full Investigation of the charges which his ■ political associates would gladly have accorded, ■ and by which alone those charges can be met. ■ Upon the evidence already produced we believe ■ Rim guilty, and we know that many of his prom- ■ inent supporters share our belief. Their decla- ■ rations before his nomination, their silence or ■ their guarded language in public addresses ■ -since, are conclusive evidence of this He is ■ «onvtcted by his own statements of deliberate ■ falsehood on the most solemn occasion. The ■ men who in the past have disgraced the Repub- ■ lican party are united in his support, and ad- ■ mitted to a controlling influence in the conduct ■ -of his campaign, while of the honest men who ■ Are joined with these the leaders are largely ■ either holders of or candidates for public office, ■ who urge their fellow-citizens to follow them 1 mofieto preserve the party than because they ■ - Approve its chief. In fine, the Republican party ■ has to-day no policy which it dares to avow and ■ a leader whom it can not defend. At this very I moment it forms an alliance In West Virginia I with the advocates of dishonest money; in 1 Washington political assessments are attempted I under disguise. I “It is idle to hope that, with such leadership, the abuses of the past can be corrected or the party reformed. Under the influences which now dominate its councils the tendency must be downward: andthereis.no clearer proof that this tendency exists than the fact that honest men are found ready to tolerate and excuse •offenses which a few years ago would have made the offender Infamous. We see in in■creasmg fldelity to party great dangers to our Government, and it is an omen of disaster when Ihis fldelity leads men of character and position to throw their influence in favor of dishonesty and to mislead their fellow-citizens by misrepresenting the facts and obscuring the Issue. The fascination of the name Republican’ has made men blind to offenses which Otherwise they would condemn. It is our imperative duty, therefore, to disregard the appeals to party spirit, which, in the language of Wa&iington, it is ‘the Interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain,’ and to •consider how best we can stay the progress of oorruption in the Government of our country. “Leaving to Congress the great questions of policy which must be questions of And reserving the right to vote in Congressional elections for such men as represent our opinion •on these questions, intending in the State to vote in the future as we have in the past, we see Ih the Presidential contest' a simple issue. Our platform is the single principle that none but men of proved integrity should be supported for public office, and that the use of official power for personal ends is a breach of trust which should disqualify for the public service those who are guilty of it. A party nomination which violates this principle must not only forfeit our support but incur our unswerving opposition. By the nomination of James G. Blaine the Republican party has thrown down the gauntlet .for partisan government. The Democratic party answers the challenge. Its •candidate is the acknowledged champion of reform and political honesty. The issue is thus joined. The leaders are representative men, the foremost of their kind, and we cannot for an Instant hesitate in our choice or donbt what the true interests of onr country demand. We do not ally ourselves -with the Democratic party, •still less sanction or approve its past, but its present candidate has pr. ved his fldelity to the principles we avow, and in the coming election he commands and will receive onr support. “For these reasons we urge our fellow-cltfeens to unite with ns in our efforts to secure the election of Gov. Cleveland, and to organize In their respective neighborhoods, that the vote of Massachusetts may be given in November for honest government.”