Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 September 1884 — An Admirable Address. [ARTICLE]

An Admirable Address.

(New York Herald.) An address drafted by Hon. Charles W. Dayton, one of the Presidential electors upon the 1 Democratic electoral ticket of the State of .New York, has been issued to the voters of this city by the Harlem Democratic Club, of which Mr. Dayton is a member. The address, referring to the suggestion that the surdlus revenue be divided among the States, quotes from President Jackson’s memorable statement in the same connection. It says. The scheme of the Republican party to distribute the surplus of the TAeasuryfamong the States, without reduciug taxation is no novelty in the history of the country. Nearly fifty years ago a President of the United States said to ■ 1 . 'pie in prophetic words: “i> .’.signing politicians, to conciibte the favor of corporations and wealthy individuals, and to obtain the means of profuse expenditure will endeavor to seduce and mislead T > citizens of the several bud... y aiding out to. them the deceitful prospect of the benefit to be derived from a s : . revenue collected by r; ueral government and annually divided among the States * " * It is a system of hih;stice, and if persisted in vblJ inevitably lead to corruption, and must end in ruin

The surplus revenue will be drawn from the pockets of the people—from the farmer, the mechanics and the laboring classes of society; but who will receive it when distributed among the States, where it is disposed of by leading State politicians, who have friends to favor and political partisans to gratify. It will certainly not be returned to those who paid it, and who have most need of it, and are honestly entitled to it. “If the income of the government is found to exceed its wants, it should be forthwith reduced, and the burdens of the people so far lightened.” This note of warning is pregnant with meaning today. At no time is a people more in danger than when lulled into a feeling of security by evidence of prosperity. At such a time political duties become a burden to all except those who make a business of politics” by manipulating party machinery so as to control and fatten upon a listless constituency. A quarter of a century ago, the “Republican party,” led by true men, and having a great purpose, successfully appealed to the majority of our countrymen. That mission ac complished, one by one the leaders retired. For the last fifteen.years the camp followers of that once mighty host thriving upon a credulous people, have assumed this name their worthier predecessors bore, and prostituted the Nation’s fame. Frauds md corruptions unexampled n our annals followed in their tortuous path, and by ipenly violating official trusts they have sown broadcast the seeds of national decay, until anally, with honor dead and glorying in their shame, these amping-followers, yclept the Republican part y,” have ilaced at the head of their ticket an active participant ,md a chosen leader in methods abhorrent in the depavity )f their conception and disgraceful in the audacity of heir execution. Courts and juries have pass* ;d upon crimes commit:ed under the auspices •if some of the most prominent and favored champions of the recent organiza ion of that party, while uni- - /ersal execration has been isited npon many of its cherished members for offenses of he gravest .character. By these men, these methods, and “this party,” in its >atter days every artery of government has been poisoned, and yet you are asked to renew their lease of power. Thus the all important, indeed the only question now s: What shall be done to save he Republic from the. insidous control of such men and ’uch methods? There is but one answer— Reform rndpurify the adminstrat'on. (Tan tnat be done by the men and the methods

of the “Republican party” as it now exists? No blatant professions of a “foreign policy,” no deceitful appeals to r ‘labor” should serve to obscure this paramount issue. Fellow-citizens, whatever your past or present “party” affiliations, you who love your country and hope for the continuance of its greatness, we earnestly ask yon to press forward in aid of administrative reform! Grover Cleveland and Thomas A. Hendricks embody in their careers the highest encouragement of the belief that, when elected, as we are convinced they must be, honest men devoted to honest methods will re-establish and enforce in every department of the government the doctrine that “public office is a public trust,” the only foundation upon which our Republic can confidently abide