Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 July 1884 — Page 3

THE REPUBLICAN LEADER.

Full Text of Mr. Blaine’s Letter j Accepting the Presidential Nomination. An Abie Paper Wherein Vital Issues Are Discussed with Force and Eloquence. The Tariff—Foreign and Internal Commerce—The Currency—Civil Serv-ice-Other Topics. Avgusta, Me., July 15, 1884.— The Hon. John B. Henderson and otH.ers of the Committee etc., etc.—Gentlemen : In accepting the nomination for the Presidency tendered me by the Republican National Convention I beg to ex< press a deep sense of the honor whioh ia conferred and the duty which is imposed. I venture to accompany the acceptance with some observations upon the Questions involved in the contest—questions whose settlement may affect the future of the Nation favorably or unfavor- . ably for a long series of years. In enumerating the issues upon which the Republican party appeals for popular support the convention has been singularly explicit and felicitous. It has properly given the leading position to the industrial interests of the country as affected by the tariff bn imports. On this question the two political parties are radically in conflict Almost the first act of the Republicans, when they came into power in 1861, was the establishment of the principle of protection to American labor and to American capital. This principle the Republican party has ever since steadily maintained, while on the other hand the Democratic party in Congress has for fifty years persistently warred upon it. Twice within that period our opponents have destroyed tariffs arranged for protection, and since the close of the civil war, whenever they have controlled the House of Representatives, hostile legislation has been attempted—never more conspicuously than in their principal measure at the late session of Congress. THE TARIFF QUESTION. Revenue laws are in their very nature subject to frequent revision in order that they may be adapted to changes and modifications of trade. The Republican party is not contending for the permanency of any particular statute The issue between the two parties does not have reference to a suecific law. It is far broader and far deeper. It involves a principle of wide application and beneficent influence against a theory which we believe to be unsound in conception and inevitably hurtiijl in practice. In the many tariff revisions which have been necessary for the last twenty-three years, or which may hereafter become necessary, the Republican party has maintained and will maintain the policy of protection to American industry, while our opponents insist upon a revision which practically destroys that policy. The issue is thus distinct, well defined, and unavoidable. The pending election may determine the fate of protection for a generation. The overthrow of the policy means a large and permanent reduction in the wages ot the American laborer, besides involving the loss of vast amounts of American capital invested in manufacturing enterprises. The value of the present revenue system to the people of the United States is not a matter of theory, and I shall submit no argument to sustain it. I only Invite attention to certain facts of official record which seem to constitute a demonstration. In the census of 1850 an effort was made for the first time in our history to obtain a valuation of all the property in the United States. The attempt was in a large degree unsuccessful. Partly from lack qf time, partly from prejudice among many whd thought the inquiries f ore- . shadowed a new scheme of taxation, the returns were incomplete and unsatisfactory. Little more was done than to consolidate the local valuation used in the States for the purposes of assessment, and that, as every one knows, differs widely from a complete exhibit of all the propIn the census of 1860, however, the work was done with great thoroughness—the distinction between "assessed” value and "true” value being carefully observed. The grand result was that the “true value” of all the property in the States and Territories (excluding slaves) amounted to fourteen thousand millions of dollars ($14,000,010,0001. This aggregate was the net result of the labor and tue savings of all the people within the area of the United States from the time the first British colonist landed in 1607 down to the year 1860. It represented the fruit of the toil of 250 years. After 1860 the business of the country was encouraged and developed by a protective tariff. At the end of twenty years the total property of the United States, as returned by tie census of 1880, amounted to the enormous aggregate of forty-four thousand millions of dollars ($14,000,000,000). This great result was attained, notwithstanding the fact that countless millions had in the interval been wasted in the progress of a bloody war. It thus appears that while our population between 1860 and 1880 increased 60 per cent., the aggregate property of the country increased 214 per cent., showing a vastly enhanced wealth per capita among the people. Thirty thousand millions of dollars ($30,000,000,000) had been added during these twenty years to the permanent wealth of the Nation. These results are regarded by the older nations of the world as phenomenal. That our country should surmount the peril and the cost of a gigantic war and tor an entire period of twenty years make an average gain to its wealth of $125,000,000 per month surpasses the experience of all other nations, ancient or modern. Even the opponents of the present revenue system do not pretend that in the whole history of civilization any parallel can be found to the materialprogress ot the United States since th# accession of the Republican party to power. The period between 1860 and to-day has not been one of material prosperity only. At no time in the history of the United States has there been such progress in the moral and philanthropic field. Religious and charitable institutions, schools, seminaries, and colleges have been founded, and endowed far more generously than at any previous time in our history. Greater and more varied relief has been extended to human suffering, and the entire progress of the country in wealth has been accompanied and dignified by a broadening and elevation of our national character as a people. Our opponents find fault that our revenue system produces a surplus. But they should not forget that the law has given a specific purpose to which all of the surplus is profitably and honorably applied—the reduction of the public debt and the consequent relief qf the burden of taxation. No dollar has been wasted, and the only extravagance with which the party stands charged is the generous pensioning of soldiers, sailors, and their families—an extravagance which embodies the highest form of justice in the recognition and payment of a sacred debt. When reduction of taxation is to be made, the Republican 1 arty can be trusted to accomplish it in such form as will most effectively aid the industries of the nation. OUK FOREIGN COMMERCE. A frequent accusation by our opponents is that the foreign commerce of the country has steadily decayed under the influence of the protective tariff. In this way they seek to array the importing interests against the Republican party. It is a common and yet radical error to confound the commerce of the country with the carrying trade —an error often committed innocently, and sometimes designedly—but an error so gross that it does not distinguish between the ship and the cargo. Foreign commerce represents the exports and imports of a country, regardless of the nationality of the vessel that may carry the commodities of exchange. Our carrying trade has froin obvious causes suffered many discouragements since 1860, but our loreign commerce has in the same period steadily and prodigiously increased -increased, indeed, at a rate and to an amount which absolutely dwarf all previous developments of our trade beyond the sea. From 1860 to the present time the foreign commerce of the United States (divided with approximate equality between exports and imswrts) reached the astounding aggregate of twenty-four thousand minions of dollars ($24,000,0txi.000). The balance in this vast commerce inclined in onr favor, but it would have been much larger if our trade with the countries ot America—elsewhere referred to —had been more wisely adjusted. It is difficult even to appreciate the magnitude of otr export trade since iB6O, and we can gain a correct conception of it only by comparison with preceding results in the same field. The total exports from the United States from the Declaration of Independence in 1776 down to the day of Lincoln's election in iB6O, added to all that had previously been exported from the American Colonies from their original settlement, amounted to less than nine thousand millions of dollars ($9,000,000,000), On the other hand our exports from 1860 to the filose of the last fiscal year exceeded twelve thousand millions of dollars ($12,000,000,000)—the whole of it being the product of American labor. Evidently a protective tariff has not injured our export trade when, under its influence, we exported in twenty-tour years 40 per cent more than the total amount that had been exported in the entire previovs his < ry of American commerce. All the details, when analyzed, correspond with this gigantic result The commeroml cities o. the Union never had such growth as they have enjoyed si tree iB6O. Onr chief emporium, the city of New York, with its de-, pendencies, has within that period doubled her *i ■ ■

population and increased her wealth fivefold. During the same period the imports and exports which have entered and left her harbor are more than double in bulk and value the whole amount imported and exported by her between the settlement of the first Dutch colony on the island of Manhattan and the outbreak of the civil war in iB6O. 1 AGRICULTURE AND TARIFF. The agricultural interest is by far the largest in the nation, and is entitled in every adjustment of revenue laws to the first consideration. Any policy hostile to the fullest development of agriculture in the United States must be abandoned. Realizing this fact the opponents ot the present system of revenue have labored very earnestly to persuade the farmers of the United States that they are robbed by a protective tariff, and the effort is thus made to consolidate their vast influence in favor of free trade. But. happily, the farmers of America are intelligent and cannot be misled by sophistry when conclusive facts are before them. They see plainly that during the last twentyfour years wealth has not been acquired in any one section or by any one interest at the expense of another section or another interest. They see that the agricultural States have made even more rapid progress than the manufacting States. The farmers see that in 1860 Massachusetts and Illinois had about the same wealth—between $800,000,000 and $900,000,000 each—and that in 1880 Massachusetts had advanced to $2,600,000,000, while Illinois had advanced to $3,200,000,000. They see that New Jersey and lewa were just equal in population in 1860, and that in twenty years the wealth of New Jersey was increased by the sum of $850,000,000, while the wealth of lowa was increased by the sum of $1,500,000,0004 JThey see that the nine leading agricultural Sta'esof the "West had grown bo rapidly in prosperity that the aggregate addition to their wealth since iB6O Is almost as great as the wealth of the entire country in that year. They see that the South, which is almost exclusively agricultural, has shared in the general prosperity, and that, having recovered from the loss and devastation of war, it has gained so rapidly that its total wealth is at least the double of that which it possessed in 1860, exclusive of slaves. In these extraordinary developments the farmers see the helpful impulse of a home market, and they see that the financial and revenue system, enacted since the Republican party came into power, has established and constantly expanded the home market. They see' that even in the case of wheat, which is our chief cereal export, they have sold, in the average of the years since the close of the war, three bushels at home to one they have sold abroad, and that in the case of corn, the only other cereal which wo" export to any extent. 100 bushels have been used at home to three-and-a-half bushels exported. In some years the disparity has been so great that for every peek of corn exported 100 bushels have been consumed in the home market. The farmers see that, in the increasing competition from the grain-fields of Russia and from the distant plains of India, the growth of the home market becomes daily of greater concern to them and that its impairment would depreciate the value of every acre of tillable land in the Union, .-, r —■■—■ - OUR INTERNAL COMMERCE. ~~ Such facts as these touching the growth and consumption of cer als at home give us some slight conception of the vastness of the internal commerce of the United States. They suggest also that, in addition to the advantages which the American people enjoy from protection against foreign competition, they enjoy the advantages of absolute free trade over a larger area and with a greater population than any other nation. The internal commerce of our thirty-eight States and nine Territories is carried on without let or hindrance, without tax, detention, or governmental interference of any kind whatever. It snreads freely over an area of three and a half million square miles—almost equal in extent to the whole continent of Europe. Its profits are enjoyed to-day by 56,000,000 of American freemen, and from this enjoyment no monopoly is created. According to Alexander Hamilton, when he discussed the same subject in 1790, “ the internal competition which takes place does away with everything like monopoly, and by degrees reduces the prices of articles to the minimum of a reasonable profit on the capital employed.” It is impossible to point to a single monopoly in the United States that has been created or fostered by the industrial system which is upheld by the Republican party. Compared with our foreign commerce these domestic exchanges are inconceivably great in amount—requiring merely as one instrumentality as large a m lease of railway as exists to-day in all the other nations of the world combined. These internal exchanges are estimated by the Statistical Bureau pt' the Treasury Department to be annually twenty times as great in amount as our foreign commerce. It is into this vast field of home trade —at once the creation and the heritage of the American people—that foreign nations are striving by every device to enter. It is into this field that the opponents of our present revenue system would freely admit the countries of Europe—countries into whose internal tiade we could not reciprocally enter; countries to which we should be surrendering every advantage of trade; from which we should be gaining nothing in return. EFFECT UPON THE MECHANIC AND THE LABOBER. A policy of this kind would be disastrous to the mechanics and workingmen of the United States. Wages are unjustly reduced when an industrious man is not able by his earnings to live in comfort, educate bis children, and lay by a sufficient amount for the necessities of age. The reduction of wages inevitably consequent upon throwing our home market open to the world would deprive them of the power to do this. It would prove a great calamity to our country. It would produce a conflict between the poor and the rich, and in the sorrowful degradation of labor would plant the seeds of public danger. The Republican party has steadily aimed to maintain just relations between labor and capital, guarding with care the rights of each. A conflict between the two has always led in the past and will always lead in the future to the injury of both. Labor is indispensable to the creation and profitable use of capital, and capital increases the efficiency and value of labor. Whoever arrays the one against the other is an enemy of both. That policy is wisest and best which harmonizes the two on a basis of absolute justice. The Republican party has protected the free labor of America so that its compensation is larger than is realized in any other country. It has guarded our people against the unfair competition of contract labor from China, and may be called upon to prohibit the growth of a similar evil from .Eurone. It is obviously unfair to permit capitalists to make contracts for cheap labor in foreign countries, to the hurt and disparagement of the labor of American citizens. Such a policy (like that which would leave the time and other conditions of home labor exclusively in the control of the employer) is injurious to all parties—not the least so to the unhappy persons who are made the subject's of the contract. The institutions of the United States rest upon the intelligence and virtue of all the people. Suffrage is made universal as a just weapon of self-protec-tion to every citizen. It is not the interest of the republic that any economic system should be adopted which involves the reduction of wages to the hard standard prevailing elsewhere. The Republican party aims to elevate and dignify labor—not to degrade it. As a substitute for the industrial system which, under Republican administrations, has developed such extraordinary prosperity, our opponents offer a policy which is but a series of experiments upon our system of revenue—a policy whose end must be harm to our manufactures and greater harm to oiir labor. Experiment in the industrial and financial system is the country’s greatest dread, as stability is its greatest boon. Even the uncertainty resulting from the recent tariff agitation in Congress has hurtfully affected the business of the entire counifry. Who can measure the harm to our shopsand onr homes, to onr farms and our commerce, if the uncertainty- of perpetual tariff agitation is to be inflicted upon the country? We are in the midst of an abundant harvert; we are on the eve of a revival ot general prosperity. Nothing stands in our way bur the dread of a change in the industrial system which has wrought such wonders in the last twenty years, and which, with the power ot increased capital, will work stid greater marvels of prosperity in the twenty years to come. OUR FOREIGN POLICY. Our foreign relations favor onr domestic development. We are at peace with the world—at peace upon a sound basis, with no unsettled questions of sufficient magnitude to embarrass dr distract us. Happily removed by our geographic al position from participation orJn erest in those questions of dynasty or boundary which so frequently disturb the p< ace of Europe, we are left to cultivate friendly relations with all, and are free from possible entanglements- in the quarrels of any. The United States has no cause and no desire to engage in conflict with any power on earth, and we may rest in assured co tidence that no power desires to attack the United States. With the nations of the Western Hemisphere we should cultivate closer relations, and for our common prosperity and advancement we should invite them all to join with us in an agreement that, for the future, all international troubles in North or South America shall be adjusted by impartial arbitration and not by- arma. This project was part.of the fixed policy of President .Garfield's administration', and it should, in my judgment, be renewed. Its accomplishment on this continent would favorably affect the nations beyond the sea, aud thus power-ally contribute at no distant day to-the universal acceptance of the philanthropic and Christian principle of arbitration. The effect even of suggesting it for the Spanish-American States has been most happy, and has increased the confidence of those people in our friendly disposition. It fell to my lot as Secretary of State in June, 48B1» to

quiet apprehension in the Republic of Mexico by giving the assurance, in an official dispatch, that "there is not the faintest desire in the United States for territorial extension south of the Rio Grande. The boundaries of the two republics have been established in conformity with the best jurisdictional interests of both. I The line of demarkation Js not merely conventional. It is more. It separates a SpanishAmerican people from a Saxon-American people. It divides one great nation from another with distinct and natural finality.” We seek the conquests of peace. We desire to extend our commerce, and in an especial degree with our friends and neighbors on this continent We have not improved our relations with Spanish-America as wisely and as persistently as we might have done. For more than a gen- ' eration the sympathy of those countries has been allowed to drift away from us. We should now make every effort to gain their friendship. Our trade with them is already large. During the last year out exchanges in the Western Hemisphere amounted to #Bso,ooo,OoO—nearly onefourth of our entire foreign commerce. To those who may be disposed to underrate the value of our trade with the countries of North and South America it may be well to state that their population is nearly or quite 50,000,000, and that, in proportion to aggregate numbers, we import nearly double as much from them as we do from Europe. But the result of the whole American trade is in a high degree unsatisfactory. The imports during the last year exceeded $225,000,000, while the exports were less than $125,000,000—showing a balance against us of more than $100,000,000. But the money does not .go to Spanish America. We send large sums to Europe in coin or its equivalent to pay European manufacturers for the goods which they send to Spanish America. We are but paymasters for this enormous amount annually to European factors—an amount which is a serious draft, in every financial depression, upon our resources of specie. Cannot this condition of trade in great part be changed? Cannot the market for our products be greatly enlarged? We .have made a beginning in our effort to improve onr trade relations with Mexico, and we should not be content until similar and mutually advantageous arrangements have been successively made with every nation of North and South America. While the great powers of Europe ate steadily enlarging their colonial domination in Asia and Africa, it is the especial province of this country to improve and expand its trade with the nations of America. No field promises so much. No field has been cultivated so little. Our policy should bean American policy in its broadest and most comprehensive sense—a policy of peace, of friendship, of commercial enlargement. The name American, which belongs to us in our national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism. Citizenship of the republic must be the panoply and safeguard of him who wears it. The American citizen, rich or poor, native or naturalized, white or colored, must every where walk secure in his personal and civil rights. The republic should never accept a lesser duty, it can never assume a nobler one, than the protection of the humblest man who owes it loyalty—protection at home, and protection which shall follow him abroad into whatever laffil he may go upon a- lawful errand. THE SOUTHERN STATES. I recognize, not without regret, the necessity for sneaking of two sections of onr common country. But the regret diminishes when I see that the elements which separated them are fast disappearing. Prejudices have yielded and are yielding, while a growing cordiality warms the Southern and the Northern heart alike. Can any one doubt that between the sections confidence and esteem are today more marked than at any period in sixty years preceding the election of President Lincoln? This is the result in part of time and in part of Republican principles applied under the favorable conditions of uniformity. It would be a great calamity to change these influences under which Southern commonwealths are learning to vindicate civil rights, and adapting themselves to the conditions of political tranquillity and industrial progress. If there be occasional and violent outbreaks in the South against this peaceful progress, the public opinion of the country regards them as exceptional, and hopefully trusts that each will prove the last. The South needs capital and occupation, not controversy. As much as any part of the North the South needs the full protection of the revenue laws which the Republican party offers. Some of the Southern States have already entered upon a career of industrial development and prosperity. These at least should not lend their electoral votes to destroy their own future. Any effort to unite the Southern States upon issues that grow out of the memories of the war will summon the Northern States to combine in the assertion of that nationality which was their inspiration in the civil struggle. And thus great energies which shou d be united in a common industrial development'will be wasted in hurtful strife. The Democratic party shows itself a foe to Southern prosperity by always invoking and urging Southern political consolidation. Such a policy quenches the rising instinct of patriotism in the heart ot the Southern youth; it revives and stimulates prejudice; it substitutes the spirit of barbaric vengeance for the love of peace, progress, and harmony. THE CIVIL SERVICE. The general character of the civil service of the United States under all administrations has been honorable. In the one supreme test —the collection and disbursement of revenue-the record of fidelity has never been surpassed in any nation- With the almost fabulous sums which were received and paid during the late war, scrupulous integrity was the prevailing rule. Indeed, throughout that trying period it can be said, to the honor of the American name, that unfaithfulness and dishonesty among civil officers were as rare as misconduct and cowardice on the field of battle. The growth of the country has continually and necessarily enlarged the civil service, until now it includes a vast body of officers. Rules and methods of appointment which prevailed when the number was smaller have been found Insufficient and impracticable, and earnest efforts have been made to separate the great mass of ministerial officers from partisan influence and personal control. Impartiality in the mode of appointment to be based on qualification, and security of tenure to be based on faithful discharge of duty, are the two ends to be accomplished. The public business will be aided by separating the Legislative branch of the Government from all control of appointments, and the Executive Department will be relieved by subjecting appointments to fixed rules and thus removing them from the caprice of favoritism. But there should be rigid observance of the law which gives in all cases of equal competency the preference to the soldiers who risked their lives in defense of the Union. I entered Congress in 1863, and in a somewhat prolonged service I never found it expedient to request or recommend the removal of a civil officer, except in four instances, and then for non-political reasons which were instantly conclusive with the appointing power. The officers in the District, appointed by Mr. Lincoln in 1861, upon the recommendation of my predecessor, served, as a rule, until death or resignation. I adopted at the beginning of my service the test of competitive examination for appointments to West Point, and maintained it so long as I had the right by law to nominate a, cadet. In the case of many officers I found that the present law which arbitrarily limits the term of the commission offered a constant temptation to changes for mere political reasons. I have publicly expressed the belief that the essential modification of that law would be in many respects advantageous. My observation in the Department of State confirmed the conclusions of my legislative experience, and impressed me with the conviction that the rule ot impartial appointment might with advantage be carried beyond any existing provision of the civil-service law,. It should be applied to appointments in the Consular service. Consuls should be commercial sentinels—encircling the globe with watchfnlness for their country’s interests. Their intcl-( ligenoe and competency become, therefore, matters of great public concern. No man should be appointed to an American Consular who is not well instructed in the history and resources of his own country and in the requirements and langnag - of commerce of the country to which he is sent. The same rule should be applied even more rigidly to Secretaries ot Legation in our diplomatic service. Tee people have the right to the moat efficient agents in the discharge of public business, and the appointing power should regard this as the prior and ulterior consideration. THE MORMON QUESTION. Religions liberty is the right of every citizen of the republic. Congress is forbidden by the Constitution to make any law “respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” For a century, under this guarantee, Protestant and Catholic, Jew and Gentile, have worshiped God according to the dictates of conscience. But religious liberty ihust not be perverted to the justification of offenses against the law. A religious sect, strongly intrenched in one of the Territories of the Union, and spreading rapidly into four other Territories, claims th" right to destroy the great safeguard and muniment of social order, and to practice as a religious privilege that which is a crime punished with severe penalty in every State of the Union. The sacrednem and unity of the family must be preserved as the foundation of all civil government, as the source of orderly administration, as the surest guarantee of moral purity. The claim of the Mormons that they are divinely authorized to practice polygamy should no more be admitted than the claim of certain heathen tribes, if they should come among us, to continue the rite*of human, sacrifice. The law does not in erfere with what a man believes; it takes cognizance only of what he does. As Mormons are entitled to the same civil rigHs as others, and to these they must be confined. Polygamy can never receive national sanction or toleration by ad** mitring the community that uphold* it as a

State in the Union. Like others, the Mormons must learn that the liberty of the individual ceases w*ere the rights of society begin. OUR CURRENCY, The people of the United States, though often urged and tempted, have never seriously contemplated the recognition of any other money than gold and silver—and currency directly convertible into them. They have not done so, they will not do so, under any necessity less pressing than that of desperate war. The one special requisite for the completion of our monetary system is the fixing of the relative values of silver and gold. The large use of silver as the money of account among Asiatic nations, taken in connection with the increasing commerce of the world, gives the weightiest reasons for an international agreement in the premises. Our Government should not cease to urge this measure Until a common standard of value shall enable the United States to use silver from its mines as an auxiliary to gold in settling the balance of commercial exchange. THE PUBLIC LANDS. The strength of the republic is increased by the multiplication cf landholders. Our laws should look to the judicious encouragement of actual settlers on the public domain, which should henceforth be held as a sacred trust for the benefit of those seeking homes. The tendency to consolidate large tracts of land in the ownership of individuals or corporations should, with nrop -r regard to vested rights, be discouraged. One hundred thousand acres of land in the hands of one man is far less profitable to the nation in every way than when its ownership- is divided among 1,000 men. The evil of permitting large tracts of the national domain to be consolidated and controlled by the few against the many is enhanced when the persons controlling it are aliens. It is but fair that the public land should be disposed of only to actual settlers and to those who are citizens of the Republic, or willing to become so. OUR SHIPPING INTERESTS. Among our national interests one languishes —the foreign carrying trade. It was very seriously crippled in our eivil war, and another blow was given to it in the general substitution of steam for sail in ocean traffic. With a frontage on the two great oceans, with a freightage larger than that of any other nation, we have every inducement to restore our navigation. Yet the Government has hitherto refused its help. A small share es the encouragement given by the Government to railways and to manufactures, and a small share of the capital and the zeal given favour citizens to those enterprises. would have carried our ships to every sea and to every port. A law just enacted removes some of the burdens upon our navigation, and inspires hope that this great interest may at last receive its due share of attention. Ail efforts in this direction should receive encouragement. - SACBEDNESSOFTHEBALLOT. This survey of our condition as a nation reminds us that material prosperity is but a mockery if it does not tend to preserve the liberty of the people. A free ballot is the safeguard of republican institutions, without which no national welfare is assured. A popular election, honestly conducted, embodies the very majesty of true government. Ten millions of voters desire to take part in the pending contest. The safety of the republic rests upon the integrity of the ballot, upon the security of suffrage to the citizen. To deposit a fraudulent vdte is no worse a crime against constitutional liberty than to obstruct the deposit of an honest vote. He who corrupts suffrage strikes at the very root of free government. He is the arch-enemy of the republic. He forgets that in trampling upon the rights of others he fatally imperils his own rights. “It is a good land which the Lord our God doth give us,” but we can maintain our heritage only by guarding with vigilance the source of popular power. I am, with great respect, your obe-

dient servant.

The Presidency.

We print below a list of the successful and unsuccessful candidates for the Presidency, from Washington to Garfield: The Suecessfu.l The Unsuccessf uL George Washington, 1 K onnoHtt i on Virginia, eight years, f Mo opposition. John Adams, Massa- j Thomas Jefferson, Vir'chnsetts. four years. ) ginia. b—;- .John Adams-before the Thomas Jefferson, Vir-I people, Aaron Burr ginia, first term...... I before the House ot ’ Representatives. Thomas Jeffersou. Vir-) Charles C. Pinckney, ginia, second term... I South Carolina. James Madison, Vir-1 Charles C. Pinckney, ginia, first terms South Carolina. James Madison, Vir- IDe Witt Clinton, New ginia, second term... ( York. James Monroe, Virgin- I Rufus King, New ia, first term) York. Po opposition. John Q. Adams. Massa- ) chusetts, by House of 8 H eil rv Clav ’before RepresentativesJ ’ Andrew Jackson, Ten- ) John Q. Adams, Massanessee, first term. .... f chusetts. Andrew Jackson, Ten- ) Henry Clay, Kennessee, second term.. f tucky. Martin Van Buren, New William H. Harrison, Y0rk..... ....Ohio. William H. Harrison, Martin Van Buren,, 0hi0......New York. James K. Polk, Tennes- Henry Clay, Kensee tucky. Zachary Taylor, Louis- Lewis Cass, Michi iania gan. Franklin Pierce, New Winfield Scott, VirHampshire.. ginia. Jamesßuchanan.Penn- I John C.Fremont, South sylvania.. f Carolina. John E. Be'l, Tennesiv..l,..™ Ti-.nl— Tin see; John C. Breckin- ’ *We, Kentucky; and nois, first term, stephen A. Douglas, Illinois. Abraham Lincoln, Illi- George B. McClellan, nois, second term.... New Jersey. Ulysses S. Grant, Illi-I Horace Greeley, New nois, first term. | York. Ulj*sses 8; Grant; IHi- Horatio Seymour, New nois, second term.... York. R B. Hays, Ohio J ' TUden ’ New JamesAGarfield,Ohio. f W SJ B lva^ nC ° Ck '

Luxurious Tastes of a Defaulter.

[New York telegram.] Startling reports were circulated to-day regarding alleged embezzlements by confidential persons in the employ of Arnold, Constable & Co. These reports dealt chiefly with the name of Henry C. Pedder, the confidential manager of the firm's business. The firm” refused to make any statement about the alleged embezzlements, and Pedder refers inquirers to the firm. The fact became known to-day that Mr. Pedder, who arrived on the 14th inst. from Europe on the Servia, had transferred to the members of the firm on the next day his property at Llewellyn Park, N. J. The consideration was sl. Mr. Tedder's house is an enormous building, occupying one of the finest sites in the Park. All of the Park houses were eclipsed when Mr. Ped-, der erected his spacious and costly house. Standing on the mountain side, with the grounds sloping away in front of it, it commands a view of Orange, Bloomfield, and other towns.’ It is said that $75,000 was spent on the interior. The halls and rooms are finished in hardwood and decorated in accordancejrith expensive tastes. The whole property is valued at $200,000. Mr. Pedder began to work for Arnold, Constable & Co. at a salary of S6OO 'a year as an entry clerk. He is now about 45 years of age, and was supposed by his neighbors to be one of the partners in the firm, so that his liberal expenditures and luxurious tastes did not excite much wonder. He was a member and officer of a church. He has a wife, but no children of his own. The defalcation with which the manager’s name is connected is variously estimated from $200,000 to $600,000. Tedder’s style of living is said to have involved an expenditure of $50,000 per annum.

THIS AND THAT.

Mrs. Kate Chase Sprague is said to be studying painting in Paris. At a free iee-water tank in New York, over 1,200 pounds of ice were used in one dayFourteen foreign governments have secured space in the New Orleans Exposition. THE gift of the Grand Duke Sergius to his bride was a parure of diamonds costing SIOO,OOO. . . -p - The John Milton Bible recently purchased by the British Museum is said to have belonged to Mrs. Milton. B® ■■■■■_ ~ ■ ■ • - '. /< 1 ....... ■ t .... . i..

- “What’s the trouble now between you •Mid your pa?” asked the grocery man of the bad boy, as he came down the alley on a jump, after climb.ng over , the back fence at his house in a hurry, ; attired only in pants and shirt and a ■ cyat of prespiratidn. "There’s your pa ; looking over the fence now, and shak- ! ing a piece of barrel stave this way. 1 What have you been up to?” “O, just been doing what pa told me ■ to,“ said the boy, as he picked up the ' cover of a raisin box and began to fan himself. “You see. pa is one of these ■ funny fellows. ‘ln a cold day in winter , he will come to the table aud ask ina where his linen coat is, and why she don’t jint up the mosquito-bars. lie thinks it is smart. This morning it was hot enough to roast eggs on the sidewalk, and pa came down to breakfast and asked where his sealskin cap and gloveswere, and then he turned to me and said, ‘Hennery why haven’t yen built a tire in the furnace? Want us all to freeze to death ? If you ean’t keep a tire in the furnace I will know the reason why,’ and then he laughed, and w.ped the perspiration off his face. I thought it would be a good joke to take pa at his word, and show him that two could be cunning as well as one, so I went down in the basement aud built a tire in the furnace, with kindling wood, and put on a lot of coal. After breakfast pa sat down in the parlor to read the paper, and he began to get a hot box. It was warm enough without any tire, about ninety in the shade, and pa began to heat up. I went through the parlor and I said I guessed it was going to be a scorcher, and a man would get sunstruck if he went outdoors. Pa is afraid of being sunstruck, so he wouldn’t go out. He sat there trying to read, and pulled off his coat and vest and collar and cuffs and boots, and tried to find a cool, place. He went up stairs, but it was hotter there, and he came down, pulling. The minister and two deacons called to talk with pa about the picnic they are going to liave next week, and they said it was the hottest day ever was. Pa said if hell was any hotter than Milwaukee it had no charms for him, and the minister said this weather was a refrigerator car in comparison with what pa would encounter hereafter if he didn’t change his course. Pa was mad at the minister for beiug so personal, but he went on talking about the picnic. The minister looked at the thermometer, and it was a hundred and six, and he said he didn’t go out of that house till after suudown, not if he knew it. Pa suggested that the minister and the deacons take off their coats and things, and so they stripped off their things and sat around and lo;led. The minister said as pa was the committee on lemonade for the picnic he had better make some then, so that they could see if he knew h.s business, and pa sent me to the kitchen to make some. There was only one lemon, so I asked the girl for some lemon extract, and she gave me a bottle of citrate of magnesia, which she said was so near like lemonade they couldn’t tell the difference, and I poured a quart of that in the lemonade pitcher, aud sweetened it and took it in the parlor. Well, you’d a dide to see them drink it, and perspire. They talked picnic and looked at the thermometer, and spoke disrespectfully of the weather, and I sat around and watched them from on top of the ice-box about au hour, when suddenly they didn’t drink any more lemonade - , cause it was all gone. Pa went in the kitchen, and I saw him examining the bottle that I got the lemon extract out of, and he picked up a piece of barrel-stave and went back in the parlor, and just then the minister, iyho had sat his chair over the register, to get the draft of cold air, told pa there was hot air coming up the register, and pa and the deacons examined all the registers, and found that the air was hot, and then they looked at each other, and pa came to the door and spoke kindly and said: ‘ Hennery, come in here, your pa wants to speak to you about something,’ but I knew he was holding that barrel stave behind him to hide it, and I didn’t come here, Hennery,’ not very much. I think a boy can ’most always tell when it is healthy not to ‘come here, Hennery.’ Just as the minister looked at the thermometer and said it was a hundred and twenty, and ma came in the front door from her marketing, and shouted fire, I went out the back way ami got dver the fence a little ahead of the barrel stave, which struck the fence right under me. I ain’t no coward, but I am like the fellow that run away from the fight and said, as soon as the chairs and bungstarters began to fly through the air, he decided to get out honorably, and the only way to get out honorably was to get out quick. Pa will get over being mad at 12 ;30, and I will go home to dinner; I guess the picnic meeting has adjourned, as the minister and the deacons are coming up the sidewalk with their coats on their arms. Pa is one of these fellows that likes a joke if it is on somebody else. The other day a friend*was at onr house, and pa wanted to play a joke on him, so he said he would get him around back of' the house, and get him into a ham- i mock, and as soon as he was in he wanted me to reach around the corner of the house and cut the hammock rope on the tree and let him down. When I thought it was about time for pa to get the man in the hammock, I cut the rope and came out to help pa laugh at the fellow. I laughed, but I I was surprised to find that the fellow was sitting on a bench and pa had gone down with the ’ hammock, and he was making up the awfulest face ever was. His pante were split from Dan to Beersheba, and he made a dent in the ground as big as a six-quart milk pan. The feller laughed, but pa was mad, and said I didn’t have no sense. He wanted to know why I didn’t look what I was doing, and when I told him I did, he was mad again, and said I didn’t have no veneration, how was I to blame? I did just as pa told me to. How was I to know it was pa in the hammock instead of the other fellow. It is mighty hard to do everything right, ain’t it? Don’t you think our folks are in luck that I do so few things wrong?” The grocery man said he (thought, they were in luck that they weje alive,

JAMES G. BLAINE.

THE BAD BOY.

I and as the bad boy went opt the back I door his pa came in the front door and asked the price of lettnee, and looked all around the store as though he had lost something about’ the size of the , bad boy.— Peck's Sun. .

The Coming Man.

| “De cornin’ man hasn’t come yet," said Brother Gardner. “No, gem’len, !de cornin’ man hasn’t arrove in dis ; kentry yet, an’ if de rheumatics keeps !on boderin’ me I can’t expect to be on ! airth when be gets heah, an* take him I by the hau’ an’ tell him how powerful ! glad lis to see him. But some of) our chill’en may lib to see him, an’ dar will lie sich a celebrasbun as no Fo’th of July kin hold a candle to. “lie cornin’ man, my friends, will go to Congress unpledged an’ come home unbribed, an’ widout fear of meetin’ de people who sent him dar. “Deeomjn’ man will lie Jected State, County, or City Treasurer, an’ when his term has expired his books will balance an’ his acconnts will be squar* tea cent “De cornin’ man will have a reverence fur de Constitusbun of de Union an* a respect fur da laws of his own State. "De cornin’ man will look sternly upon embezzlement, bribery, an’all sorts of fraud, an’he will take a squar’ stand upon an honest polytical platform. “If de cornin’ man should happen to be ’lected to de Common Council de people of dat city would h’ar such a rattlin’ an’ sbakin’ of dry bones dat de music of ten brass bands couldn’t drown de noise. “As I menshuned befo’, de cornin’ man hasn’t got lieah yet, an’ when I pick upsde daily paper an’ scan de daily record of crime I can't help but feel dat de hero will find sich a job laid out fur him dat he will go down into his butes an’ nebber be seen nor heard of again. "While I don’t want to occupy de waluable time of dis meetin’ ober an hour an’ a-half furder. I feel it nty—dooty to remark dat dis Lime-Kiln Club isn’t gwine to wait fur any cornin’ man to come. De Committee on Finance am gwihe to look into our lodge safe once a week.all freu de y’ar, an’ if ’ de money doan’ tally wid the Secretary’s figgers a cyclone will begin to circle. While de janitor of dis club am only allowed to handle 17 cents per week, de fust time he makes seven an’ five count up thirteen he will be missed from his accustomed paths.“While dar am naterally a fraternal feelin’ in a lodge of dis sort, dat feelin’ must chop squar’ off when a brudder member am seen promenadin’ down to de stashun in company wid a purleeceman. Love one anoder, but return borrowed money exactly when you promise. Stan’ by a member in distress, but let hiui know dat as soon as he gits well he will be expected to aim his own meat an’ ’taters an’ fiah-wood. Anticipate a reduckshun in house-rent, but doan’ move out in de night owin’ de landlord back rent. Be obleegin’, but when a man returns your coffy-mill minus de handle an’ boas cog-wheels doan’ fail to drap a hint dat it would be less trubble fur him to drink tea or pound his coffee in a rag.”— Lime-Kiln Club Papers. .

Keep Your Lips.

In the desire to make a girl feel at home and pleased with her place, the young housekeeper is sometimes apt to take her too closely into her confidence, especially if she is a pleasant girl and useful in the house. But it is a very dangerous practice and almost always makes trouble. All may go well while she is with you, but in the chances and changes of life she may, and probably will, drift into some other kitchen, where all the news she has gathered in yours may be rehearsed without stint. She will not discriminate with regard to those things you have strictly enjoined her “not to tell. ” In fact, those will likely be the first points “fished out” of her by some meddlesome woman. There is a surprising enjoyment in being the first to “tell news,” and an inexperienced, undisciplined girl will rarely be found who can resist the temptation. You can treat a girl with perfect kindness and yet not give yourself into her power. Keep own counsel about your own affairs, Do not let her sympathy or great interest beguile yon into relating what you are not quite willing to have told over in other places. —Rural New Yorker.

Misdirected Mail Matter.

People in general have but a faint conception of the enormous amount of misdirected mail matter which passes through the mails annually. In the Boston office last year there were 49,000 letters wrongly addressed, and in all these cases the proper addresses were ascertained and the letters forwarded to their destination, and yet people wonder why their letters are delayed, although it is owing to their own carelessness. Of course, the Postoffice officials are not responsible, but many people fail to see where the trouble lies. In further evidence of the want of care on the part of the public, it is stated that the number of letters sent to the Dead Letter Office during last year was nearly 4,500,000, or an average of 14,50.) per day. These letters contained no less than SIOO,OOO in cash, and checks to the amount of $1,500,000. —Boston Herald.

A Singular Coincidence.

1 A gentleman from the North was spending a few days in Austin. He was stopping with a leading citizen, whose acquaintance he had made. As they entered the house, the stranger asked: “Haven’t you got any old relics as curiosities of the Texas revolution ?” “Allow me to introduce you to my mot responded the'Austin . man, as that old lady, the widow of a Texas veteran, stepped up to meet them. —Texas Siftings, Apple blossoms are now worn by Boston brides. Whisky blossoms have * long been worn by many Boston bridegrooms. . ■ . ■ ■*’.■ Down in New Jersey they are palming off canned mosauitoos for potted lobsters.