Rensselaer Union, Volume 10, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 May 1878 — NOTIONS. [ARTICLE]

NOTIONS.

When men are heard on the streets and in public places whining about the corruption which has crept Into the republican party because it has been in power a fe\v years, and they glow eloquent as they tell what better tliingH nro to come with a change, it leaves a bnd flavor on the breath to think that tliatsume.indivldual might occasionally grab a little buck pay if an opportunity to do so wns pointed out by an imported democratic cnid’Ct bagger. And a notion comes sneaking up by tho back door and peeps through the window of the mind, taps on the pane and whispers: “A back pay grnbbcr is not gord material out of which to make a reform leader!" , When one listens a few minutes to the harangue of an able servant of the Lord as lie inveighs in hitter terms against the wickedness nnd corruption of the republican party—the only political party in the United States which has neverabused ministers of the gospel for cultivating and expressing political opinions—atid then he glances backward down the receding vista of the past to the days when this holy man of God was preaching Christ on the Sabbath day find served the devil .during the week by peddling whiskey to the members of Ids church, without license, in violation of the laws, swindling the government out of its revenue tax—an* other notion comes sneaking up beside the first, taps on the window pane of the mind and blandly smiles as it gently remarks: "A government swindler is not the best material out of wliieli to bujlrt a reform leader!” When one sits a while and hearkens to the teachings. of a full-blown national who became a candidate for office on the democratic ticket us soon after be was a c-iti/.en of the county as theopportunity presented—when one hears him tell how corrupt the republican party, with which lie never acted, has become, nnd how pure the callow national party is, and how a few years of power has made the republican pnrty corrupt,- and how holding office makes men corruptnow if the listener is a real kindhearted philanthropic person, another notion will quietly slip up and join (lie two peeping through tiie back window, tap gently on the pane’ and sadly muse: ‘‘What a pity to !3fld this disinterested saint and innoedfit infantile party into temptation!" Hob’ asses!

Gold and silver coin have an iirtrinsic va’ue of their own independent of any stamp or device of any govern - meat. Take a ten dollar gold coin, throw it into a melting pot, and pour out tile uiolten mass which upon cooling is an irregular slug of shining metal, with neither stamp or letter or figure upon it, and still that slug of metal has a value which is recognized the world over, among Christians and pagans, civilized peoples and savages, the ignorant and debased and the educated and refined. It will buy wheat in Minnesota, In California, or on the shores of the Baltic sea. It will buy spices in the East, furs in the North, fruits in the tropics, or ponies and venison of tile Western Indians. The savages of interior Africa or tiie brokers of Wall Street alike recoguize its value and will barter for it. Take a ten dollar greenback, which is to-day quoted in the money markets of our country at nearly par, and what is the actual intrinsic value of it? Dip it intoucheniical solution tfiat will destroy the green, black and carmine ink stains—the government stamp—and leave the paper just as it appeared when fresh from the mill, and what would be its value? All the value that attaches to the greenback is to be found in the fact that it is the promise of the government to pay the holder of it something which has intrinsic value; gold or silver coin, either or both; and the enactments of congress and decisions of the supreme court sustaining them, which makes these proruisory notes of the government a legal tender of limited capacity. States may make arbitrary laws banishing gold and silver from their midst, they may make other arbitrary and despotic laws declaring the buse metals or substances of even less intrinsic value the lawful mopey of their jurisdiction, for these things have been done ■in historical duys; but all such enactments rest upon unsubstantiul foundations, endure only a short period, and crumble to ruins which are the sad monuments of.men's chimerical folly. Tills has been the experience of ages. It Is an established law as unvarying in operation as any luw of nuture.

If it is true, as the noisy demagogues of the democracy who falsely assume the name of national tell us, that the republican party is the most corrupt" organization that ever cursed the nation how does it happen that Mr. Glover’s researches unearth so many democrats and no republicans? If the holding of office has corrupted republicans who wore honest men before they were elected to office why do the pure and holy democrutie-natioual-coramunists scramble so to be lead into temptation?

Mr. Prank W. Babcock, ex-auditor of Jasper county, tvifl be fl rantHJnte before tlic republican Judicial convention for prosecutor for (lie ,'tutti judicial circuit—the Counties of Benton, Newton nnd Jasper. Mr. Iftibcock litiH been n citizen of ,laS|)Of enmity since ti small lud. lie muy be said- to be almost a tel I-made iuhu, bis parents having died while he wus quite young. He enlisted us a private soldier In the volunteer service of tlie United States at the breaking Out of the rebellion, and through his own merits, without tlie aid of money or the assistance of influential friends, he rose to tjie rank of captain in the cavalry branch of the service. As county auditor he was distingished for his close application to the duties of his office and careful attention to the details of business. For the last six yeurs Captain Babcock lias been schooling himself Sue the profession of law, upon the active practice of which ho entered at the close of lijs lerin as county auditor three years qr so ago. The strongly marked truits of Mr. Babcock’s character orcr: unimpeachable morals, tenacity of purpose, aggressive individuality, and fidelity to the details of business.

A democratic newspaper published at LaPorte, Indiana, called the Argtti, thinks President Hayes should be hanged for treason. It was vefy indignant a year or more ago because tlie citizens of a town in Illinois objected to the action of a Committee of their agricultural, society which invited the rebel chieftain, Jefferson Davis, to make them a speech. The same paper endorses the action of the democratic majority in tlie house of representatives which preferred the rebel general Field to the Union general Shields for doorkeeper. The Aryan is owned, controlled and edited by a member of the Indiana democratic sta»e central committee. The Argus not long since likened tlie spoliation claims of the people of the southern states who were rebels, for relief for losses sustained on account of their rebellion, to the appropriation bills for the improvement of rivers, harbors, lighthouses, etc., placing them together in the same category. The Argus is a northern copperhead Journal, treasonable at heart, and u faithful reflex of the sentiments of ninetenths of tlie democrats north and South.

Col. Healey’s organ at Ooodlaml says that Air. Harkley gave Mr. Kilt the job xis publishing the delinquent tax-list of Jasper county year before last because Air. Kitt would do the work for less money than The Union woufd. Air. Kitt’s bill Tor the work was for the full amount allowed l>y law, and Jasper county paid it in full. Now who got the margin betwc.cn the lawful price and the price Mr. Barkley contracted to pay Arr. Kitt? In attacking Mr. Babcock’s admin, istration for extravagance Mr. Harkley and his advocates virtually promised that “a change” wodld bring economy —would lessen the ebtpeuses of the auditor’s office and lighten the burden of taxation. Have these piomises been fulfilled? Are raxes any lighter than they were before a phiUmthropic reformer reduced to practice liis beautiful and gorgeous theory of retrenchment and leform?

Conic to Uiink of-it, the rcimblirnns have fewex-wliliery who rank Inflow major. men who tfiti the real lighting for small par are generally tleuiocrnU.—-/,t// , GW<' A ;##*, Hy the way those claims roll up and roll in from the solid south it seems that democratic ex-soldiers generally expect to lie pretty well paid for their real lighting, if the democratic party controls the government again. The democratic-organ at Rensselaer elairns that the democracy won a substantial victory over fifty republican majority m the recent corporation election. It cannot discover any difference between a national ora republican who votes for a democrat and a simon-pure democrat. Who can? - _ 1 The magnetic telephone connecting the leaders of tho democrats and the lenders of the nationals of Jasper county has an unbroken circuit, but the conferences day after to-morrow will determine if thero Is tolas a union of hands as well as a union of hearts. . .

There.wasn’t any back {my grabbing in fids region of poor, down-trodden, tax-impoverished grid capital-oppress-ed people before democratic carpet baggers were by ah inde* pendent-greenback auditor to teach immaculate nationals how to do it. If it Is true that there is not money enough for the demands of trade, why does Mr- Sherman find it difficult to dispose of four millions of silver dollars a month ? It Is less Umu fen cents per capita. About the greatest benefit Jasper connfy has ever derived from the Importation of democratic carpot-baggers results from their teaching her extreasurers how tq grab back pay. The wife of Brother Zimmerman, of the Valparaiso Messenger, died May 3d.

Twp ht-ariH with but n single It lion—the heart that palpitate*• Jsfcper county (h-moentt’s bosom nnd rbe iienrt that pnlpltnt&f IIMS' hosort* of & Jasper eoiiuty untioiitlf/ j * Our JJomc Manner has been resuscitated at Fninctsvillc, with geuial 111. Leon Mattingly to Iho fore. We would like to see Jtftl hownntcli prosperity It cnii stand. lion. D. W. VoorlMß-s Is going to attend the reunion of Hood’s Texair brigade. Well, there should be a pleasant meeting of olfftlme friends. _■ . C6T. Kline G. -Shryock, ?rf Tfbchester, will be a candidate for th 6 republic.m Domination for congress front* the 11th district.