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4 iillllfi REV. A. J. RYAN, Editor AUGUSTA, GA., SEPT'R 26, 18G8. THE PEOPLE’S FAULT. “ The People have fallen far away from political truth, and justice, and integrity. They must be reformed ; but, how shall it bo done?” Thus, in our last issue, we closed an article, which wc wish here to continue. Blaming, as we do, the po liticians of the for the evils which oppress it, and endanger its very exist ence, we go back of them, and blame the People more. A corrupt People will produce, naturally and necessarily, cor rupt Politicians ; a pure People will pro duce pure public men. For it is the fairest of tests to judge of the character of any People by that of its leading men. And, if a people elect, support, and ap plaud men of loose principles, and of little or no moral worth; if they place such men in positions of trust; if they delegate to them powers which the wisest and truest fear to possess, and tremble to exercise, are not the people, themselves, responsible for the evils which such men create ? The abuse of power we trace back to the source of power. We blame the fountain if the stream be corrupt. We blame the people for their politicians. Theso are the outgrowth of the body po litic. They are the fruits of the tree— and by its fruits we judge it. “A good tree cannot produce evil fruit—nor can an evil tree produce good fruit’’—is a po litical as well as a moral maxim. Why, then, such continual complaint of our politicians ? It is the people’s fault. Why such complaint of the corruptions, the venality, and other infamies of our politics ? It is the people’s fault. Cor rupt politics—corrupt politicians —corrupt people. One necessitates the other. To purify politics, you must purify the poli ticians ; to purify them, you must purify the People. That our politics arc a very Augean stable, no one will deny. That the corruption is becoming worse and worse, no one will gainsay. That this state of things, if we have any desire to escape ruin, must be remedied all admit. That our politicians, with the tremendous trusts in their hands, are not to be trusted at all, nearly every one will concede. Here and there, from the midst of the People, a voice of warning is raised. Now and then, brave men and true, who care more for principle than for false public opinion, step forward and enter their pro test, At times, honest and upright po liticians, uncontaminated by the almost general corruption, sound the notes of alarm. But the People, in their majesty, where arc they ? In their majesty, did we say ? Yes —in the majesty of their principles, their honor, their power, their rights ; yes—in the grandest majesty of conscience. In their majesty, did we say? But, what has become of that vaunted majes ty ? Constitutions violated, time-honored laws trampled, as if they were vile things, in the dust; inviolable rights invaded; Jus tice mocked in the halls ot Justice ; liberties torn by sacrilegious bands, from their altars, in the Temple of Liberty ; have not the People witnessed such pro fanations; aye, and worse than witnessed —approved them ? Great and good men thrust aside to give way to the vile and the mercenary ; men whom bribes could never buy, forced to yield place and precedence to those wdiose consciences could be purchased for the paltriest pit tance; intelligence forced to obey the dictation of ignorance ; integrity obliged to bear the exactions of corruption ; true men and men of soul driven from posi tion and deprived of influence by the soul less and the false; have not the People looked on such outrages, and borne them ? Votes bought and sold, not merely here and there, but everywhere ; elections carried by fraud and intimidation ; bayo nets barring the way of freemen to the ballot-box ; arrests without cause; trials with bought testimony ; convictions with out law; imprisonments and deaths with out justice. Have not the People seen such things, and stood still ? Usurpations of the most daring kind by their Representatives —the Executive denounced and defied in the legitimate ex ercise of the very powers which the people had conferred upon him ; the Ju diciary attacked in their Constitutional privileges; the Halls of Congress made foul with language that would disgrace the lowest haunt of depravity; the sessions of the People’s Legislators turned into orgies where ribaldry and passion ran riot ; the interests of the poor tampered with, and turned to the advantage of a new-born moneyed aristocracy; the treasures of the Government made to subserve party purposes ; the offices of the Government filled, not for the People’s advantage, but for the benefit of Party ; enormous taxes enforced for the ostensible purpose ot paying the People’s debt, and, when col lected, wantonly squandered; the highest officer in the Government running around the country and disgracing his person and position before the civilized world; Congress disgracing itself by returning railing for railing, and both outbidding one another by insulting epithets. Have not the People looked upon all this—and more—and meekly tolerated it ? Talk not of the majesty of such a People. Boast not of the honor of such a People. Breathe not a syllable of the conscience of such a People. Say not a word of the lofty princi ples of such a People. They are mis guided, you say ; but they have them selves chosen their guides—they allow themselves to be led by them —they ser vilely follow them as a Southern slave would follow his master’s bidding.— They will return to the true paths, you say. Well, we have waited long enough } and that prophecy has been made often enough since the war ; but, thus far, the prophecy has proved false —bitterly false. Trust the intelligence of the People, you say. It is asking too much, and offering too little. For mere intelligence is not enough. Intelligence, guided by Prin ciple and animated by Conscience, is worthy of trust; but intelligence, with neither of these qualifications, is more dangerous and less to be trusted than ig norance. In the intelligence alone of a People wc place no confidence. Wc de mand something more and something better. We look more to the heart of the People than to their head. The man, or the Nation, with a wise head but an evil heart, we fear the most. Things will be all right, bye-and-bye, you say. We do not understand, how the way of Wrong leads to Right—we cannot see how the path of lawlessness leads to law. No; the Government cannot be reformed —and Heaven knows it sadly needs a thorough reformation —it cannot be re stored to its lost purity, until the People recover Principle and Conscience. And let politicians do their best, they cannot effect that. And, as we go back of po liticians, to find, in the People, the cause of our evils, so we go back of politics to find in the moral order the only effective and certain and lasting cure of these many evils. The moral condition of our People witness the general depravity of manners; the appalling increase of crime—and particularly of nameless crimes—is fright ful. Read the daily papers, which regu larly, and with so much relish, chronicle every” species of iniquity. Note the de cline of positive religion, especially among young men. Mark the freedom of man ners which has taken the place of that reserve which was the safeguard of one sex, while it was a salutary restraint on the other. Observe the increase of Pro fanity” and Drunkenness. Note the innu merable immoral publications scattered, broadcast, over the country, and read with such avidity. All this, and more, gives proof of deep, dangerous, and wide spread demoralization among the People. And is it any wonder when the moral order is so disturbed, if the political order should be so violently agitated ? Is it any wonder, when Principle has left the moral order, that it should not be found in the political order ? Need we be as tonished if a People have no political conscience, when they give no evidence of conscience in the moral sphere ? Should we be surprised to find People politically corrupt, when we find among them such moral corruption? Where is there a remedy strong enough, thor ough enough, searching enough, and per manent, which, while acting on the moral condition, will better the People’s politi cal condition ? Find we it in political measures ? No. Where then ? In Re ligion ? Yes. Iu what sort of a Reli gion ? THE BANNErTf THE SOUTH. For six months the Banner of the South has been a -weekly visitor to the homes and firesides of its Patrons* From them, as well as from the Press of the whole country, it has received a welcome and a praise seldom bestowed upon new candidates for public favor. This has cheered us on, and made us hope for a success commensurate with our most ear nest wishes. It has given us zeal and energy in our work, and we believe that we have met the approval of our friends. If we could not “ command success,” there was, at least, an earnest endeavor to “ deserve it.” And so we come to the close of the first half year of the Banner’s existence, with a very large subscription list, and the earnestly expressed good wishes of Press and People everywhere. But, there is room for improvement in the work of patronage yet; and we appeal to our friends to engage in that work for us. It is a work in which they, as well as we, are interested. It is the work of keep ing alive and defending the cause of Re ligion ; it is the work of keeping alive and defending the cause of the South — lost on the field of battle, but living yet in the hearts of the Southern people. Surely such a work as this is worthy of aid; worthy of patronage ; worthy of success. And it will cost but little to engage in it. All that is necessary is fur our patrons to stand firmly by us —to continue with us—to get up a Club wherever they can; and for our Agents to canvass their respective districts ear nestly and zealously for us. This being done, we feel sure that we shall soon run up as large a subscription list as any paper, Religious, or Secular, in the Union. We have offered the most liber al inducements to Agents and to Subscri hers, and we shall continue to offer them, hoping that, as the business season is now about to open, wc shall very soon have the pleasure of chronicling large acccssiensto our list from every quarter of the country. California, away to the Far West, is doing a good part by us ; aud so are Arizona, and Montana, and Idaho. Let the East respond to the West, and the North to the South, and we shall soon he able to make the Banner what we designed it, a power in the jand. Catholic Intelligence — Florida. — On the 6th of September the Rt. Rev. John Quinlan, D. D., visited the little town of Warrington, on the Gulf coast of Florida, and administered the Holy Sacrament of Confirmation to 43 persons, three of whom were converts to the Faith. During his stay at this place, the Rt Rev. Bishop delivered several lec tures, before a large and appreciative au dience, that was composed of all classes, creeds, and denominations, all of whom went away” exceedingly well pleased, and determined to come again on a similar occasion. rtjp- We call attention to “The Issue,” to be found in another column. The ar ticle is from that excellent Catholic jour nal, “The Banner of the ‘ South.' ’ Any one wishing a good literary and news paper, from Georgia, will do well to send for the Banner. It is published at Augusta, Ga. — Troy (Mo,) Herald t From the Boston Post. PENDLETON. ELOQUENT PERORATION OF HIS SPEECH AT HARTFORD. The following is the concluding por tion of the speech delivered by Mr. Pen dleton, before a large Democratic mass meeting, at Hartford, on the 25th ult: “I say that the true policy of the United States is to pay the bond holder exactly what we promised. This is the only way to relieve the laborer of his burdens; this is the only way to relieve the burdens of the country ; to make it easier for the people to pay their taxes ; to make it easier for them to gain a liv ing. Do this, and prosperity will again return, your fields will again be fertile, your industry will flourish. The Repub lican party is opposed to this whole sys tem. They are not in .favor of paying off, but of funding the bonds. According to their plan, the funded debt would have forty years to run at four and a half per cent, interest—payable, both principal and interest, in gold ; and the bonds shall not be subject to taxation, neither by the States nor by the Federal Government. Well, gentlemen, I object with gold, standing at 140—perhaps 145 If you convert those bonds into gold bonds now, you will add seven hundred millions of dollars to the amount of the debt; you make it impossible to pay the debt in five years. If it amounts to $2,- 500,000,000, and you pay four per cent, only, it will amount to $100,000,000 a year in gold for interest. If you pay this sum for forty years, you will, at the end of forty years, have paid $4,000,- 000,000, aud, at the end will still have the debt of $2,500,000,000 besides. Forty years! Why, how many of you will live that time ? How many, even of your children, will be alive at the end of forty years ? Year by year you will have to go on paying this enormous amount. Year by year it will come out of the blood and bones, and toil and sweat of your children. Do you know what a national debt means ? It means that the rich shall be richer and the poor poorer. It means that capital shall be exempted from taxation, and the laborer bear all the burden.* It means, for those who labor for their daily bread, scant clothing, brown bread, and no meat. It means that capital shall pam per idleness in luxury, but that squalor shall preside over the cabins of the poor, and that his daily .struggles for daily bread shall make his life a constant death. I see before me to-night many a young man, and 1 can see in his beaming eye and intellgent face the hope that lies at the bottom of bis heart. He is will ing to labor on for a few years, and to hope that he will be able, then, to trade on the capital which his industry 7 and frugality have saved. He has his day dream and his night dream. He sees a snug home, lighted up with the smile of love, aud noisy with the prattle of infant tongues—made sacred by T the presence of a wife and a mother—surrounded within and without by those rays (if content ment which plenty and prosperity shed. Young men, are you willing to give up those cherished hopes of the future, and to consent, for all your lives, that taxa tion shall take from you all exceyt wdiat is necessary for your food and clothing ? [Voices —‘‘No, no, never !”] No, gentle, men, do not yield to this siren voice, that which persuades you to extend the debt and reduce the interest. Pay the debt aud save the interest. That will an swer your purpose. That will ensure your future. [lmmense applause.] But, gentlemen, passing away from this subject of the material interests of the country, on which I have dwelt longer than I intended, let me again call your attention to this sact —that the great pole-star of the Democratic party is the Constitution of the United States. [Ap plause.] Do not, my fellow-citizens, in the heat of this arduous contest, do not forget that great lesson. The Republican party believe they can amend it ; that they can change it, and make a better Constitution than our fathers made it in the days of old. [“Never, never,” and shouts of applause.] I charge it upon you, Democrats, who are here to-night, never to consent either to its abandon ment or its degradation, Do not seek to amend it; do not seek to change it; do not seek to evade it. Obey it. [lmmense applause.] It was good enough for your fathers. It is good enough for you. If you obey it, it will be good enough for your children for a hundred years to come. Study it, understand it. Carry it abouf with you, as a living presence, in all the daily walks of your daily life. Take it to your home ; read it to your wife ; teach it to your children ; put it upon your family altar, that, when you bow your bead in supplicating prayer, it may be there, next to the image of God himself. [lmmense applause.] Do this, and, in His own good time, you will beablo to raise it up to that place and power to which the brazen serpent, in the wilder ness, was raised, in order that the plague might be stayed. Do this, and you will be able to rear it up to that high place of honor to which the Ark of the Covenant was reared, round which the unseen le gions of the Almighty kept ward and guard, that he who touched it with im pious bands should die. [Rere.ved ap plause.] Remember, fellow-citizens, that the Constitution contains within itself all that is good in the experiences of the past, and all that is hopeful in the prospects of the future, It is the ark of safety, in the midst of the flood which is upon us. p may be tossed in the blackness of dark ness upon the weary waters for many days, but it will rest upon the mountain top at last; the sun will shine ; the dove will leave it never to return, and, row, as then, emblem of purity, liberty, and peace, she will seek to rebuild her habi tations amidst the scenes of her former life. [Cheers.] I do not despair. I have hope in the aspirations of men- 1 have faith in the Providence of God. I know that the pathway of history is strewn with the wrecks of empires and peoples, and constitutions and Liberty aud it may be, in the providence of God, that this country of ours will follow in the wake of all the nations that have gone before. If it shall be so, let it not be owing to the faults or misfortunes of the Democratic party. [Great cheering.] If it must be so, Jet it be known, that it was the party of our love that stood to the last, with heroic virtue, to the principle' of civil liberty. If it must be so, let us. my fellow-citizens, take consolation in the thought that,in the eternal circles of God, death is but the precursor of resurrection: and that the same principles which hasten nations to decay, contain, within themselves the spark of living fire which secure undying youth to our immortal race. [Great applause.] “Time writes no wrinkles on its fair young brow; Such as Creation’s dawn beheld, it sees thee now,” Amidst the wrecks of time, its pro gress is still onward and upward, higher and still higher, “And from the sky, serene and far, A voice falls like a falling star, Excelsior!” “Higher, as the eagde when he takes his flight in the face of the sun. Higher, as the stars, when, in their courses, they encircle the footstool of the immortal throne ! Higher, as the soul of man when it puts aside this tenement of clay, and seeks, throughout all the ages, the home of its father and its God.” The concluding sentences of the pero ration were greeted with enthusiastic cheering, and Mr. Pendleton took his seat amid prolonged applause. THE LATEST FALSEHOOD, We (Philadelphia Catholic Standard,) nail to the counter the following speci men falsehood, which we find in the New York correspondence of The Episco palian, of that city, of the 2d iost.: “ The fact being undoubted, it can do no harm to state that the appointment of Gen. Rosencrans as United States Min ister to Mexico, was in deference, in fact, to the urgently expressed wishes ot several of the Roman Catholic Arch bishops, who were very b,usy in the corri dors of the Capitol, it seems, when the Senate was deliberating upon his con firmation or rejection. There is infor mation to the effect that there was strong probability of the rejection of the nomina tion, when the Archbishops alluded to put in motion those peculiar influence' which they know so well how to wield, with the professional politician, under these circumstances, and the result was what it was. There is every reason now for believing that that information is perfectly correct. Your correspondent will go farther, and assert that it would not be difficult even to specify the name* of the Archbishops in question, in black and white, were it necessary." \Ye (Standard,) assert that the above statement is a fabrication —pure and simple — made out of the whole cloth. And we call upon the Episcopalian —it its Editor wishes to be considered as a Minister of Christ, and a gentleman— either to make good the accusation, oi t retract it. We want the names ot the Archbishops, and proof that they *' wc - v very busy in the corridors of the Capi tol” on the occasion referred to. Change of Postage Kates to a ’ forxia. —An important change will 1 e made on the Ist of October in -charge-? on printed matter sent to California U the overland mails. Printed matter now charged the same as letter postage This regulation has caused much vexa tion and loss to persons who did not u ‘ : ' derstand the law, as matter placed in t:. ' mail with newspaper postage was not t *. warded. After the Ist of October pric ed matter will be sent at newspaper rate-