AMERICA.

Grey River Argus, Volume VI, Issue 439, 5 November 1868, Page 2

AMERICA.

(Prom the Daily T'vmei correspondent) New Yobk, 9fch September. The contest for the election of President has commenced in real earnest. In every State in the Union, and in every town in every State, meetings are being held in, the interests of both candidates, and the numerous partizan newspapers in America (there are but few which occupy neutral ground) are fanning the flame fiercely. The strife is canned on with an intensity and bitterness almost difficult for soberminded men to realise. In the principal streets huge flags are hung, stretching from one side of the road to the other, upon which the names and portraits of the candidates are painted. Frenzied excitement reigns at all the meetings; there is absolutely no limit to the en-. thusiasra. There is nothing peculiar in this, for it might be said with considerable truth that every politician is an ultraist. The war-cry of both parties appears to be the same. The Democrats assert that if Grant is elected, there will be another civil war ; the Republicans, substituting Seymour for Grant, assert the same. That in the entire Civil Service of the country there is great corruption is acknowledged by all ; each party blames the other for this state of things, and violently proclaims that it can only be remedied by the election of its particular candidate. There is no country in the world where there is so much bribery of officials as in America. Through all the grades of officialdom it is unblusfringly and almost openly practised. It is a matter of common conversation that the passing of such and such an Act, or the obtaining of such and such a grant, cost a specified sum of money. It is whispered that even the Judges themselves may be indirectly influenced. Certainly their salaries are inadequate to support the dignity of their position, and the system of electing them every few years, making their office a political one, opens the door to corruption. These things will not right themselves : thoroughly earnest and conscientious men are needed in America to effect reform. Their task will be a hard one ; they will be bespattered with abuse, maligned and vilified. Yet if such reformers do not arise, there is no telling what results will spring .from the present state of affairs. The country is robbed right and left. Millions of money are annually lost to the Treasury by the incompetency or dishonesty of Government officials. It is quite a common heading in the newspapers— fraud in this or that department. Serious charges are brought against the highest in authority at the present time. Charges of embezzlement against the Chief Commissioner for the collection of Internal Revenues and others in the Internal Revenue departments are being investigated. It is thought that the charge is brought forward for political purposes, and the partizan journals are hot in their advocacy or denunciation. It is evident that the whole system of civil Government is in an utterly demoralised condition, and if the candidates for the Presidency but keep their promises it does not matter which side wins — the country must benefit. The Republicans are ■at present -very jubilant over the result of the election for Governor of Vermont. They have a majority of nearly 30,000 over the Democrats. Prom this they augur an easy victory at the Presidential election in November. Vermont, however, is known as an out-and-out Republican State, and the Democrats do not hope to obtain a majority of votes there. The State of Georgia is in a very disturbed condition. Twenty-five negroes were elected to the House of Representatives, and were allowed to speak and take part in the proceedings. On the 2nd of September, the question of their eligibility to hold their seats having been under discussion for some days, the vote was taken, and they were declared ineligible by 80 to 23. The negro members were in the House, but they retired after the vote was taken. One of them, Mr Turner, made a fiery speech, declaring that he had not before been sensible of the utter imbecility of the Anglo-Saxon race. " The - question ia (he said) am I a man ? If I am, I claim the rights of a man. This question will not be settled to-day. You may drive us away from the Legislature, but by doing so you will light a torch that can never be put out, and you will make us your foes for ever." As Turner walked out of the House, he shook the dust from his feet. In Savannah, armed bands of negroes are patrolling the country, and committing outrages upon the. whites. The negroes in and around that city are thoroughly organised, drilled, and well armed. A most revolting Beries of Crimea., was committed by negroes in North Carolina. They obtained an entrance in the night into the house of a Mrs Marks, a widow lady. She, her two children, a boy of five, and a girl eight years of age, and her servant, were in bed. The servant escaped, but Mrs Marks and her children were subjected to treatment toa horrible to relate. The wretches tore the little girl's, tongue from, her^mouth, and killed her and her brother. They then set fire to. the house, and escaped leaving Sirs Marks for dead. The neighbors, however, were aroused, and they succeeded in extinguishing the. flames, and restoring Mrs Marks to consciousness. She is not expected to live. As might be expected, the excitement was intense, and i^was with much difficulty that the white people were restrained from avenging the crimes upon the negroes indiscriminately. They are scouring the country in search of the yillians ; but it is doubtful whether they will be able to secure them. These outrages may all be regarded as political, arising out of the present state of politic* $nd parties. Wise administration will be required to preserve peace and order. One of the worst features in the state of affairs is that the passions of the people, both black and white, are inflamed by the intemperate and reckless language used by a large section of the press. Take, for instance, Mark M. Pomeroy, editor and proprietor of La Crdsse Democrat, and of the published daily in 'New York". He wrote a life of General Benjamin F. Butler, and the book is selling in large numbers. Now, Butler is not a favorite with any party, and the reputation he enjoys is not an enviable one. Yet that does not justify Buch language as the following: "Never, in all the annals of history, was there so beastly a man, so corrupt a politician, so big a, thief, so unprincipled a robber, so extent sive a swindler, so lying, /debased, and cowardly a knave, such r£n intralier of

K virtue, innocence, and womanly goodness, P so speculative an executive, so rotten, I venal, corrupt, infamous, sneaking, conI temptible, brutal, incompetent, univerI sally despised and detested an individual I as Benjamin F. Butler, who has graduI ated in every school of vice, and become a leader in the 'great moral party,' as the party he belongs to claims to be." This language is mild in comparison with other portions of the biography. lam tempted to give as matter for curiosity, an extract which says that Butler is " a living evidence of rascality, corruption, doubledealing, trickery, fraud, swindling, cowardice, bank-robbery, spoon-stealing, woman - insulting, house - plundering, enemy-aiding, country-betraying, Go-vernment-sucking, treasury-filching, sol-dier-killing, prison-filling, God- forgetting, hell-deserving, truth-ignoring, virtuewronging, negro-loving, vice-caressing, man-deceiving, law-destroying, Churchpilfering, bullion- bagging, cotton-stealing, diamond-finding, vessel-clearing, crockerymarking, town-sucking, enemy-helping, powder-wasting, officer- murdering, spiteloving, nation-disgracing, friend-forgot-ten and all-detested thief, robber, braggart, plunderer, bag-eyed bullion-bragger, and the most detested, corrupt, selfish, false-hearted pet of perdition in all annals of crime and infamy, past, present, or to come." Can you, Mr Editor, reckon how many libels there are in these extracts '?