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DISTRICT AFFAIRS. 
 
 ADDRESS 
 
 DELIVERED BY 
 
 CT . J. COOMBS, ESQ., 
 
 AT 
 
 ODD FELLOWS' HALL, WASHINGTON, 
 MONDAY EVENING, AUGUST 19, 1873. 
 
 Mr. Chairman and Fellow Citizens : While I propose, this evening / 
 to discuss matters purely local to this District, I deem it pertinent to my pur- 
 pose to refer briefly to the platforms of the two national parties now canvas- 
 sing for the Presidency. 
 
 It has been said that there is a striking resemblance between these plat- 
 forms. I will point out one essential difference, however, which I regard as 
 of momentous importance to the people of this District. 
 
 LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT. 
 
 The platform of the Cincinnati and Baltimore Conventions has an em- 
 phatic declation in favor of " local self-government, with impartial suffrage." 
 
 The platform of the Philadelphia Convention contains no such declaration. 
 It is a plank which the builders of that platform utterly rejected, because 
 the party to stand upon it was well known to be in favor of the centralization 
 of power in the Federal Government, and was striving to limit, rather than 
 enlarge, the right of local self-government. 
 
 No people in any part of the United States have reason to deplore the 
 deprivation of this great American right more deeply than we, of the 
 District of Columbia. If we have not yet suffered from the deprivation of 
 this right as deeply as the people of South Carolina and some other Southern 
 States, it is simply because we have not been deprived of it as long as they. 
 The time of our calamity has not yet come. While the despots who have 
 been placed in power over us are lavishingly expending and squandering in 
 our midst the millions for which they have mortgaged our houses and lands, 
 everything goes merrily as a marriage bell. We are now in the condition of 
 the Prodigal Son, when he was squandering his patrimony in luxurious and 
 riotous living. We are rapidly approaching his condition, when, having 
 exhausted all his resources, he was fain to eat of the husks upon which the 
 swine were fed. And when we reach that point we shall owe our destitu- 
 tion to nothing else but the deprivation of the right of "local self-govern- 
 ment." 
 
 PAST AND PRESENT CONDITION OF THE DISTRICT. 
 
 Under our old municipal corporations, the people of Washington and 
 Georgetown enjoyed the right of local self-government in a comparatively 
 large degree. Each had a legislative body consisting of two branches, all 
 the members of which were elected by the people. Each had an executive offi- 
 cer, called a mayor, who was also elected by the people. The, people elected 
 all the other important corporation officers, viz : collector, register, surveyor, 
 and assessors. No tax could be levied, nor could any public debt or liability 
 be created, except in pursuance of an ordinance passed by a legislative body 
 composed wholly of representatives elected by the people. No new office could 
 be created, except by the same authority, or by Congress. 
 
ingtoniana 
 
 HISTORY OF THE " ORGANIC ACT. ,r 
 
 But in an evil hour a large number of the people of the District took it 
 into their heads to petition Congress for a new form of government, con- 
 ferring upon the people, in a still larger measure, the right of local self- 
 government. I say in an evil hour, not because the system under which Ave 
 were then living was by any means perfect ; not because a better system 
 could not have been devised, but because the result demonstrates that it is 
 sometimes better " to bear the evils that we have than fly to others that we 
 know not of." 
 
 You all recollect the great popular movement in favor of a territorial gov- 
 ernment, in the winter and spring of 1870. At an immense mass meeting held 
 in Lincoln Hall, in February of that year, it was resolved to apply to Congress 
 for a new form of Government, and a committee of one hundred and fifty 
 citizens was appointed to urge the matter before Congress. That committee 
 appointed a sub-committee of twenty-one, (of which I had the honor to be a 
 member,) to prepare a bill to be submitted to Congress. We did prepare a 
 bill, which was afterwards submitted to the committee of one hundred and 
 fifty, and, after mature consideration and discussion, it was amended in some 
 of its details and adopted. /"Itwas then presented to Congress, as embody- 
 ing the system of government whi ch the people desired- 
 It provided for abolishing the then existing municipal corporations, and 
 putting the whole District under one homogeneous local government. It 
 provided for a Governor and Secretary of the District, both to be elected by 
 the people. It provided for a Legislative Assembly consisting of two houses, 
 all the members of which were to be elected by the people. It also provided 
 for a Delegate in Congress, to be elected by the people. It left it to the 
 representatives of the people in the Legislative Assembly to prescribe by 
 law what subordinate District officers we should have, and how they should 
 be chosen, as well as to define their powers and duties. It created no Board 
 of Public Works, that being supposed peculiarly within the province of the 
 Legislative Assembly, chosen by the people. In short, it provided a form 
 of government essentially republican or democratic in its principles, con- 
 ferring upon the people the right of local self-government in as ample a 
 degree as any one could desire. 
 
 HOW THE BILE WAS CLANDESTINELY CHANGED BY THE TRICKERY OF 
 
 THE RING. 
 
 This bill promptly passed the Senate, with a few immaterial amendments, 
 in the spring of 1870, in ample time to have passed the Hou^e also, at the 
 same session, if its progress had not been arrested by the clandestine inter- 
 ference of a few men who now compose the head and front of the Ring that is 
 fattening upon the fruits of their treachery. These men succeeded in in- 
 ducing the chairman of the House Committee on the District to cause the. 
 consideration of the bill by the House to be postponed until the next session. 
 Thus these schemers obtained ample time to work upon the commit . 
 •'ways that are dark," (which we now better understand,) and to get l lie bill 
 moulded into a form to suit their own nefarious purposes. Towards th 
 of the next session it passed the House, changed by amendment- into the bill 
 of abominations Ave are iioav living under; and these same clandestine lobby- 
 ists managed to get it hurried through the Senate, before one in a thousand of 
 the people of the District knew of the radical alterations that had been made 
 in it. 
 
 The bill, as it passed the Senate, was a bill emanating from, and approved 
 by, the people of the District. As modified in the House, it became a bill 
 such as not one in five thousand of the people had ever thought of asking for, 
 or would have Avillingly accepted; the mere work of some half-dozen under- 
 handed tricksters, who were scheming for their own personal aggrandize- 
 ment, at the expense of the people. 
 
 By the amendments Which these designing wire-pullers procured to be 
 made in the House, the people were robbed of the right of electing their 
 Governor and Secretary, and the appointment of those officers Avas conferred 
 upon the President. The right of the people to a legislature of their own 
 
choosing was taken away, and a legislative assembly created, the members of 
 the superior branch of which are all appointed by the President. What a 
 misnomer to call these appointees of the President representatives of the 
 people ! What a delusion to imagine that the people of the District have 
 any power to make their own local laws ! Why the representatives of the 
 people are utterly powerless to pass a law for the repair of a town pump, 
 without the consent of a co-ordinate body whose members are all appointed 
 by the President, and the further consent of a Governor, also appointed by 
 the same authority. 
 
 The bill, as it passed the Senate, was emphatically the people's bill. After 
 it had passed the Senate, in the form which the people desked, not dream- 
 ing that its fundamental principles would be changed, they paid no further 
 attention to it. Neither the committee of one hundred and fifty, nor the 
 sub-committee of twenty-one, was called together; and no member of 
 either committee, except Alexander R. Shephard, and a few of his co-con- 
 spirators, had any notice of the changes that were being clandestinely 
 urged. It was not until the publication of the fraudulent bill, known as the 
 "organic act," after it had become a law, that the people discovered the 
 gross fraud that had been perpetrated upon them — that they had asked for 
 a fish and been given a serpent. 
 
 AN ABSOLUTE DESPOTISM. 
 
 But the worst feature interpolated into the people's bill, by these secret 
 schemers and tricksters, is that creating the absolute and irresponsible des- 
 potism known as the Board of Public Works. This Board, consisting of 
 five members, (including the Governor,) all appointed by the President, is 
 exercising powers, and is upheld by the Administration in the exercise of 
 powers over the property and material interests of the people of the District 
 more arbitrary and more oppressive than any despot on the face of the 
 civilized earth exercises over the property of his subjects. By the use of 
 just such powers as they have been and now are exercising, and are upheld 
 in by the Administration and its partisans, they can encumber the property 
 of the District by a pxiblic indebtedness equal to its full value. They can so 
 direct their so-called " comprehensive system of improvements "as to ruin 
 the property of one man and increase tenfold the value of the property of 
 another. When it is considered that some of the members of the Board are 
 the largest speculators in real estate in this District, we see at once what an 
 engine for plunder this power becomes in their hands. But the worst of all 
 is, under the system of disbursements and accounts which they have adopted, 
 they may appropriate one-fourth, or any proportion they please, of all the 
 public funds which may come into their hands, to their own private use, and 
 it will be impossible to detect and expose the fraud. This I will demonstrate 
 before I get through. 
 
 I do not admit that the Board of Public Works ha,s any legal right to ex- 
 ercise powers so extensive and arbitrary as those I have just adverted to. 
 But so long as they are upheld in the exercise of such powers by the Adminis- 
 tration which created them, and which alone lias power to displace them, 
 what difference does it make to the people whether these powers are usurped 
 or legitimately belong to them ? 
 
 If we appeal to the courts for relief, we must go before judges appointed 
 by the same Presidential power, in whose selection the people of the Dis- 
 trict have had no voice ; strangers and foreigners to the people of the Dis- 
 trict, who have been imported from distant States to hold the scales of justice 
 over us. Under these circumstances it would be strange indeed if some of 
 these judges should not strongly incline to do the will of the Federal au- 
 thorities by which they were "created and are sustained, and of the oligar- 
 chies appointed to rule over us by the same Federal authorities, rather than 
 to protect the rights of the people, to whom they are indebted for nothing, 
 of whom they are wholly independent, and with whom they have few 
 sympathies. I do no not apply this remark to the personnel of our courts. 
 I am merely speaking of the natural tendency of the judicial system under 
 which we live. 
 
THE WHITEWASHING COMMITTEE. 
 
 If we apply to Congress for relief, our complaint is referred to a partisan 
 committee, which this intriguing Board, with its millions of the people's 
 money to operate with, finds it easy to manipulate so as to stifle any fair in- 
 vestigation. 
 
 I desire here to remark that I do not accuse either House of Congress, as 
 a body, with acting unfairly towards the people of the District in the late 
 investigation. Every one familiar with Congressional proceedings knows 
 that, in such an investigation, it is only necessary to secure the co-operation 
 or connivance of the committee having the matter in charge to prevent the 
 investigation from being carried beyond the committee room. Thus, in the 
 late investigation, a majority of the committee being captured by the Board 
 of Public Works in advance, it was easy for their senior counsel (Eldridge) 
 and their junior counsel (Chipman) by dilatory questioning of the witnesses 
 to protract the investigation into the very last days of the session, and then 
 bring in their whitewashing report when too late for the House to give it a 
 moment's consideration. It was the majority of the committee, and not the 
 House of Representatives, that stifled the investigation and suppressed the 
 most damning facts ever proved against any set of conspirators to defraud 
 the people ; and your own Delegate contributed, to the utmost of his skill 
 and ability, to produce this result. 
 
 ONE YEAR'S EXPERIENCE. 
 
 Fellow-citizens, we have now had a t little more than one year's experience 
 under this total deprivation of the right of local self-government ; and what 
 have been the practical results? >.> 
 
 When this new government was impbsed upon us, the public indebtedness 
 of the whole District amounted to about $3,400,000. What does it amount 
 to now? Can anybody tell? Does Governor Cooke or any member of the 
 Board of Public Works know ? If they do, they keep that knowledge to 
 themselves. In the language of Lord Dundreary, the amount of our public 
 debt is "one of those things that no fellow can find out." 
 
 Every intelligent man, however, who has consulted such sources of in- 
 formation as are accessible to the public, knows very well that it far exceeds 
 ten millions of dollars. 
 
 What equivalent have we received for this enormous increase of our pub- 
 lic debt? We have had a great deal of digging down and filling up of our 
 public streets ; in many instances the digging down and filling up both hav- 
 ing been done in precisely the same places. In some cases the streets have 
 been improved, and in some they have been damaged. In many portions of 
 the city private property has been damaged to a fearful extent. Here a 
 street cut down, from six to twelve feet below T the foundations of 
 the houses, and there a street filled up so as to bury the first stories.. 
 And this in a city where there was scarcely an inconveniently steep grade 
 within its limits. In fact, the gently undulating surface of the ground 
 throughout our city was one of the natural beauties of its site ; and no one but 
 a vandal or a charlatan would attempt to reduce our streets to a dead level, 
 if it could be done without expense. 
 
 Our beautiful shade-trees, the growth of a third or half a century, and 
 which cannot be replaced in less time, have been laid low-, and reduced to 
 heaps of blighted and shriveled brush-wood. 
 
 THE FOUR MILLION LOAN EXHAUSTED. 
 
 The proceeds of the four million loan are more than exhausted, and the 
 Board of Public Works have now at their command only what little may re- 
 main unexpended of the appropriations made by Congress at its last session, 
 to aid in improving the streets in front of United States property, and such 
 collections as are being made of special taxes levied upon private property. . 
 It is said they are also using this general revenue arising from the current 
 collection of general taxes. Not one dollar of the general revenue, however, 
 has ever been appropriated to the use of the Board, (so far as the public has 
 been advised,) and if the District Treasurer is handing over any portion of 
 
it to them, be is doing so without warrant of law, and will have a nice account 
 to settle when the District government shall pass into the hands of men hav- 
 ing any regard for law. 
 
 Do you inquire how I know that the proceeds of the four-million loan are 
 already exhausted? I will tell you how you can all satisfy yourselves on 
 that point. 
 
 If you will refer to page 450 of the evidence taken before the investigating 
 committee, you will there find a statement, signed by James A. Magruder, 
 as treasurer of the Board, showing that 'up to the 6th of March the Board 
 had paid out of that fund the sum of $2,007,911. The four-million loan, at 
 ninety-four cents on the dollar, {the price at which the bonds were sold,) only 
 brought into the treasury the sum of $3,760,000. Deduct from this the sum 
 of $2,007,911 paid out of that fund previous to the 6th of March, and you will 
 find that there remained in the treasury at that date only $1,752,089. Now, 
 compare the work clone since the 6th of March Avith that done previously, or 
 compare the number of men and carts employed on the public works since 
 that date with those employed previously, and you will have convincing 
 proof, not only that the whole proceeds of the four-million loan have been 
 exhausted, but that a large sum from some other source has been expended 
 also ; or a large sum is due for work already performed. 
 
 And yet the Board is commencing jobs and giving out contracts for work 
 that will cost many millions more before completion. I know of one con- 
 tract given out a few weeks ago for two hundred thousand yard of wood pave- 
 ment," at $3.50 per yard, which will amount to seven hundred thousand dollars. 
 The work under this contract is now going on, and its proportion to the 
 whole work going on in the District is so small that if all the men and carts 
 engaged upon it were to leave the District to-morrow they would scarcely 
 be missed. It is safe to estimate that five millions or" dollars (in addition to 
 the amount already expended) will not complete the work now actually com- 
 menced or put under contract. 
 
 Where is the money to come from to pay for this work ? The Board say 
 they hope to get large appropriations from Congress to help them through. 
 But suppose they don't get these large appropriations, what then ? The 
 whole expense must come upon the property of the people, and every poor 
 man must be sold out of house and home to pay for the luxury of level 
 streets, with pavements fit for the pleasure-carriages of the wealthy to roll 
 over. Level and smooth streets are a luxury no doubt ; but the people must 
 have something else to make them happy. They must have houses to live 
 in, food to eat, and clothing to wear, as well as schools for the education of 
 their children. If we put all our resources, present and prospective, into 
 street and sewer improvements, how are the people to provide themselves 
 with all these other indispensable necessaries of life? The Board of Publie 
 Works act as if they thought smooth, level streets were the only one neces- 
 sity of life. They say, in effect, seek not houses or lands ; give no thought 
 as to what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink, or wherewithal ye shall be 
 clothed ; but seek ye first smooth and level streets, and all these other things 
 shall be added unto you. But this is not the condition on which the Saviour 
 promised these necessaries. His injunction was : " Seek ye first the King- 
 dom of Heaven, and all these things shall be added unto you.*' _ But coal 
 tar streets and wooden pavements do not quite constitute the Kingdom of 
 Heaven. If they did, we might well cry out to the people of Washington, 
 "Repent ye, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand ! " 
 
 I will tell you one resource which the Board of Public Works think they 
 have, and of which they intend to avail themselves. They intend to go on 
 with their " comprehensive system of improvements," and charge the whole 
 expense upon property in particular districts and localities where the work 
 is done. And here is the authority under which they expect to do it. The 
 law under which they have heretofore charged one-third of the expense of 
 improvements upon adjoining property is to be found in the 37th section of 
 the organic act. It is in these words : 
 
 "They (the Board of Public Works) shall disburse upon their warrant all 
 moneys appropriated, &c, * * * for the improvement of streets, avenues, 
 
alleys, and sewers, and roads and bridges, and shall assess in snch manner 
 as may be prescribed by law, upon the property adjoining and to be espe- 
 cially benefited by the improvements authorized by law and made by them, 
 a reasonable proportion of the cost of the improvement, not exceeding one- 
 third of such cost, which sum shall be collected as all other taxes are col- 
 lected." 
 
 The Board have discovered that away back in the 20th section of the same 
 act there is a clause by which the limitation of the rate of taxation to $2 on 
 every $100 of the cash value of the property of the District may be success- 
 fully evaded. That clause is in these words : 
 
 "Nor shall lands or other property in said District be liable to a higher 
 tax in any one year, for all general objects, Territorial and municipal, than 
 two dollars on every hundred dollars of the cash value thereof; but special 
 taxes may be levied in particular sections, wards or districts, for their particular 
 local improvements.'''' 
 
 Here, they say, is authority to tax property for particular local improve- 
 ments, without any limitation. All you have to do is, to call the improvements 
 "particular local improvements " of the district in which they are made, 
 and you may tax the property of said district to any extent you please, even 
 to the extent of fifty or seventy-five cents on the dollar. 
 
 I must confess that if this is undertaken there will be a much more plau- 
 sible pretence of law for it than there is for most of the acts which the Board 
 of Public Works have been doing. 
 
 That the Board does contemplate carrying out this system of robbery I 
 am perfectly satisfied from information confidentially obtained from a source 
 which I deem reliable. 
 
 I called the attention of the investigating committee to this construction 
 that might be put upon the organic act, and asked them to report a bill to 
 preclude it. But I might as well have applied to the Geneva Convention for 
 any safeguards against the plundering of the people, as to that committee. 
 
 Of course it will require an act of the Legislative Assembly to impose 
 these special taxes upon the several districts. But if the next Legislature 
 shall be as subservient to the dictation of the Board as the two former Legis- 
 latures have been, they will find no difficulty in getting an act passed to 
 carry into effect this iniquitous scheme. And I warn you now, fellow-citi- 
 zens, that the only way that you can prevent its consummation will be to 
 elect men to the next Legislative Assembly who will represent the interests 
 of the people, and not become the mere pliant tools of the Board of Public 
 Works. 
 
 USURPATION AND LAWLESSNESS. 
 
 While, as I have shown, this Board has, in one year, expended more than 
 four millions of the people's money, I aver that they have expended by far 
 the greater portion of said sum without a shadow of lawful authority. 
 
 The thirty-seventh section of the organic act expressly provides that " said 
 Board of Public Works shall have no power to make contracts to bind said 
 District to the payment of any sums of money, except in pursuance of appro- 
 pnations made by law, and not until such appropriations shall have been made.'''' 
 
 I aver that more than three-fourths of all the money expended by the 
 Board, in prosecuting their "comprehensive system of improvements," 
 have been expended without any appropriation whatever to the objects on 
 which the expenditures have been made. 
 
 The first appropriation act passed by the Legislative Assembly was the 
 four million act of July 10, 1871. The first section of that act appropriates 
 four millions of dollars, " until the expiration of the first fiscal quarter after 
 the adjournment of the next regular session of the Legislative Assembly, for 
 the improvement of the streets, avenues, alleys, and roads in the District of 
 Columbia, aud for the construction and repair of sewers, bridges, and other 
 public works therein ; " and the same section expressly requires that said 
 money shall be expended "as fully as may be practicable and consistent with 
 the public interest, in conformity with the plan of improvement submitted 
 
to the Legislature by the Board of Public Works of said District, in its com- 
 munication bearing date June 20, 1871." 
 
 The very next clause of said act provides ' ' that in no case shall the said Board 
 enter into a contract for any work or improvement, the cost of wliicli shall ex- 
 ceed the amount estimated for in its aforesaid plan, less twenty per centum of said 
 estimate.'''' 
 
 Could anything be plainer than this? Four millions of dollars are appro- 
 priated, to be expended on the specific improvements mentioned and esti- 
 mated for in said plan, and " as fully as practicable and consistent with the 
 public interest," in conformity with said plan. If the act had stopped here, 
 there might have been some room to cavil as to how far the Board could de- 
 viate from said plan, in respect to the kind and character of the work. The 
 fair and reasonable construction would be that, while the Board could no^ 
 go outside of the plan, they might make changes in the character of the work 
 specified therein. 
 
 For instance, if a wood pavement was specified in the plan, for a particu- 
 lar street, the Board Avould have power to substitute a stone or concrete 
 pavement, and vice versa. But the clause immediately following limits the 
 appropriation as to cost beyond the possibility of doubt or dispute. "In 
 Tio case shall the said Board enter into a contract for any work or improve- 
 ment, the cost of which shall exceed the amount estimated for in its afore- 
 said plan, less twenty per centum of said estimate." If this restriction has 
 any meaning or effect whatever, it means, first, that no contract shall be 
 entered into for any work or improvement which is not specified and esti- 
 mated for in said plan ; and second, that however the character of the work 
 may be varied, the cost shall not, in any case, exceed the amount estimated 
 for in the plan, less twenty per centum. 
 
 In the face of these plain and unmistakable provisions of the statute, it 
 seems almost incredible that the Board has expended the greater proportion 
 of the four million appropriation on works or improvements not specified or 
 in any way alluded to in the plan of improvement incorporated into said act. 
 But it is even so, incredible as it may appear. 
 
 This plan was made out by the Board of Public Works, printed, and 
 submitted to the Legislature June 20, 1871, as is recited in said four-million 
 act. It was made out in tabular form, specifying, first, the street, road, or 
 sewer proposed to be improved ; second, the kind of improvement to be 
 made ; third, the number of yards or feet of excavation, pavement, curbing, 
 or sewer, (as the case might be ;) fourth, the estimated cost per yard or per 
 foot ; and fifth, the total estimated cost of the improvement. In some 
 cases, however, especially in the case of country roads, the plan was less 
 specific, mentioning only the road to be improved and the' estimated cost of 
 the improvement. For instance, here is all that appears in the plan in ref- 
 erence to the 
 
 SEVENTH-STREET ROAD. 
 
 "Improving Seventh street road $2,500.' , 
 
 The appropriation Avas twenty per cent, less than the above estimate of 
 $2,500, or just two thousand dollars. JS"o man who has the slightest regard 
 for the truth will venture to assert that the Legislature has ever appropriated 
 one cent more than two thousand dollars for the improvement of" that road. 
 Even the whitewashing committee of the House did not venture any such 
 assertion. It follows, therefore, that every dollar expended on said road 
 beyond two thousand dollars was unauthorized by law, and a criminal mis- 
 application of the public money. 
 
 Now, how much do you suppose has been expended upon that road? I 
 answer from the record. On page 452 of the printed record of the testi- 
 mony, taken before the late committee of investigation, is a tabular state- 
 ment, emanating from the Board of Public Works, of expenditures in 
 Washington county, up to and including March 11, 1872, in which the ex- 
 penditure on the Seventh street road is put down at $95,061.02 ; and Mr. 
 Carpenter, the engineer in charge, testifies (April 12, 1871,) that it will cost 
 $70,000 more to complete the work. Thus, according to their own showing, 
 
8 
 
 they have incurred the expenditure of more than $165,000, on an appro- 
 priation of $2,000, or $163,000 in excess of the appropriation. But, as a 
 matter of fact, the road will never be completed on Mr. Carpenter's esti- 
 mate. The $70,000 has doubtless been expended before tbis time, and it 
 will require at least $70,000 more to complete the road, making a total cost 
 of some $235,000. As the road is less than five miles in Length, it will cost 
 .something more than $47,000 per mile, which is just about the average cost 
 per mile of all the railroads in the United States. 
 
 Now, what is the use of a Legislature, or of a law limiting the expendi- 
 tures of the Board to appropriations made by the Legislature, if the Board 
 can expend, on a particular road or street, a sum equal to the appropriation 
 multiplied by eighty-two ? Two thousand dollars were all that the Legislature 
 thought ought to be expended on the Seventh street road, and all that they 
 appropriated for that purpose. The Board had no more right to take any 
 further sum out of the treasury to expend upon that road, than they had 
 to take it out of the vaults of any bank in the District for that purpose. In 
 either case the act would be one of downright robbery ; the only difference 
 being that in the one case it would be the robbery of a bank, and in the other 
 case it is a robbery of the District treasury. 
 
 That the Legislature is the only department of the District government 
 having any power to appropriate public money for improvements, or for any 
 other purpose, is just as clear as the English language can make it. Is it 
 probable that if a proposition has been made in the Legislature to appro- 
 priate $165,000 to impi'ove a road from the city to Alexander Shepherd's 
 farm, it would have received any favor? 
 
 Fellow-citizens, this is but one instance out of many,. of the lawless expen- 
 diture of the public money by the Board of Public Works. I might cite 
 many cases where they have expended even larger sums of money, without 
 any appropriation whatever, if time and your patience would permit. I might 
 call your attention to the so-called improvements west of the War Depart- 
 ment, where streets were cut down from four to ten feet before any appro- 
 priation was made for the purpose, and before the Legislature ever met ; where 
 from three to four hundred thousand dollars have been expended without 
 a shadow of lawful authority, and damage has been done to private prop- 
 erty, probably, to nearly as large an amount ; where the only private prop- 
 erty benefited, and (with some trifling exceptions) the only property not 
 seriously damaged, was a block of new houses owned by the vice-president 
 of the Board, and which were apparently built with a view to this change of 
 grade. 
 
 I might refer to the Washington canal, on which several hundred thousand 
 dollars have been expended, not only without authority of law, but in fla- 
 grant violation of law, and on whieh hundreds of thousands more must be 
 expended before the work undertaken can be completed. 
 
 I might call your attention to Tiber creek sewer, the appropriation for which 
 was $48 per foot, and apart of which has been put under contract at $102.50 
 per foot, and the whole cost of which (11,000 feet) will exceed the appropria- 
 tion by the sum of $599,500. 
 
 Wherever any public work has been commenced or put under contract 
 similar discrepancies between the appropriations and the expenditures 
 might be pointed out. 
 
 When Mr. Shephard was on the witness stand, before the investigating 
 committee, with the " plan " or schedule before him, he was invited to point 
 out a single instance in which work specified in the schedule had been clone 
 in accordance with the estimate ; and he replied, " I will not undertake to 
 do it now." And he never will undertake to do it. 
 
 USURPATION OF LEGISLATIVE POWER. 
 
 By the 5th section of the organic act, "the legislative power and authority*' 
 in the District of Columbia is expressly vested in the Legislative. Assembly;. 
 Yet the Board of Public Works, from the beginning of its career, has exer- 
 cised legislative powers of the gravest character. 
 
 I have only time to poiut out one subject in respect to which they have- 
 
usurped such powers. It is impossible to conceive of a power more purely 
 legislative than that of creating public offices, and prescribing the duties 
 thereof. To legislate is to make laws, and surely no one can exercise any 
 official functions without authority of law. To create a public office, there- 
 fore, is to enact a law ; for without a law creating it no public office can 
 exist. 
 
 The Board of Public Works has created and filled a vast number of public 
 offices, the aggregate salaries of which amount to more than $100,000. 
 
 It has created the office of treasurer of the Board of Public Works, and 
 filled it by the appointment of one of its own members, who receives a sal- 
 ary from "the District government, (or from the improvement funds disbursed 
 by the Board,) in addition to that paid by the General Government for his 
 services as a member of the Board. That this office is as unnecessary asit 
 is unauthorized by law, is clear beyond dispute. All the funds of the Dis- 
 trict are first paid into the treasury of the District. The Board of Public 
 Works, by the 37th section of the organic act, is required to '•'■disburse, upon 
 their warrants, all moneys appropriated by the United States or by the Dis- 
 trict of Columbia, or collected from property holders in pursuance of law, 
 for the improvement of the streets, avenues," &c. Observe, they are not 
 to receive or collect these money. The tricksters who engineered the organic 
 act through the House wanted power to receive and collect these moneys, and 
 got the bill through the House with such authority in it. But the Senate 
 saw the trick, and struck out the words receive and collect leaving the Board 
 the naked power to disburse. Yet these lawless plunderers are going on just 
 as if their trick had never been discovered and frustrated, and just as if the 
 bill had become a law in the form in which they engineered it through the 
 House. 
 
 The plain and indisputable meaning of the act is. that the Board shall dis- 
 burse all improvement funds, by their own warrants, drawn upon the Dis- 
 trict Treasurer, in favor of the contractors or others to whom the money may be 
 due, from time to time. Bnt instead of this, they appoint a treasurer of 
 their own, who draws the improvement funds from the District treasury in 
 gross, and pays them out to contractors and laborers himself. 
 
 Do you not see the object of this dodge? If the improvement funds were 
 disbursed by warrants or drafts drawn upon the District Treasurer, that offi- 
 cer would hold the vouchers, and there would be some means of ascertaining 
 to whom the money was paid and for what it was paid. But under the sys- 
 tem illegally adopted by the Board, all the vouchers are kept in the custody 
 of the Board itself, or of so-called officers of its own creation, who hold their 
 places at the will of that despotic oligarchy. They can manufacture, alter, 
 suppress, or destroy these vouchers at their own pleasure, and no one can 
 call them to account. 
 
 Have I not made good my promise to demonstrate, that imder the system 
 adopted by the Board of Public Works, the members of the Board may con- 
 vert to their own private use any proportion they please of the public funds 
 coming to their hands, without the least danger that the fraud will be detected 
 and exposed ? Could this system have been devised for any other purpose 
 than to facilitate embezzlement and prevent the detection thereof? 
 
 The office of the Treasurer of the District is an office created by law. and 
 the incumbent is required by law to give bonds. The office of treasurer of 
 the Board of Public Works is not an office created by law, and has no legal 
 existence ; and any bond that its so-called incumbent may give is a mere 
 nullity, so far, at least, as his sureties are concerned. James A. Magruder 
 may make default at any day for every dollar of public funds in his hands, 
 and no part of the amount could be collected. You could not collect from 
 him, personally, because, as I understand, he is worth nothing ; and you 
 could not collect from his sureties, because a bond given for the faithful per- 
 formance of the duties of an office that has no legal existence, is a mere 
 nullity. 
 
 UNPARALLELED EXTRAVAGANCE. 
 
 The Hon. Mr. Koosevelt in his speech on our District affairs, in the House 
 
10 
 
 of Representatives, May 17, 1872, presents a tabular statement, showing the 
 amounts appropriated in eleven States, and in the District of Columbia, for 
 " salaries of executive officers," "printing and advertising," and "contin- 
 gencies," by which it appears that this District pays for salaries of District 
 officers more than twice as much as either of said States pays for salaries of 
 State officers — the salaries of judicial officers and pay of members and officers 
 of the Legislature being excluded in both cases. And yet the great States 
 of New York, Ohio and Illinois are included in the list. 
 
 It appears that our Delegate in Congress obtained leave to print a speech 
 in reply to Mr. Roosevelt, towards the close of the session, and that 
 he has printed it, with several other speeches made by him, in "Boyd's 
 Directory " for July. I never heard of this speech till Saturday last; 
 but, from glancing over it, I find that it is an elaborate review of Mr. 
 Roosevelt's speech. In reviewing this table, Mr. Chipman does not dispute 
 the correctness of Mr. Roosevelt's figures, but he complains that it is not 
 fair to compare the salaries paid to District officers in this District with the 
 salaries paid to State officers in the States, inasmuch as our old municipal 
 governments are merged in the new District government, which embraces 
 in its list of officers many who perform municipal functions only. 
 
 To give our Delegate the full benefit of this criticism, I read from Mr. 
 Roosevelt's table, the expenses in three States, under the other two heads, 
 excluding salaries of officers : 
 
 Printing and advertising. Contingencies. Total. 
 
 Ohio £75,300 613,250 $88,550 
 
 Illinois 50,000 39,108 89,108 
 
 New Hampshire 9,S30 2,099 11,929 
 
 District of Columbia 143,635 200,000 343,633 
 
 Gentlemen, compare these figures at your leisure, and you will see that 
 this District pays out some eight thousand dollars more for printing and ad- 
 vertising, and nearly four times as much for contingencies, as the three States 
 of Ohio, Illinois, and New Hampshire. Besides, the item for printing and 
 advertising in this District is put too low by Mr. Roosevelt, as the actual cost, 
 for about seven months, was something more than $150,000, as was proven in 
 the investigation. The great bulk of this expenditure was for advertising 
 the loan bill and the Piedmont bill in fifteen newspapers, which expense was 
 incurred in the space of ninety days. 
 
 The committee could not quite approve of this extravagant expenditure 
 for advertising, though really it is but a bagatelle compared with some of 
 the unlawful expenditures by the Board, of which they took no notice in their 
 report. The meanest thing they did was, while mildly censuring it, to at- 
 tempt to shift the responsibility from the executive to the legislative depart- 
 ment of the District government. The fact is, that not a single advertise- 
 ment was ordered by the Legislature. With a few trifling exceptions, the 
 advertising was all given out by the Governor or the Secretary, acting as 
 Governor. 
 
 Mr. Chipman, in his speech, also tries to shift the responsibility upon the 
 Legislature. He says "the whole printing bill was paid by appropriations 
 made by the Legislature, and to that extent was approved by the people." 
 Mr. Chipman knows, or ought to know, that not one of the advertising bills 
 was audited, paid, or ordered to be paid by the Legislature. A gross siun 
 was appropriated to pay said bills, or such of them as should be found just 
 and right, by the proper executive officers, of the District. Not one bill 
 was paid, or could be paid, till approved by the proper executive officer to 
 pass upon it. 
 
 According to the views of the majority of the committee and of Mr. Chip- 
 man, after the work had been done pursuant to the orders of the Governor, 
 and the District authorities had received their quid pro quo in the earnest ad- 
 vocacy by the newspapers of the four million loan, the Legislature ought to 
 have refused to appropriate the money to pay the bills. They seem to ig- 
 nore the old maxim that there should be " honor among thieves." 
 
 Fellow citizens, reluctant as I am to trespass further upon your time, 1 am 
 unwilling to close without addressing a few words 
 
11 
 
 TO THE LABORING MEN OP THE DISTRICT. 
 
 I mean those who perform the clay labor upon onr public works, for we are 
 nearly all laboring men, in one sense or another; and I mean resident 
 labouring men. 
 
 You have sustained the Board of Public Works in their extravagant system 
 of expenditures, by jrour influence and your votes. Considering the lights 
 you had before you, I do not wonder at it, nor blame you. No doubt you 
 thought you were doing the best for the promotion of your own interests ; 
 and far be it from me to censure any class of citizens for supporting measures 
 which they honestly believe are for their own good. But you were shame- 
 fully deceived . You were told that all those who were opposed to the schemes 
 of the Board of Public Works were the enemies of improvements, and that 
 unless the Board should be sustained by the votes of the people, all public 
 improvements would be stopped, and all laborers upon public works thrown 
 out of employment, Pending the last fall canvass, every newspaper in the 
 District, whether published daily, weekly, or semi-occasionally, was bought 
 up by the distribution of $150,000 among them, to make these gross repre- 
 sentations, or at least to keep silent. Their columns were all closed against 
 any word of opposition to the schemes of the Board, or any word of 
 explanation of the views and wishes of those who questioned the wisdom 
 or expediency of their plans. You acted, no doubt, from the best lights 
 you were permitted to have. 
 
 But, as a matter of fact, every citizen of the District who opposed the 
 schemes of the Board, so far as I know, (and few had better opportunities 
 of knowing their views,) was in favor of a most liberal system of improve- 
 ments. But they wanted these improvements carried out in pursuance of a 
 well matured plan, and under the supervision of men who could be held to 
 some sort of accountability for their acts. They were opposed to putting 
 four millions of dollars into the hands of five men to expend as they pleased, 
 without being accountable to any human being for the disposition made 
 of the money. They were opposed to putting this large sum of money into 
 the hands of these men, in such a way that they might appropriate a large 
 share of it to their own private use, without the least danger of detection. 
 
 And now I tell you that this Board has never, to this day, let the people 
 know to whom they have paid one dollar in ten of the money thev have ex- 
 pended. During the long investigation before the late whitewashing com- 
 mittee, this information could not be dragged out of them. The memorialists, 
 through their counsel, called repeatedly for a detailed statement of the ex- 
 penditures of the Board, showing to whom, and/or what the money had been 
 paid, but they never got any thing but evasive answers ; and the worst of 
 it is, the majority of the commmittee, and your own Delegate, encouraged and 
 upheld the District authorities in making evasive answers. 
 
 After repeated attempts to obtain this information, we got from the Gov- 
 ernor, on the 18th of March, 1872, what purported to be an answ T er to a 
 call made by the committee on the 5th of that month, for a detailed state- 
 ment of the moneys expended by the Board, for what expended, and to whom 
 paid. This consisted of four tabular statements, which will be found on 
 pages 450, 451, and 452 of the printed record of the testimony. These state- 
 ments show that the Board had paid out for improvements in the whole Dis- 
 trict, up to the 6th of March, the sum of $2,007,911.99; but they did not show 
 to whom a single dollar of the money had been paid, although this was the 
 very information that the memorialists had been trying so hard to get. 
 
 When the counsel for the memorialists called the attention of the committee 
 to the evasive character of this answer, and asked for another order for the 
 production of the desired information, they were petulantly told by Mr. 
 Eldridge that the information had been furnished half-a-dozen times, and 
 Mr. Chip man reiterated the statement in an equally petulant manner. 
 
 Yet I aver, and the record will bear me out in the assertion, that no such 
 information ever was furnished throughout the investigation, and that for 
 aught that was furnished, in response to our repeated calls, the Board may 
 have put one-fourth of the said $2,007,000 into their own pockets or in- 
 vested in real estate speculations for their own benefit. It was this profli- 
 
12 
 
 gate system of placing millions of the people's money in the hands of a few 
 men, without requiring them to give any account of what they do with it, 
 that the memorialists objected to. 
 
 Now, my laboring fellow-citizens of the District of Columbia, of what great 
 benefit has the four million loan been to you? It is all expended now and 
 you can estimate yonr gains. While a vast horde of officers have been re- 
 ceiving their thousands, and contractors and ring men their tens and hundreds 
 of thousands ; you have received employment for about one year at the 
 miserable compensation of one dollar and a half a day for each working day. 
 
 The Board of Public Works, as soon as they got the four-million loan in 
 their hands, went to work to see how rapidly they could dispose of the fund. 
 Without plan or system they fell to digging and delving, to ploughing and 
 scraping and carting, as if their very salvation depended upon expending 
 the largest possible amount of money in the shortest possible time. Such 
 haste and inconsiderate rashness would have been productive of great waste 
 and loss if the Board of Public Works had been composed of the most honest 
 men living. 
 
 One million of dollars is as much as they could have judiciously and eco- 
 nomically expended during the first year. And no unprejudiced man, well 
 informed on the subject, can doubt that one million of dollars judiciously 
 and economically expended, would have made improvements far more bene- 
 ficial to the District than all that the Board have done with four millions. 
 
 The four million loan, as I have already stated, has been exhausted in less 
 than nine months from the time it was made ; and no more money can be 
 obtained from that source. The Board will doubtless, by hook or crook, 
 find means to keep the public work in progress till after the October elec- 
 tion ; and this is the utmost they, can do. For this reason the late Legis- 
 lative Assembly changed the time for holding the election from November to 
 October, because they knew they would not have money enough to keep the 
 machine running till November, and it would not do to break down before 
 the election. 
 
 I want you all to remember my prediction, that very soon after the Octo- 
 ber election the Board will begin to curtail the public work, 'and before 
 winter sets in they will be without money, without credit, and hopelessly in 
 debt. 
 
 My laboring fellow-citizens, I advise you to get all you can out of the 
 Board before the election ; for then your harvest will end. 
 
 One effect of this indecent haste of the Board to expend the four millions 
 as speedily as possible, was to bring into the District a great number of out- 
 siders from the surrounding country, to divide the spoils with resident 
 laborers. Suppose one million of dollars per annum had been expended, 
 (which nobody would have objected to, if it had been expended judiciously, 
 and under proper safeguards against peculation and embezzlement,) would 
 it not have been better for you, laboring men of the District? This would 
 have given employment to all resident laboring men of the District who 
 could not have found other employment equally desirable ; and it would 
 have given it for years to come. But by this indecent haste to do what ought 
 to be the work of four or five years in one, the resources of the District, 
 present and prospective, have been suddenly exhausted, and it must be many 
 years before oiir public work can be resumed on any but a most limited scale, 
 especialfy if the authors of this mischief are to be kept in power. You will 
 find that by lending your aid to this rash and hasty policy, you have killed 
 the goose that would have laid j^ou golden eggs for many years to come. 
 
 But the worst of all is, you have aided in the establishment of a condition 
 of things that must result in robbing you of your little homesteads, and in 
 transferring them to the possession of a greedy and heartless ring of specu- 
 lators upon your misfortunes. 
 
 When I heard it suggested some months ago that the Board of Public 
 Works, or some of its members, at least, were "implicated in a stupendous 
 scheme to buy up the property that will be forced to sale to pay the special 
 taxes assessed upon it, and that this might account for the persistency of the 
 Board in a course that must result in forcing a vast amount of property upon 
 
13 
 
 the market for taxes, I could not conceive it possible that civilized men coxild 
 be actuated by motives so heartless and avaricious. More recent develop- 
 ments, however, have shaken my incredulity. I cannot account for the' 
 active part Which the Board took in defeating Gray's bill in the last Legis- 
 lature on any other hypothesis than the existence of such a tcheme. That 
 was an eminently just and merciful measure, and one that would have given 
 small property holders a breathing spell, at least, before being turned out of 
 houses and homes ; and it was a measure that might have been adopted 
 without seriously curtailing the means of the Board for carrying out their 
 " comprehensive system of improvement." The certificates, bearing ten per 
 cent, interest, could have been sold to capitalists at par, or at a small dis- 
 count. And what man, with a soul in his body, could hesitate for a moment 
 between the alternatives of bearing his share of the loss of a small percent- 
 age on these certificates, and witnessing the confiscation of the homesteads 
 of hundreds, if not thousands, of his fellow-citizens? Every large taxpayer 
 in the District, not identified in some way with the District government, was 
 in favor of the passage of this bill ; and any pecuniary loss to the District, 
 which would have resulted from it, would have fallen principally on that class 
 of citizens. 
 
 Whether the motives of the Board, in defeating the passage of Gray's bill, 
 was to force the propert y of poor men to sale for taxes as speedily as possible, 
 or not, every one must see that such will be the effect of it, 
 
 THE REMEDY. 
 
 In conclusion, fellow-citizens, what is our remedy for these intolerable 
 evils? We must have a remedy of some kind, or we shall soon sink under 
 the weight of profligacy and oppression imposed upon us. 
 
 We have little prospect of relief, unless we can have a change in our 
 national Administration. Our King owes its paternity to President Grant, 
 and he nurses and protects it with all the affection that could be expected 
 from a doting parent towards his own offspring. It is the assurance of per- 
 fect safety in this quarter that emboldens its members to trample law and 
 justice under foot with an audacity that is truly appalling. Their lawless 
 enormities have been perpetrated here under the very eyes of the President, 
 and he has turned a deaf ear to all complaints against them. The people 
 might as well appeal to a maternal bear, to check the depredations of her 
 hungry cubs upon their pigs and poultry, as appeal to President Grant for 
 any relief against the rapacity of his pets of the Washington Ring. 
 
 Right filially have these favorites reciprocated the paternal favors bestowed 
 upon them. They stand ready to lend their aid, wherever it may be needed 
 to promote the political interests of their great father, the President, or of 
 members of Congress who have played into their hands. It is said that they 
 sent money to New Hampshire last spring to aid in carrying the State elec- 
 tion for the Administration party, but I do not know whether such was the 
 fact or not. It is certain, however, that when Senator Patterson, of that 
 State, chairman of the Senate Committee on the District, and one of the 
 Ring defenders, found himself in a tight place in regard to his re-election a 
 short time ago, the treasurer of the Board of Public Works, your Delegate 
 in Congress, and several Icing men hastened to the rescue How much of 
 the people's money the treasurer of the Board took with him we do not 
 know, and of course never shall know, unless he or his associates choose to 
 tell us. Fortunately the people of the District were represented there too, 
 and Mr. Patterson had to go "where the woodbine twineth." 
 
 When President Grant found, a few weeks ago, that the State of North 
 Carolina was likely to break her shackles and declare her independence of 
 federal domination, it has been charged that the Board sent a cargo of seven 
 or eight hundred voters to reinforce the Administration cohorts in that elec- 
 tion. I do not vouch for the truth of this, but they have a large stock of this 
 material constantly on hand, at a dollar and a half per day, and will doubt- 
 less be able to afford similar aid to several other States before the ides of 
 November. 
 
 In fact, I am well assured that hundreds of laborers have lately been seut 
 
u 
 
 from this District to Pennsylvania, under pretence of going to work upon 
 railroads, but really to vote at the approaching State election. A contractor 
 complained a few days ago, in the hearing of a gentleman whose statement 
 no one will doubt, that his hands were leaving him and going to Pennsyl- 
 vania to work on the railroads, where they are to get from Cameron $2.50 
 per day. He stated that about twenty of his hands had gone, and expressed 
 the opinion that about 800 had already left the District for Pennsylvania. 
 These are facts that can he, proved if any one denies them. 
 
 It would appear that there might be some difficulty in carrying out this 
 fraud, inasmuch as our District and Pennsylvania vote on the same day. But 
 our King have an easy way of overcoming such little difficulties. All they 
 have to do is, for every registered voter who has gone to Pennsylvania, to 
 put in a repeater here, to cast a ballot in his name. That will make the books 
 all right ; and who can detect the fraud ? This game of false voting in the 
 name of registered voters who are absent, has been played here before, and 
 one member of our first Legislative Assembly obtained his majority by such 
 a fraud. At least, some of his supporters have boasted of having secured 
 his election in that way. So long as this co-operative, mutual aid arrange- 
 ment is kept up between the King and the Administration, you see how idle 
 it is to hope for any relief by the Avay of the White House. 
 
 We believe, however, that nothing short of Plantamour's comet can pre- 
 vent a change in the Administration from taking place on the 4th of March 
 next. 
 
 We must have a thorough reform in the organization of our District gov- 
 ernment. The people must have the right to elect all the members of bath 
 branches of the Legislative Assembly, as well as their Governor and Secre- 
 tary. The Legislature, thus composed wholly of representatives elected by 
 the people, must have the power to decide vthat other District officers we 
 shall have, how they shall be chosen, and what shall be their powers and 
 duties. 
 
 The present Board of Public Works must be absolutely abolished, and the 
 Legislative Assembly, representing K the people in both its branches, must 
 have power to determine by law [what officers shall have charge of our 
 public works, how they shall be chosen, and what powers they shall 
 possess. 
 
 With these changes in our organic law, we should have the essential ele- 
 ments of local sell-government. But how are we to obtain these changes? 
 ■ As a first step, we must elect a Delegate to Congress who will represent 
 the interests of the people, and not be the mere tool and defender of the 
 Board of Public Works. He must be a man who believes that some reform 
 in our District government is needed; and not one who believes that'system 
 perfect, and the Board of Public Works infallible. 
 
 Manifestly our present Delegate does not fill this bill. That he is not in 
 favor of any change in our organic act is evidenced by the fact that during 
 the last session, when the subject was so long under investigation, he never 
 proposed a single amendment or alteration -of it. That he believes the 
 Board of Public Works have not transcend* l.tl law and have done nothing 
 wrong, is evidenced by the fact that he def led them on every charge or 
 complaint made against them with all the zeal of a paid counsel. That lie 
 believes the Board infallible, is evidenced by the fact that he introduced no 
 bill to limit their powers in the slightest degree, though many wholesome 
 propositions to that jend were submitted to him during the session. 
 
 Those who believe that our present system of government is perfect, and 
 that the Board of Public Works has done nothing wrong in the past, and can 
 do nothing Avrong in the future, though restrained by no law, should vote 
 for Mr. Chipman as a lit representative of their views. 
 
 But for any one who believes that any reform in our system of local gov- 
 ernment is needed — who believes that the Board of Public Works has 
 transcended its powers in the past — or Avho deems it unsafe to intrust any 
 -five men with the exercise of absolutely unlimited and despotic powers over 
 the property of the people, to vote for him would, be inconsistent in the 
 highest imaginable degree. 
 
15 
 
 As well might a shepherd employ a Avolf to guard his sheepfold, as for the 
 friends of reform in our local government to vote for a Delegate to Congress 
 ■who has given such indubitable evidence that he is opposed to any reform, 
 and who has labored with so much zeal to prevent any change, and pre- 
 serve the present status of our affairs. 
 
 Against General Chipman, personally, I have not a word to say. So far 
 as I know or believe, in all the relations of private life he is a gentleman 
 above reproach. But I make no apology for commenting upon and criti- 
 cising his official course, especially when he is asking us to re-elect him. 
 
 We ought, at the approaching election, if possible, to secure a majority of 
 the friends of reform in our House of Delegates, not because of any positive 
 good they could do, under our present system, but for the purpose of check- 
 ing pernicious legislation. 
 
 The Board of Public Works now admit that they must have large ap- 
 propriations from Congress to enable them to complete their '•'comprehen- 
 sive system of improvements." They are actually letting out contracts 
 for immense jobs of work to be paid [for when Congress shall make an 
 appropriation for that purpose. Of course none of this work will be done 
 until the appropriation is made. So this is a mere attempt on the part of 
 the Board to control the disposition not only of the funds now on hand, or 
 which may come into the treasury under existing laws, but to put into the 
 hands of their associates of the Eing all funds that inay be appropriated bj r 
 Congress hereafter. If Congress should appropriate five millions of dollars 
 for the improvements of the"Di strict at the next session, rely upon it King 
 men would come forward with contracts executed in advance of the ap- 
 propriation sufficient to absorb the whole sum. All such contracts, how- 
 ever, arc utterly null and void under the thirty-seventh section of the 
 organic act. 
 
 It is now agreed on all hands that we must have aid from Congress, to 
 put the cities of Washington and Georgetown in a decently habitable condi- 
 tion. To finish up the the work already commenced, so as to make our 
 streets even passable, will require a sum of money wholly beyond the ability 
 of the people of the District to raise. 
 
 Now, how are Ave to get this indispensable aid from Congress? Can we 
 get it by sending General Chipman back, to say to Congress that the system 
 of government they imposed upon us, without our consent, is just the sys- 
 tem that the people desire to live under? That the men appointed by the 
 President to rule over us are the best men that could have been appointed, 
 and the people approve of everything they have done? 
 
 What would be the answer to such an appeal? Would not Congress say, 
 as you have had everything exactly as you wanted it, and have undertaken 
 to do more than you can go through with,, if you have contracted a larger 
 debt than you can pay, it is your own fault, and you must bear the conse- 
 quences of your folly. You had no promise that the General Government 
 would pay your bills, and have no right now to present them to us for 
 payment. 
 
 But suppose you send a delegate to Congress who will put our case on its 
 true ground ; who will say to Congress, you imposed a system of govern- 
 ment upon us, in which the people have no A'oice. The President appointed 
 men to rule over us, in whose selection we had no agency. These men 
 inaugurated a system of improvements far beyond the ability* of the people 
 to complete. By a rash and headlong improvidence and extravagance, they 
 have exhausted all our resources, present and prospective, burthened us 
 with a heavy debt, and put our streets in such a condition that it will re- 
 quire the expenditure of a large sum of money to render the city habita- 
 ble. These acts were not the acts of the people of the District, but the 
 acts of the Federal Government, through its own appointed agents. The 
 debt Ave oAA'e is not a debt contracted by the people of the District, or by 
 then- agents or representatives. It is a debt imposed upon us by officers 
 appointed to rule over us, and to manage our affairs, by the Federal Gov- 
 ernment ; and it is, therefore, essentially the debt of the Federal Govern 
 
16 
 
 ment. On these just and equitable grounds, we appeal to you to help ue 
 pay jt oft, and to help us put our streets in a passable conditon. 
 
 Be assured, fellow-citizens, that until our case is put squarely before 
 Congress on this true ground, we shall get no efficient aid from that body. 
 But when it is boldly and ably urged on these grounds, the justice of our 
 appeal will become so manifest, that sooner or latter Congress must come 
 to our relief. 
 
 King contractors, however, should take no encouragement from this pros- 
 pect. If Congress should lend its aid to put our cities in a habitable con- 
 dition, or even aid us in paying off the public debts for which the property 
 of the people is legally bound, it does not follow that they will appropriate 
 money for the relief of ring contractors, who, with their eyes wide open, 
 have entered into illegal contracts with the Board. The Board can now 
 make no contract to bind the District to the payment of a single dollar, be- 
 cause all appropriations for improvements are exhausted. And why shoidd 
 Congress be expected to do anything for the relief of contractors who become 
 participes criminis with the Board in violating the law? 
 
 And now, fellow-citizens, I conclude by putting to you this practical ques- 
 tion : Is it Avorth while to attempt to stem this flood of usurpation, extrava- 
 gance, and corruption at the approaching October election ? Is it advisable 
 " to take arms against this sea of troubles, and, by opposing, (try to,) end 
 them ? ' ' Or is our case so utterly hopeless that there is no other course left 
 but tamely to submit to be robbed of our last dollar? 
 
 Undoubtedly nineteen-twentieths of all the taxpayers of the District who 
 are not identified with the District government or with the contractors' ring 
 are earnestly in favor of reform. Have the Board of Public Works the non- 
 taxpayers so completely under their control that with the aid of the army of 
 District officers and contractors they can certainly outvote us ? 
 
 I believe if we could have a perfect concert of action among all the friends 
 of reform in the District, so that they would register and vote with the same 
 unanimity that the Board of Public Works will regisler and vote their em- 
 ployees, victory would be ours. 
 
 That we have a majority of the legal voters of the District with us, I have 
 no doubt. If they will all vote in unison they can carry the election, unless 
 defeated by fraud. But first and foremost, we must register to a man. If 
 we neglect this duty, as we did last fall, the election will be but an idle 
 ceremony And in order to have a full registration, we must have a perfect 
 organization. We must have canvassers at every place of registration who 
 will have the names of all the friends of reform in the District, and they 
 must see that every name is registered. 
 
 My fellow-citizens, now is the time for us to put forth our strength. Now 
 is the time to strike for deliverance. Now is the time to take advantage of 
 the great tidal-wave that is rising all over the country against the centrali- 
 zation of power, and in favor of local self-government. If we launch our 
 cause upon this tide, and in unison pull at the oars like men determined to 
 win, I confidently believe we shall ride safely into the harbor of reform <m 
 the second Tuesday of October, with victory inscribed upon our banners. 
 

 
 
 ^