When Hon. John A. Moon and John Wesley Gaines denounced this subsidy as it deserved, they earned the applause and the grateful remembrance of every honest man in the South.
The Hon. R. B. Macon of Arkansas also deserves the highest credit for his opposition to the theft.
Of course, “Slippery Jim” Richardson of Tennessee rushed to the relief of the corporation, as “Slippery Jim” always does, and the robbers, led by the Bedstead statesman of Alabama, prevailed.
The Congressman from Georgia, or Alabama or any other Southern state who helps Samuel Spencer and J. P. Morgan steal the taxes of the people upon the plea that it is done for the benefit of the South, merits the scorn and contempt of every decent Southern man.
But those who excuse their votes upon that pretense are hypocrites, or dupes.
They know, or should know, that the subsidy gives no benefit to the South which she would not be entitled to under an ordinary mail contract.
The Congressmen who stole this money from the treasury for Morgan’s Railroad were seduced by the indirect bribery of railway favors—JUST THAT, and NOTHING ELSE.
Two Outlaws
Once upon a time there was a great lawyer, orator, financier and statesman who was honest. He bore himself among men with the port of a king, and even strangers, when they passed him on the streets, would stop and look back at that majestic figure with involuntary admiration. To see him was to get a new idea of the natural impressiveness of a great man. To hear him talk was to learn more than you had ever dreamed of the infinite variety of creative intellect.