Democratic standard. [volume] (Georgetown, Brown County, Ohio) 1837-1850, 1842-01-25

ored Ioudest and longest 10 sustain mon
Opoly? 10 protect cupidty and avarice il
their ill-gOtten gains by cries Of alarm
and pretended fears of what they were
pleased 10 call a spirit Of GgrGridnisnai
that has affected TO fad in the homes
efforts of democrats TO reform admitted
abuses, an apology for every one of tha
series of acts which have reduced the
currency of the State to worthless trashi
that has resisted, year after year, all vel
directed efforts t. secure fixed stand.
ard of value, and cut off the streams oi
corruption, by reforming their fountains!
What party has lavshed its talents and
resources in inculcating the slavish doc.
trine, that TO reform known abuses in the
only proper manner, was TO trample on
the constitution by infringing "vested
rights3" that proclaimed year since, that
in twenty days after their accession to
power, all the evils of bad currency
would be cured, for public confidence
would be restored; and, as if placed un.
der the spell ofAlladin's lamp, the whole
country would be flooded, if not with
gold, yet with convertible paper money,
much better than gold? We will not
charge them with wilful falsehood; they
may have been made mad with the intox'
eating prospect of victory. But we do
say, that whatever name they may have as
sumed, their true style and title was "FED
ERALIsTs;" and considering that, hereto
fore, whenever invested with power, they
have opposed, by every imaginable shift
and device, all salutary attempts at re-
formation, we must anticipate like con-
duct in future; for if now seeming to sur
render their former position, it is only
because the power of reason and the light
of truth have compelled the hitherto mis-
guided, but honest men who acted with
them, TO surrender their false prejudices,
and yield to the sober dictates of sound
Judgement. With the party leaders, there
still exists the old leaven which melted
them to claim that "a Law creating a
corporation was a contract" and, there-
fore, intangible; and, that notwithstaud.
ing its capacity for mischief, the supreme
power of the State was incompetent TO
restrain or remedy the defects of incon-
sidarate legislation. Rest assured this
same leaven will again attempt its Office
of injecting the masses of society. 1t
may for. the present, like the flexible
reed, bend TO the storD of popular indig-
nation, but it will do so in order to lise
with renewed vigor at more favorable
moment. The money power, while
seeming to yield, will be taking deeper
root, and working its hidden influences.
Perchance it may feign TO take the lead
in reform, and so guide, to rash ends, the
onward movements, which now it lacks
the power TO prevent. We must not be
surprised 10 fEd old federalists claiming
TO have ever been, par excellence, the
true and only reiOrmers. No matter if
they do SO. Let us pursue the even ten.
or of our way, and be rule and a guide
TO ourselves. We have claimed the right
to redress and prevent by law, the frauds
and errors of corporate bodies; TO provide
and compel the enlargement ofthe specie
basis of bank paper; to add, as a further
security of the bill holder, the personal
responsibility of the stockholders, to the
capital stock Of the bank; 10 make all
needful provisions TO meet and prevent
suspensions of specie payments, as well
as to provide for tie punishment of
swindling, as often as chartered roguery
discovers new modes of evadng subsist-
ing laws; in fine, TO make each paper dol
lar equivalent in value, TO a specie dol
lar, and to permit neither the circulation
or cristence of deprecated paper cur
rency.
Our position was taken years since,
after mature deliberaton. Let us stand
firmly upon it, without being coaxed for
ward or driven back, without being diver
ted to the right hand or to the left. Our
opponents have said that a Bank of the
United States with like powers, and on
principles identical with our own. but
greater in quantity, was the all sufficien
and ONLY ''REGuLAToR." But we have
ever been sensible that the dictates o
wisdom forbade the trust, and that tht
constitution also forbade it. We knew
that its only power to regulate was b,
swallowing them at pleasure, or forcin,
them to become panders TO its own mor'
splendid schemes of imposition. Th
experience of 1919 and 1920, not yet los
to Ohio, forewarned US of the fatal con
Sequences Of such measure, and Will
the remains of that great monument 0
corruption and folly, the LAST Bank Q
the United States, exists as reprOach I
its founders and a warning to the coun
try, it is not TO be admitted that expert
cace, SO bountifully lavished, has bee
wasted upon us in vain.
Fellow citizens, this day marks an er
in our history with which are associate
the Proudest recollection of every tru
American. On the 9Th OF January, 1917
r handful ofundisciplined militia success
: fully defended our flag and our soil an
. triumphed over the experienced mercer
} aries whom Wellington had trained