The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1853-10-21
FINANCIAL AND POLITICAL CONDI.
TON OF THE UNITED STATES.

trous in the annals of our country. One
thousand of our most distinguished mer-
chants, shipowners, manufacturers, and finan-
ciers, in the city of New York, broke down
in the space of two or three weeks, and for
ty thousand more were struck down in the
country, causing failures to the amount Of
five hundred millions of dollars, and involv-
ing all the banks, and the States themselves,
few years after, in the same catastrophe.-
The social calamities which followed in the
train of this terrible rcversion in trade and
finance are yet fresh in the minds of thou
ands. Families in wealthy and atflucnt cir
cumstances were reduced to penury-widows
and orphans to whom competency had been
secured, driven to want-and the honest
workmen, depending for the support Of their
wives and children on the wages Of their dali
ly labor, abandoned to id!eness and despair.
The savings of years Of patient industry, the
wealth amassed by long and successful la
Dor, were swept off by one fell blow, and the
hopes and prospects of numberless families
iretrievably ruined.
What was the origin of this commercial,
financial and social revolution!
Many causes no doubt conspircd to produce
it; but the chief cause, to which all others
were subordinate, was the administration of
Martin Van Buren,, and its merenary spirit,
which had already infused itself into the
three last years of the administration Of his
Immediate predecessor. 1t was the spoils
politicians of the Albany Regency, with Gov.
Marcy at their head, who produced the calam-
ity of 1897 1t was the men who locked
upon the whole problem Of Government rs
the art of procuring majoritics at the polls,
no matter by what reckless or despicablc
means, who did the mischief. What We're
commerce, manufactures, agriculture, justice,
the honor of the republic at home and a.
broad-what the great mission of the United
States, to men who treated every office under
the government as public plumber, and whose
governmental philosophy and ethics were
summed up in Marcy's motto, $40 the VIC
tors belong the spos!"
The administration of Martin Van Buren,
was ushcrcd in with great promises, and
with reiterated professions of honesty and in
tegrity. A surplus Of thirty millions had
accumulated in the treasury, sufficient to con-
troll commercial enterprise and to effect every
species of industry; the country was suppos-
cd to be prosperous beyond all precedent;
yet at bottom there was nothing but dclu-
sion, false pretcnsions, arrogant presumption,
and want of system and knowledge, in all
the arrangements of the government. The
crash at last came-wealtli, credit, the sur
plus in the treasury, the popularity and pow
or of the administration, finally Martin Van
Buren, himself, together with the Albany Re-
gencv, and all the vagabonds and spoilsmen
under It, were swept from the board.
We are now on the eve of similar revo-
luton, under the auspices of Marcy and the
younger Van Buren,. The vulturcs and
spoilslnen of the party have again possession
of the government, and are prostituting it to
the same infamous purposes. Our paper cir
culation is more expanded than il was in
1887; banks have multiplied in all directions;
State credits, county credits, town and city
credits, US we'll MS railroad and canal credits,
have multiplied beyond anything dreamed of
in 1886 and 1887, and the increasing imports
will soon raise the surplus revenue in the
treasury from thirty to fifty millions of dol
lars. And in the face of these appalling diff
ficulties, the threatening aspects Of our for
eign relations, and the approaching revival Of
sectional agitation at home, the power and
influence of the administration arc fritted a.
way in the distribution of the spells among
drunken vagabonds and rowdy politicians! -
In the midst Of financial crisis, and sur
rounded BY dangers from which to escape
will require all the talent and all the exper-
fence of thinking and rejecting statesmen,
our Secretary of the Treasury issues his man
date to the Collector Of New York to take
care of the weighers, gaugers, tde-waiters,
and watchmen of the Custom House!
Is this not enough to alarm our business
community! Can they look with passive in
difference upon the present condition of the
country! Arc they willing to trust their pro-
perty and credit-the results of their enter
prise and labor-to the hands of the present
spoils Cabinet! Have they not an abiding
interest in the faithful, energetic and states
manlike management of public affairs! And
ure they not in the end the victims of every
weak, vacillating, corrupt, plunderng admin
istration! WHY, then, should they not move
in a body to rid the country and the Pres-
dent of Marcy, Davis, Guthrie, and the whole
bunch of governmental burglars, whose
minds cannot rise above the consideration OF
public plunder and the distribution of the
spells among personal friends and mercena-
nv followers! Let the business community
take the matter in hand Mt once; let them
form associations, and appoint committees
whose special business il shall be to procure
the removal of the Cabinet, and let them not
rest till the task is accomplished. We are
on the eve of :, great revolution in finance,
commerce and politics, and it is the duty and
interest of every honest man to contribute his
share to avert the danger.-N. York Herald.
EXCITEMENT IN THE MARKEr.-Thc i'm
por,ant advices from Europe were issued in
in a second edition of the New York Express,
of Friday says, holders of flour at once put
sp prices two shillings per barrel, but there
were not many transactions at the advance,
operators preierring to hold back until further
It,. Tho .,los nj nreyious prices how.