Clarksville chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1857-1865, 1857-11-27
THE Cause.-The REMEDY.

pudence WIN Whlcn lOcOlocob speculate
upon the causes Of and the remedy for,
the existing monetary crisis, Such dis
astcrs are always the result of mismanage-
ment, and, in this instance, the evil can
be traced, with unerring certainty, to the
policy Of the l%ocofoco- party. They say
overtrading is the cause. If SO, who low
cred the tariff, and under whose State and
Federal policy has home manufacture been
curtailed, and Bank currency inlated?-l
Who made appropriations for the build
ing of hundreds of miles of railroad in
the Northwest, and thus gave impetus to
a wild spirit of speculation in land along
the line of those roads? The answer to
these questions, fixes the blame upon
locofocoism, where it ought to rest, and
that sweet-scented amalgamation is emit
tied to all the blame for all the social,
~pecuniary and political ills under which
the country is so grievously suffering.
And what remedy is proposed? One
section of the political compound, called
democracy, thinks, the tariff ought to be
reduced still lower; another, that nothing
but a hard money currency can cure the
evil; another that individual liability en-
grated upon all corporations is the true
panacea, another still, that nothing short
of the unresisted sway of locofocoism, in
the full exercise of its malignant power,
can bring relief to the suffering interests
of the country. So long as virtuous and
patriotic intelligence contends for the
right, so long will corrupt and radical
locofocos persist in the wrong, "Let us
alone they practically say, "and we will
try to do right; but expose our folly and
rascality, and we will display our power
by trampling upon truth and justice, even
though ruin be the consequence Thus
far, we have looked, in vain, for any plan of
relief, upon which the harmonious demo-
cracy" are united, or for any plan that
indicates an acquaintance, on the part Of
that party, with the causes of the dis
tress.
Wise and good men, when an expert
mcnt has failed, strike out a new line of
policy, or fall back upon measures which
nave been tested aud found productive Of
happy results, and an administration that
does neither, is not only not wise, but
criminally corrupt, or shamcfully ignorant.
Now, in the brief history Of this govern
ment, there are two periods marked by
similar disasters to those which, at this
moment, afflict the country, and the States
man instinctively turns over those pages
that he may CLEAN the wisdom of experience
to guide him in the present crisis; and as
like causes produce like effects, prudence
will always profit by the lessons of the
past in the prevention or cure Of evil, nc
matter what may be its character. If We
are not mistaken, the first general bank
suspension occurred in the interval be-
tween the expiNQtion of the first charter Of
the U. s, Bank and its renewal in 1876
The embarrassment, Of that day, may be
ascribed to the war of 1872 but no mat.
ter what the cause, we know that the Bank
was rechartered in 1916, and that, in tho
same year, q material modification was
made in the tariff, and under the opera
ton of the two, the prosperity of the
country was re established, and still further
advanced under the tariffs of 1924 and
1928. Some four or five years subsequent
to this last date, radical democracy tried
the experiment of crushing the L.. S, Bank
and at the same time the tariff was sub
jectcd to the process of an annual rcduc
tion of ten per cent, for ten years. b.
long before the expiration of the ten years
the Banks suspended, and pecuniary dis
trcss was the common fate of every por
ton of the Union. In 1912, the tarif
was remoddelcd upon the principles prev,
iously abandoned, and confidence was re,
stored at once, and prosperity agair
dawncd upon the country, But in 1916
daaOcracy, in it's determined hostility t.
every whig measure, again reduced tn,
tariff, and, in spite Of the influx Of Cali
fornia gold, the same result has followed
suspension Of the banks and universe
en- arrassment,
This hurried synopsis of past histor!
shows two imsprtant facts-that there wa
no general suspension of the banks, a
any time during the uninterrupted opera.
ton the L, $, Bank, aud the existence o
a high tariff, aud that such suspension hat