Meigs County telegraph. [volume] (Pomeroy [Ohio]) 1848-1859, 1858-01-26
Cnsey's I.ettersio the President Of
the United states.

Il
49, lIErrFR ~.
Steadiness and regularity, Mr.. Presi
dent, are the characteristics olEadvaneinl
lcivilization. Instability and hregplarity
those Of advancing barbarism. The frs
are found, as you have seen, in a degree
that is quite remarkable, IN the half cen
Itury during which the local authofitie
E'contfolled our banking operations -ther,
having been, as has been shown, no in
stance Of general suspension, in that long
period, except in 1914, and then, at th,
inetancaof the Genital QoyHfnm6n6 h6fbl
as, in the FIVE and twenty years in which
the local authorities have been, to SO grea
an extent, superseded, the suspensions
have been three in number. Need we
wonder, then, that ga state of crisis may
now," in the opinion of foreign Journal
lists, be regarded as "the normal condition
of the great republic of the West ?"--
Assuredly notl 1t is the natural result
of a centralizing policy, that at one time
urges upon the people the creation Of
banks, and at another denounces such in
stitutions as wholly unworthy of credit
Of policy that, at one moment, squan-
ders the public property with view to the
extension of railroads, and atanother urg-
es the passage of special bankrupt law,
with view to secure to the central gov
ernment, the exclusive control of both
banks and roads. e s~
instability tends to increase the wealth
of the few who are rich-while impover-
ishing those many who look to the sale of
labor for the means of obtaining food for
their wives, their children, and themselves
1t impoverishes the active and useful
members of society; but it enables the
idle and the useless to accumulate for
tunes, at the expense of those who make
roads, build mills, and open mines, and
thus increase the productive powers of la
boring men. instability has been, since
the central government undertook the
regulation of the currency, the essential
of our policy, and hence it
is:
That, Notwithstanding grants of land
by millions, and tens of millions, of acres,
for the construction of railroads., and not
an increasing effort TO pro-
mote the carrying interest at the expense
of the producing one-railroads and ca
nails, that have cost S | 600, 200, 900, have
ALLEN to less than $500, 900, 600, and
heir proprietors are ruined. a.u
That the factories of the country, too,
ire in state of ruin. For years, they
lave struggled against the tide, butenow
he tide has overw belmed them-reducing
o state of poverty thousands of the men
o whose nnceasing efforts we have owed
he introduction and perfection of the
most useful manufactures. Hundreds ofl
Iou cd
reation of magnificent works, whose val |
lie might now be counted by little less
han tens Of millions.
That the machine shops. too, are closed |
not being required when mills
ave ceased to work. @i
That the mechanic is now, everywhere, /
lrped adrift, to seek in scratching the
oil; ;sthe means of support that his trade
ill not afford him-he and his country
nus losing the use of the capital of knowl-
1ge he had obtained by means of long
That his daughters, too, are deprived
work, and not unfrequently forced to
lake their selection between starvation
n the one hand and prostitution on the
;her. ~ Ssser-s ,I3
That mines are closed, and miners are
riyen to seeksempioyment as common la
their wives and children
suffer for want of food.
That hundreds of little capitalists, who j
ad invested their all in the creation of I
achinery for facilitating increase in the
lpply of fuel, are now in a state of ruin
the sheriff selling out their little proper
es, which are being purchased by the G
en- who are already rich.
That furnaces capable of yielding hun l
eds of thousands of tons of iron are c
osed, and their proprietors ruined. y
That mines of ore, endless in quantity, Il
ID capable of supplying lead, iron, and S
'pper to the, world--mines, too, that C
we required vast amounts of capital for t
cir development-are idle; while the /
en- by whom they had been developed, t
g reduced to poverty. il
Thatrolling mills, capable of supplying Q
If. the iron required for. the Union, are v
osed-to the utter ruin of those who i
IN them.
That ships, wholly unemployed, are b
pidly accommodating in our poyts, while a
9 ships themselves as rapidly decline In 9
lue. !
1ds, everywhere, TO seek the aid of o
,an, and while steamers are fast super IL
ding sailing ships, the people of the
MON find themselves obliged to depend, fl
most exclusively, upon the ships of other t.
tons; and are likely, before the close Il
your administration, Mr.. President, to fl
d themselves without single ocean al
,amer, engaged in any trade, in which 81
.eign competition is not, by law, pro- 81
bited. t g
That the trade with California, upon "
itch we have heretofore relied for sup :
es of gold, has SO far passed away as to OF
luire from us little more than supplies v
butler, shoes, boots, and agricultural o.
being all the commerce %
W resulting from an expenditure of la 4,
T and capital that, had they been applied r,
4 L 4 H. Il