The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1863-08-20
PACIFIC
Commercial Advertiser.
EXTRACTS
From the Letter Of WP.
Samuel IHaHeft.
To the Loyal League of Utica, N. Y.

49, aSA 6AtauIelu1iE d- IIlfuLf
interests have been consulted at the expense o.
the public welfare, much as we have ~unfortu.
nsteiy realized IN our own case, the varied
mischieis of which the history of other countries
Is - iull and so Instructive, yet, nOtwithstand-
ing, our cause has been onward we have made
progress; we hare saved the Border States the
Queen of Rivers has been rescued from her raw
lshers We have given up nothing, in short,
wherever we have planted the old flag, and, by
the recent confession of the Richmond Erdminer
surveying the past and the future, there is moth
ing ut this moment practically left of the Con-
federacy but u strip of impoverished country in
seven States
Our debt is scarcely any larger than that of
the Rebels but while we have a profitable
commerce., and all our foreign markets Us before,
the ports of the Rebels are closed and the one
staple. which vas to be the cornerstone of their
pew edItce, has been unavailable, beyond a few
thousand bales carried off furtively at night by
the yiOlatOrs of the laws of England and the
laws of nations. Taxation has utterly failed
them thus far, beyond a sum of sixteen millions
OF dollars, the result of the first years efforts of
the tax -gatherers. There is no commerce, there
. are no manufactures, one-half the fields and
Plantations OF the South have been Overrun alike
by friend and foe, and the sable la0orers, whose
sweat made their masters rich and insolent and
presumptuOus, have run away and blessed the
Lordt How can such 4 Confederacy, bankrupt
and exhausted, carry on a war much longer?
1t is impossible.
On the contrary, our system of finance, at
"Hltu u ID-SltiZcl economists OF EUrOuH were
80 alarmed, has through the patriotism and good
sense OF the people, been successful beyond all
calculation and all experience. If the war had
been carried on on the basis of gold, and an
issue OF bank currency with suspended specie
payments, the Government would have been Il
mendicant in the streets its stocks would have
been sold dt 40 to so per cent discount there
would have been no money in circulation but of
the basest sort and at the largest discounts. All
existing contracts would have been endangered.
md uDIypr-nl Effrnfi,r nd -.
BILE But by Issuing legal tender money based
upon the property of the people, by levying
taxes in proportion to the resources and business
OF the country, and by paying the interest in
gold, the treasury has been kept full. The re-
ceIPts are now as large as the expenditures, we
have nat borrowed one penny from our European
eaiumniators' and happily owe them nothing.
This paper money-this legal-tender currency
has converted itself into factories, houses,
lands and railways, or funded itself into active
securities laid by for n rainy day it has given
such an impetus to business of all kinds that
none but the idle can say they have not shared
IN the general prosperity. If the war debt. now
about nine hundred millions, should reach twice
that amount, nine years hay crops of this coun-
Try would alone pay it, principal and interest.
There Is no doubt about any debt which our
Government is obliged to contract H. this contest:
and that this opinion Is not nv own merely, is
apparent from the fact that the conversions of
currency have been going on into the $50 Mt
the rate of from one to- two millions a day, and
the present farther issue of Government paper
has become unnecessary. Can "a people who do
this be put down? Let Secession and treason
take notice of these facts, and, like their great
hunchback prototype, learn the force of the
admonItlOn, and despair, and die. But the ne
cessltIes OF Commerce are solving this problem. !
The Southern people are now findiag out what
rebellion costs. The blockade will be eternal
unless they throw down their arms and seek our
forgiveness. 1t is not possible to conceive Of a
greater wretchedness than is now the fate and
the just punishment Of the Rebels. Pride is now
followed by destruction, and their naughty
spirits made but n short step before their fall.
And they have no one to blame but themselves.
In the sight of God and man, of their misery we
are innocent. Whatever provocations thew NAV
aliege Tor their misconduct, there never has been
any tO warrant it or excuse it. The question of
Slavery was naturally one on which the human
mind would employ itself. 1890
L think L cannot possibly do better on this
occasion than to quote from the speech made by
the Vice-President of the Confederacy, a. II.
Stephens, ut the Georgia Convention called for
the purpose OF considering the question of Secs
sion. Nothing | could possibly say would be SO
iJrci5le- therefore ask your attention to what
Vice-President Stephens said ut the iast opportu-
nifty allowed him for free speech in his own
State. @ I" =
Mr.. Stephens said
This step, once taken. could never be recall
cd and all the baleful and whitening conse-
quences that must follow (as they would see)
must rest ON the Convention for all coming time.
When we and our p0sterity shall see our lovely
South desolated by the demon of war, which this
act of yours will inevitably invite and call forth
when our green fields of waving hlryests shall
be trodden down by the murderOus sDldiery and
hery car OF war sweeping over our land our
temples OF justice laid in ashes all the horrors
ana desOldtIOns of war upon US: who but this
Convention will be held responsible for il? and
who but him who shall have given his vote for
this unwIse and ill-tiIued measure, az | honestly
think and believe. shall be held to strict account
tor this suicidal act by the present generation,
and probably cursed aud execrated by posterity
Tor all coming time. for the wide and desJlating
ruin that will inevitably follow this act YOU now
70 perpetrate? Pause, | entreat you,
and consider for n moment what reasons you can
give that will even satisfy yourselves in calmer
moments-what reasons you can give to YOUR
fellow-suferers In the calamity that l. will bring
upon US W nat reasons can you give To the ma s
tlOns OF the earth TO justify it? They will be the
calm and deliberate judges in the case and 10
what cause or one overt act can you name or
point, on which To rest the plea of Justification?
w nat right has the North aSSailed? What in
of the South has been invaGed by II? {
w hat justice has been denied and what claim.
founded IN justice and right, has been withheld? I
either of You to-day name one governmental :
lct OF wrong, deliberately and p~urpOseIy done by .
the government of Washington. of which the :
South has n right to complain? | challenge the ,
answer.
" w lille, on the other hand, let me show the
acts (and believe me. gentlemen, [ am not here I
he advocate OF the North but [ ara here the 6
riend, the firm friend and lover of the South r
~ En- -