Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1865-07-28
mr.. Jay Cooke and his Pamphlet.


wrote these words: It's pleasure to stand
upon the shore, and to see ships tossed upon
the sea; a pleasure TO stand in the window
~ castle, and to see battle, and the ad
ventures thereof, below; but no pleasure is
comparable to the standing upon the van
fagc-g ground of truth, and TO see the errors
and wanderlngs, and mlsts aad tempests, In
the vale below Something of tlis must
be felt by Mr.. Jay Cooke, as he sees the
comments excited by the publication now
before the world, prepared BIZ Samuel VIII
keson, but bearing the great Financier s
sanction. 1t is not often the lot of men to
be the first to stand up and declare truth;
nor is it given TO the multitude to be able to
see truth when it comes to them This is
beautifully illustrated in our recent history
When Mr. Sumner said, ten years ago, that
freedom was national and slavery sectional
all the world but Massachusetts, laughed; for
slavery sat upon throne, and gave eviden-
ces OF power, and declared that her scepter
should be borne to Bunker Hill When
Dir. Douglas anticipated universal suffrage
by declaring in favor of popular sovereignty,
men did not see the truth that was speaking
through the lips of the politician and max
ing Itself manifest amid many false surrouu-
dlngs. Truth Is not always agreeable TO
men who have found error pleasant--but in
the end it reigns We might as well call
the dead nom the grave and bid them speak
to Us, as TO attempt the re-establishment of
slavery in America, or serfdom in Russia, or
the reign of Louis XVI in France, or the
Corn Laws in England And yet, in their
day, all these issues were living elements Of
society
When the wf.r was in its deepest gloom,
and we were IN the high agony of national
effort, 1t became necessary to ask our people
to accept the. faith of the government as the
security ior the payment of large sums of
money Inc people gave this money, and
1t became their national debt In other
words, tie government accepted the nation S
conilde ace, as expressed in every way, and
issued its obligations As this national
debt Is the most potent element OF the
w 4, those who were in arms against Us, and
? II who sympathized with them took every
means TO destroy the credit upon which 1t
/ was based. In every political campaign,
| men were found willing to argue that these
obligations were unjust and unnatural--that
| they oppressed the poor, and we're fraud
upon mankind in this, that they could never
! be raid We know the effect of this oppo-
| sition. Our enemies abroad held up our
enterprise to Iidicule and seorn, and great
journals like the London Times grayey ar
gued that of all the fools then cursing Amer
| lea with their folly, none were greater than
the head OF our financial system, Mr.. Secre-
tary Chase Our obligations were treated
rudely Men did not want the note-of-han
of the fool-ridden republic. If they did
take it, ct was as something capriclous-un-
certain-not what it claimed to be, and only
acceptable with heavy discount Our friends
fuaIly came to believe that these doubts SO
constantly expressed had some importance
and instead of standing up manfully and
saying: This note of obligation, signed by
the United States of America, rep ,esents
every stone and stick, every larm and work
shop, every railroad and canal, everything
we have of wealth or convertible into wealth
in these broad States they pleaded for it,
and entreated that it should not be dishon
ored, and implored men of commerce ano
enterprise not to refuse it, and made long
patient, honest arguments to show that i
could never could be repudiated. Gentle
/ men, said the great Napoleon, as he stooc
on the deck of man-of-war III the Medlter
laneap. looking of tho slerias of an Italian
night and listening to a knot OF wise men
who were proving that there was no God
Gentlemen, there is no God, you say.
ence. To those who spoke of Reputation,
]
heads, Time servers, Faint-heart and
Worldly W Wisemen, you speak of repudia-
ton. Look at this nationi look rt Broad
way, the gold mountains, California, Canada
yearnng for us, our railroads, rivers, and
canals, Chicago, Pennsylvania, the Alissis-
sippi river, and over them the American
soldier with his musket. Reputation with
this security The ocean might as well at
tempt to repudiate the salt that gives il
freshness and SAVIOR We did not say this.
1t was easier to kneel and implore, and ex-
plain, than to support and defend So Cop
1 perheads, Time-servers, Faint hearts and
! Worldly WI isemen had it all their own way,
and such a going to the bad-such prema-
ture national ruin had never been known.
From constant kneeling and entreating
and dreading, the war left us burdened with
a great error. We had incurred a great
dcbt-thousands of millons-and were,
therefore, so we reasoned, by the fact of this
debt, behind the world in the race of pros
perity. Because our obligations were in the
hands OF our own citizens to a great amount,
we imagined we were to the amount of these
obligations poorer than England or France;
yes, even Mexico and Central America and
| the Latin Republics around the Equator
And the Worldly Wisemen believed that
after ALL there was not much value in our
Victories and that the capture of Lee was
little more than a Fourth of July triumph
for it left us so wretchedly poor and involv-
ed that we might as well be dead as lead the
life OF sponglng house victim Why not?
Had we not all been on our knees, begging
the world to believe that we were not going
to cheat them, and that our bond was as
good as the gold it represented? Did not
the Secretary of the Treasury make his
monthly statements with their marvellous
sums in addition, and had not every misera-
ble Coppel'head orator rung the changes on
Debt and Death? 1t was strange that we
should have this feeling Nations are as
apt to err as men. A hundred years ago
au English king believed that if he allowed
a Catholic to sit in his Parliament his crown
would be forfeited. Thirty years ago Eng
! land believed that if the corn laws were abol-
ished the agricultural interests would be
ruined. Six years ago America believed
| that the best she could do would be to in
tervene to prevent the extension of slave
territory but to the slave no territory
he free And why should not we, fresh
| from all tumult of war with great civil
duty, fretting and perplexing US, new to
| che financial experiences of older rations-
why should not we, stand appalled, before
this cloud this pillar of FIRE this phenom-
enon this figure of speech, called the Ma
tional Debt
When error is over the world, truth is
sure to speak and Providence, in this time
l of general error has called unon n man IN