The state rights democrat. [volume] (Albany, Linn County, Oregon) 1865-1900, 1865-10-14
REPuDIATION.

Horace Greeley, who is above all other
men the popular leader and chief expo
hem of Abolitionism, has recently come
out in advocacy of a scheme which is no
thing short of a partial Reputation of the
gigantic Federal debt. He proposes that
the Government shall call in all OF the
various hterest-drawin bonds-the seven
thirties and five-twenties-and issue III
lieu of them bonds which shall draw but
four per cent. per annum. In other
words, he proposes that the man who has
purchased Government bonds to the
amount of $1,000, on the faith of the
pledge of the Government to pay him
either seventy-three dollars or ffty-two
dollars per annum. shall receive but forty
dollars per annum interest on his money.
This would not only impose a loss OF either
thirty-three or twelve dollars per annum
of interest money on the bond holder, but
cause him further loss by the great depre-
citation in the market price Of the bond it
self. 1t is a virtual Reputation of about
from twenty to forty per cent. of the Fed
cral debt. and the principle involved in
the proposition is simply the right of the
Government to %repudiate the whole debt
at any moment Congress shall see fit. Ii
the Government has a right to reduce the
rate of intercstit has pledged itself to pay
on its own debt, it has the right, by the
same course of reasoning, to reduce the
principal, or to rcpudiate the debt in toto.
Had a Democratic organ proposed what
t the Tribune has, the whole Abolition party
of the country would have joined in the
, wild cry against it, and doubtless the Gov
eminent would have punished it by a sup
pression. and sent its editor to a Federal
prison. But it is Horace Greeley, the Ag-
! amemnon of the Abolition party, who pro-
4 poses the thing. and, consequently, to
Abolition minds. it is a subject well worthy
| of deliberation.
e That it will not prevail, we are certain,
for the reason hat the rich factory lords
-; of New England, the merchant princes
and great capitalists of Boston and New
York and Philadelphia, hold the bulk Of
!, the bonds. The factory lords will do as
e they have always done-eompei their tens
of thousands of operatives to vote SO as Il
secure to them the full payment of the
s debt, principal and interest, although II
will further tread the miserable workmer
e into the dust beneath their tyrannous
merciless masters heels. aud take the
v bread from the mouths of their families
II So will the Q and merchant lords CO
their employees and tenantry to vote
for the payment of the debt in full. viii
= the alternative of immediate dismissal from
employment and of being turned out o
their rented tenements, if they do not
and all the while they will boast of tn,
IS = freedom" of the North, and the accom-
plishment at last Of their lifelong deter
~inatian 10 " eradicate slavery from tn,
land"
: But it will be we'll for Democrats to re
member that this thing of repudiating tn
N Federal debt has received the sanction o
the great leader of the Abolition party
10 and has been suggested by the foremos
organ of that party in the country. An
: also let it be noticed that the AbolitioI
N organs of smaller note and lesser influence
although ever ready to bark at Democrat
who speak of reputation, offer not eveI
70 one little growl Of dissatisfaction at tn
Tribune for the argument it advances i
as favor of this partial reputation of tn
re debt, and tho loss it proposes to inflict up
I'd on innocent holders of the bonds VII
~ purchased on the solemn pledge of tn
- Government to pay them the rate of IL
g terest fixed thereupon at the time whe
DO they bought. This is, however, simpl
a another Illustration of the fairness, tn
lg consistency, and honesty Of the Abol
> ton party.
ed NEGRO SUFFRAGE IN IowA.-Th
Abolitionists of Iowa are in hot water
They passed a Negro Suffrage platform
r. and Gov. Stone, their candidate for Coy
be %ernor, made a speech in favor of tia
he measure. In the canvass he found it III
m popular and tried to repudiate it. BIT
in the record is plain against him; he con
:. r,;ttad himsalf tn II too emnbaticol1v ,