East Saginaw courier. (East Saginaw, Mich.) 1859-18??, 1866-11-01

uuty, OF 10 say, We Will CuuuBo tho
Constitution first before we will COM
pare your State constitutions with It,"
1t seems to us a plain requirement Of
the Constitution, that the States should
be without delay admitted to repre-
sentation. 1t is also, in our view, the
only sound policy, and we will en-
deaver to give reasons for this opinion.
In the first place, it must be evident
to all that while this question is kept
open, all others, however great their
importance, or however they press,
are put off. Now, there are other
matters most urgently demanding our
whole attention. Our finances are
still in great disorder, and the most
experienced and thoughtful men ap-
prehend serious and perhaps fatal
trouble to the country, unless the ma
tional finances are wisely managed
and promptly placed on a sound foot
ing. The credit system, in our inter
nal commerce, is daily spreading; the
time in which we can return to specie
payments without deadly shock to
industry and trade is rapidly slipping
away; the worst evils to which we ex
posed ourselves by our financial errors
are approaching; we are threatened
with disasters which are appalling
those who are able to measure them
which will, if they are permitted to
overtake us, PROSTATE every form of
industry in the country, enormously
diminish our revenue, and lead to
such general distress and discomfort
as may tempt the nation to entertain
dishonorable thoughts in regard to its
public debt. bwl.a a..''a'e
Moreover our whole tax system ur-
gently needs thorough revision. 1t is
now, what it has been for five years,
the most complex, burdensome, waste
full and annoying known to civilized
nations. 1t is so badly arranged that
il largely increases the cost of all ar
ticles of daily consumption; it is clog
upon every industry, it puts stop to
railroad extension so necessary to our
welfare; to house building, so necess-
ary for the profitable extension of our
commerce.; it checks all improvements
for everything and everybody waits
until the tax system shall be revised. =
1t Expresses the laboring classes, as
is shown by the anomaly of constant
strikes in country which is most
sparsely supplied with labor. 1t i'm
poverishes the people; it multiplies the
army of Office holders, and thus de-
morlizes the people; and no one denies
that even greater revenue than we
now raise might be got by far simpler
and less injurious system.
Again, it cannot be denied that our
state municipal, affairs, in all the states
need, at once, the most careful atten-
ton. They were very naturally neg
l@si- i 1~.fng the war, uud iIo5iv0s
bred mismanagement and waste; the
the war bred heavy state municipal
debts; the habits of enormous expen.
ditures for war purposes infested all
local legislation; and now, in most OF
the states, unless we pay strict atten.
ton TO our affairs, and insist upon the
most stringent economy and the most
thorough good management, we shall
be ruined in detail before we know it
Not only our State finances, but, a.
we remarked yesterday, our prisons
our courts, our public works, all neet
reforms, which they will not get un
less the people are suffered to turr
their minds from "the south" to then
own homes, and their attention from
Congress to their local Legislatures
These things being so, it is expedi
ent, and indeed necessary, in our view
that the one troublesome question
which has too long absorbed the pub
lie mind shall be settled at once, il
order that we may quickly look afte
the vital matters. 30 hss
'Would you, then, give over TIN
loyal blacks TO the mercy of those VIII,
hate them?" asked some one. Assur
edly not. But have we not the nee
essary guaranteed If the laws in tn
statue book are enforced, will not lib
erty be secure everywhere? SLAYER.
is abolished; the civil rights act guar
antees to the blacks equal rights be
fore the law everywhere. The State
are already very generally conformin,
their Legislation to the provisions 0
the civil rights act. In somo countic
in Georgia, correspondents of th
Frecdmen's Aid Society report, for in
stance, that better justice now is ad
ministered in the civil courts than i
the freedmen's courts.
What. then does the Erening Po,
. want? To use the expressive word
, of a western man, we want to use
the machine running again" w
want to see the country, without fun
ther delay, released from the anoma
lous and anarchial condition in whic
, it has been since tho surrender Of th
, rebel armies. We want to see tn
Constisution, the great safeguard {
our liberties, apply and cover all th
States. We want this. first, in orde
) that we may be secured against extrt
ordinary and dangerous assumption
, of the authority of the federal 60,
' erment; and secondly that Congres
} and the nation may have leisure
: look after sound currency, to reliey
: our home industry, asd its compl'
Z ment, our foreign commerce, from ii
r shackles of the most prepostero,
D and injurious tax system known
a modern history; and to pay the stri
n attention needed to our local interes
o too long and fatally neglected.
J, the meantime we can push all 9TH
: desirable reforms, such as that of un
versal suffrage, by constitution
d means, by argument, by appeals
/ the justice of the people, by tho
o means which, wisely and persistent
d used, produced the great change in Sc
4 timent, by means which of Abraha
i Lincoln was elected to the Presiden
J. on platform Of "no further extensi'