The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1866-10-06

1t brought great evil and great distress
upon us. In the hour of our extremi-
ty, when we were in want of means,
when we could not command resources
at the moment for the prosecution of
our great work of restoring the Union,
what did we do? We went to men
who had money in our own country
and abroad and we borrowed the means
by which we paid our soldiers upon the
land and our sailors upon the ocean.
the means with which we purchased
our supplies to support our armies, the
means that enabled us to carry on the
civil administration of the Government,
in short, to work this engine of govern
ment with energy and with power and
to strike heavy and powerful blows
against the enemy who was resisting us
and scouting our jurisdiction and power
over the Southern portion of the Re-
public. We borrowed this money and
we did not say to the creditor that we
would pay him when Confederate inde-
pendence should be acknowled, or that
w Ncu'o Wiitl VIC NOIllttttThCN
should be subdued. We said we would
pay at all events at fixed day, and in
the meantime we would pay certain
rate of interest either in paper or in
coin. This is what we said, and by the
obligations arising out of this contract
we are most solemnly bound. l say
gentlemen, that neither now nor at any
future time in this country will there be
any considerable number of men hardy
enough and base enough to impeach or
deny the obligation of the Government
and people of the United States to those
who loaned them the means with which
they saved the unity of the Republic.
There will never be any considerable
number of such persons in this country.
Their number never will be great or for
midable, and the apprehension that
they will be numerous or formidable
need not disturb any ones mind.
But what security has the public
creditor for the honest payment of his
obligation by us? There is only one
the public faith. If the people of the
United States could be base and wicked
enough to unite together and resist the
payment of the debt, it never could be
collected. The creditor can rely only
on the good faith of the people of the
United States which was pledged to
him when he loaned his money. That
pledge was given in the form of a con-
tract reduced to writing or printed at
the time, and executed by the appro-
pirate public officers Of the Government
of the United States, who for the time
being represented the people of the
United States in the transaction. Those
who want to amend the Constitution of
the United States, propose to put into
the Constitution n provision that this
debt shall be paid. Now what advan-
tage is that to the creditor? Does tn at
; add any obligation which is valuable to
him? Does that give to him any secu-
rity which he does not already possess :?
What is that but pledging the public
faith in particular way that this debt
shall be paid? 1nasnach as that public
faith is already pledged and in the most
solemn manner and under all the secu-
rites and forms of law, it is impossible
by any device which can be adopted to
render that debt more sacred or its pay
ment more secure and certain than it
is. Why then was this put into the
Resolution 1t was put in to please
and to catch the eye of those thousands
and thousands of people in the country
who hold these securities; it was to inn
press them with the silly, with the idle
conviction that their debt would be
more secure by the adoption of such an
amendment, whereas in point Of fact
that amendment would not add in the
slightest degree either to the sacredness
or to the security of the debt.
There is another provision in this res
olution of amendment which provides
that any person who at any time held
an Office which involved an oath to sup
port the Constitution of the United
States, and who may have engaged in
the Rebellion in any way whatever, shall
never hold any office, civil or military,
under the United States or under any
State for all future time. This pro,
hibition is universal; it strikes with.
out discrimination and without limita
ton the whole class of persons against
whom it is directed, and there is only
: one possibility of its mitigation, and thai
is by two-thirds vote of both Houses OF
Congress removing such disability eth
er in a particular case or generally. Ii
] other words, this proposed amendment
, is one of disfranchisement from all of
flee of all persons who may have beer
: engaged 1.-The Rebellion, who wer'
D prominent enough previously to hav,
g held any Office of consequence whethe
l State or Federal, but to Congress is giver
5 a dispensing power which may be exer
t cised by two thirds of both Houses upon
grounds of favoritism, partiality, party
= interest, or any other which shall be
h agreeable to their pleasure or their in
\ terests.
t confess that this clause in the rcsO
!, luton of amendment appeared to me-
n ut first reading, to have been inserted
: with special object. And what was
!, that? TO defeat the whole Resolution,
f toprevent itsacceptanceb three-fourths
a of the States. OF cour>e it is not likely
: that any State in the South will adopt
an amendment of that description. Oh