The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1867-06-09
!! 5!COLUMBIA.
Sunday Mosniag, June .. 1851.
a New Parry Organization,

..gress, it is beyond doubt that, an
effort Will be made to form a party
based upon the Reputation of the
national debt. New York journal
tells us that people have got to talk
ing the.thing at street corners and in
front of the newspaper bulletins, and
occasional articles in the press of that
city boldly adyocating the measure,
and assigning reasons for such
course.
Such platform as reputation
bodes no good to the country. AL
ready are the working men appealed
to, and the high price of living, in
creased taxes and reduction of wages
are all laid to the charge of the pub
lie debt. From this cause will come
8 party of classes--the poor against
the rich--and when such an organ
ization is once initiated, it will go on
until it ends not only in repudiating
the debt, but in opening up the way
to agrarianism--a doctrine which, if
it once fastens itself upon the minds
of the masses of the people, will
speedily lead to the destruction OF Il
personal right of property, and con-
sequent general anarchy.
Such terms as the ''tax-ridden
slaves Of Bond-ocracy," telling the
people-particularly the working
, classes-that "they have been made
the victims of q huge fraud" and "of
q plot to ob them and their fami-
lies they saying to the industrial
classes that "they are the victims of
/. the worst kind of an aristocracy the
aristocracy of wealth-.are just such
clap-trap arguments as demagogues
ever used to influence the minds of
the masses and draw them after them
into the crooked ways of general
plunder and spoliation, while they
themselves ride into Office and power
regardless of the consequences to the
community at large.
That the debt is q heavy burden
upon all the material interests of the
country, there can be no doubt; but
reputation is not the. remedy-it is
the extremely dangerous application
of the knife, where poultices and
other remedies might effect q cure.
The resources of this country, once
more united and prosperous, are
ample to liquidate the debt in due
time and pay the interest as it be-
comes due. Why plunge hundreds
Of thousands holders of Govern
ment tsecurities-into financial straits,
and probably into ruin, when the
assets, and even the usual income of
these assets, are fully sufficient, in
the course of the period of nation s
credit, to pay up the uttermost far
thing. The consequence of such a
suicidal policy as disowning the just
obligations of the Government, would
be frightful. If the people are
wrought up to such pitch as to be-
lieve that capitalist has no right to
hold or invest in public securities,
the next natural step will be that they
will become convinced that man has
no right to be rich, to be successful
in business, or to own more property
than the clamorers for non taxation,
as against the industrial classes.
We are surprised to see any re-
spectacle journal taking up the role
of the demagogue and pandering to
that disposition of the public mind
which is always ready to seize upon
any pretext that may enure to selfish
ness, without regard to the rights Of
others. Honesty IS the best policy" :"
is a sound maxim, and applies as
forcihly to the aggregated communi-
ties that form nation as well as to
the individual. The public debt
ought and must be paid, that the
world may know that the people of a
great republic are as faithful and
true to their obligations as any
crnwOed baoI -, (,br;oto.1