The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1867-08-03
Sttalna 3ree Sran.r.
tsaEictu-
os..w., H., saturday, August 3, 1867.
The New Party.
By osMAN q HAPEMAN

q grand mass meeting at Ottawa on the 9th Oh
August, there is much to commend, at least,
in the attempt of its founders to bring more
prominently into public discussion the supJect
of our national finances. While the people
have been wrought up to crazed fanatical
excitement in reference to the negro, the cum
ming lords of the loom of New England have
availed themselves of the apathy OF the people
ON financial questions to saddle them with
tariff impositons such as no people on earth
would submit to if their attention to the sus-
iect was properly awakened A proper I'M
derstanding of this subject, we apprehend
would convince the friends of the new party
movement that the great wrong of unequal
taxation, which is proposed to be alleviated
by an expansion of the currency, would be
much more directly met by reform of the
tariff.
Again,lit may be set down as an axiom,
that there can be no alienation of our nation
al burdens without the practice of rigid econ
omy in our public expenditures, Can there
be any progress in that direction while such a
"policy" as that of the party in power is
pursucdY Here Is a rough estimate of the
useless expenditure entaied on this nation by
the radical "policy" or system now in opera
ton 1t is marred somewhat by the peculiar
party idiom of the Chicago Times, from which
it is taken, but nevertheless true:
Ir is estimated that it will cost $4,000 600
Jearly to carry out the bills to enable ''niggers'
TO elect radicals to office. This is merely for the
payment of boards of registration and the con-
duct of civil business. The freedmen's bureau
will cost SEQ 100000. The expenses of the stand
ing army in the south will probably reach
$150,OO0,000. The loss to the business of the
country from the unsettled state of affairs in the
south is not less than $500, 100000 year. So
the annual cost of Reconstruction" is about
$472, 100000 The people are made to pay this
for the sole purpose that "niggers" may elect
radicals to Office. This is what Reconstruction"
means. It has not meant anything else since con-
gress began to fiddle with the military bills.
When u radical says it means or has meant any
thing else, he is donkey, or man who would
make as desirable witness for the side he was
on as Conover. There is nothing nobler about
the intentions of congress in its work of "recon-
struction' than this mean and dirty idea. All
the cant, all the professions of regard for freedom
all the twaddle about "God-given rights and
the "wish to restore the Union on the eternal
and iinmutable principles of Justice" of which
radical congressman and newspapers are daily de-
1ivered in discussing reconstruction are preten-
ces to conceal the idea that "niggers shall elect
radicals to Office. Mean AS it is and dirty as it
IT, it is noble and clearly in comparison with the
rottenness of the hypocrisy which SO attempst to
disguise the purpose.
Can expansion, or any tinkerng with the
currency, stop drain like this! In point Of
fact, scarcity of circulating medium, or
scarcity of money of any sort, is the least evil
that at present afflicts the nation. On the con-
trary, the complaint at all financial centers
Just now is the extraordinary cheapness and
abundance of money. Here is what the Chi
cago Insurance Chronicle-vcry high authority
on financial questions-says on the subject:
From all quarters of the commercial world
come accounts of the continued accumulation of
money in the vaults of banks
The chief cause of this plethora of money is
the inability of the owners of the money to find
profitable Use for it in the legitimate channels
Of trade. Contrary to all the known rules of
financial economy, the prices of produce and
manufactured goods have shown for the last half
year tendency to decline, in spite of the i'll
Creasing quantity of the circulating mediums of
the various nations Of the civilized world 1t
would, perhaps, be impossible to give any one
feature of the present condition of things as a
cause for the stagnation of trade, and the conse-
quent legitimate use of money, except the hack
neyed and indefinite one that there is u lack of
confidence in all legitimate branches of trade.
The Chronicle is rigidly " neutral" paper,
and therefore not in the habit of looking at
questions from their natural political stand
point. Otherwise, ii could easily enough have
accounted for this obvious lack of confidence
IN all legitimate branches of trade by the
dstrust capitalists have of the political situa-
ton of our country. Capital, though nearly
Omnipotent when properly directed, is timd
as hare, and as naturally takes to its hole ON
the least appearance of trouble in the political
sky. Money won't flow into its natural chan.
nels-won't build railroads. factories and cities
won't put its mighty leverage power to any
OF the vast enterprises that aggrandize
nation, while the political tendencies Of the
day are to rush headlong towards total dis
regard of all constitutional observances-of all
settled principles of government, towards
anarchy, and war of races-the whole pro-
,jected on scale of national expenditure that
can only end in reputation and utter bank
ruptcy.
Tennessee Election.