Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1867-02-06
THE COMINGs STORM CLOUD.
From the Washington National Republican,

Mr.. GLENN w. Scoheld, member Ct
Congress from Pennsylvania, and chair
man of the last caucus of the destructives
of the House of Representatives, in ,his
recent harangue in the national debating
society upon the state of the Union, elic-
tied the laughter Of his colleagues and
the commentator Of his lately discom-
fted leader, By q vulgar assault upon the
Secretary of State.
There never was political faction so
completely and irretrievably at fault as
this cabal of destructives at the present
moment They have disregarded the
voice of the Constitution and the fathers.
They have rushed with headlong reckless
ness toward the attainment of an unholy
and unpatriotic ambition. They have
entirely lost sight of all the landmarks
by which their course should have been
directed; they are now found circling
around in painful uncertainty as to which
way to 90. To recede or to advance is
to them equally dangerous. They can
not retire from their position without
lfcondemnation. They cannot 60
forward without self destruction They
are truly in most ptiable dilemma. If
they abandon the schemes they have set
on foot they will incur the hootings and
execrations of the masses they have been
misleading. Ifthey endeavor to proceed
in their efforts they will have to face the
financial ruin Of the country and the re-
lentless fury Oft deceived, betrayed, and
muoh.abused constituency. Their scheme
for the erection of = Congressional des.
potsm upon the ruins ofa constitutional
government was grand one, but the
Constitution itself, guarded by the exec
utive and judiciary departments, stands
as an impossible barrier to their progress.
Emboldened by the passive acquies-
cence of the people in the extraordinary
usurpation of the government, to pre-
serve the life of the nation during the
most terrible war recorded in history,
these destructives have madly supposed
that the war-cries of the battlefield could
be made applicable to time of peace.
They have believed that the masses, bur-
dened with almost intolerable taxation,
with commerce and industry stagnated,
could still be induced, in the name of
D0rsv, to submit to the abrogation of all
constitutional guarantees Of life, liberty
and property, and to consent to the in
stitution of social and political anarchy
and financial ruin, as the means OF at
tanning Congressional despotism.
The very wrongs already inflicted, and
those plainly in contemplation, are be-
ginning to educate their avengers. They
are arousing public apprehension of the
terrible consequences of this headlong
race to ruin. The shadows of the COM
ing cloud are beginning to darken the
Great commercial centres. The holders
of public securities at home and abroad
are trembling at the result of the pro-
posed reckless course Of the majority In
Congress. The tradesmen and manu-
facturers begin to perceive that it is the
conduct of Congress- which is bringing
upon them ruinous stagnation In busl-
ness and the necessity to suspend opera
tions The laboring classes cannot fail
soon to catch this infection, and then
must come q revolution in public opinion
so terrible and resistless as has never be-
fore been experienced.
These are no idle predictions. The
portentous fringes of the coming storm
cloud are even now visible upon the
horizon. When it breaks, with all the
fury of the tempest, terrible will be the
fate OF those who have invoked its ter
rors and are impotent to control its raw
ages
The course of the majority in Con-
qress, in endeavoring to dissever the
Union, for whose preservation millions
of treasure and hundreds of thousands
Of lives we're freely given, in seeking to
destroy and uproot the executive and
/ ;nd;cial branches Of the Government,
and 10 make the Constitution itself the
mere plaything of political faction, Is
ranidly tending TO the destruction, not
only of the Government, but OF the
whole people. Il is madly creating a
financial crisis, which will involve the
rich and the poor alike in one common
catastrophe. 1t will not only destroy the
public credit, break the ban IS and the
treasury, stop the mills, silence the
forees. suspend all commerce, and par
alvze the hands of industry, but 1t Will
hiring gauut, stark, relentless rant TO
the doors of all, the highest and lowest
in the land.
This is the picture that the unerring
fingers of fate are painting in ineface-
able colors upon our whole horizon. IL
cannot much longer be shut outfrom the
unwilling vision Of the destructves in
Congress. II is the nameless terror they
are themselves invoking. Let them
nause in their career and contemplate
lis awful revelations.
Boston FASHIONS OHs Hundred Years Ago.