The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1867-09-26
The Peril of Reputation.

must dlTcduy nave r0dlfZcu THAT tilere Is
gathering over this Republic cloud
which threatens deeper disgrace than that
of Bull Run, heavier disaster than any
Fredericksburg or Chicamauga A de-
feat may be retrieved, causeless panic
dispelled, lost state or province recov-
cred; but the guilt and shame of syste-
matte, wholesale villainy, once branded
Enthusiastically on people, are rarely eff
faced. Infamy once incurred, sits ever
more and more lightly on the culprit
being compelled to wear its badge, he
learns to disregard and defy it.
Our great national struggle with the
Shareholders Rebellion could only be
brought to triumphant conclusion by
means of Men and Money Brave hearts
and strong arms in field and camp were
indispensable but weapons, munitions,
food, tents, equipments, horses, etc, etc,
were no less so. Civilized warfare be-
comes year by year more expensive and
exhausting. The bombardment of for
tress like Sumpter or Fisher cests mon
ey; it is impervious to naked valor. A
defensive contest. like that of the rebels,
may be maintained almost without mon
ey; but had there ever been an hour in
our struggle when the Federal Treasury
was unable to respond to drafts upon it
in currency that contractors would gladly
~oao,x,a for +bai,-
their powder, their beef, their bacon, the
war for the Union must have have had a
sudden and disastrous close. Of the
many dark hours Of that protracted ag-
ony, [ recall scarcely one darker than
that in which I learned that persons were
passing from store to store in our city,
offering to sell greenbacks for city bank
notes and pay two per cent difference
At a time when the premium ON gold
was nearly the highest, prominent cIti
zen bought considerable amount of it to
take home, saying, Il may need this for
my marketing by next summer.
In full view of national impotence, and
and fathomless treason, and utterly mex
cusable discomftures, our Government
was forced to call on all who still had
money, or could raise any, for loan after
loan Of millions upon millions. Every
successive defeat created necessity for
another great loan The lenders braved
a heavy risk; for the national overthrow
if such should be our fate, was likely to
be total and remediless. Had disunion
peace been dictated by Lee, after crush
ing defeat of our main army on the Sus-
quehanna or~Deleware: it would have
been followed by pro-Rebel Democratic
triumph in most of our States, and their
consequent accession to the Southern
Confederacy, leaving our national credit
ors utterly without redress. AS the Con
federate debt persisted with the Confed
eracy, so the National Debt would have
virtually died with the Union.
But the Union gloriously triumphed,
and its debt is sacred lien on all the
property of its people. No other debt
takes precedence Of it whether in law or
right. As We pay the pension promised
to the MANNED heroes from our battle
fields, so are we bound to pay our Ma
tional Debt to the utmost farthing. And
every attempt to evade such payment,
however indirect or speclous, Is the proc
lamation of rascalIity which has It's
root In treason.
We owe as people precisely what we
agree to pay-manitestly that Or nothing
To ray to our creditors, Take something
less" is no whit less villainous, though
little more cowardly than to say. I'VE
will never pay you a cent y The terms
were prescribed by the Nation, and by the
Nation they must be scrupulously kept.
He who would repudiate the smallest
portion would repudiate the whole. if he
could.
The fact that the Cover m ent was con-
strained to make a gigantic Forced Loan,
by declaring its greenbacks legal-tender
for certain purposes, is utterly irrelevant
That was decreed as measure of I'M
perative necessity, under the pressure OF
calamitous, exhaustive war. During
that war the Government impressed hor
ses, fodder, etc., the property of private
citizens. and paid for them as it deemed
just; but it did not intend thereby to ig
more or defy the sacreduess of property.
1t simply affirmed the higher obligation
of preserving the national existence.
We owed gigantic debt when the
war closed; we have paid off 1.-THE Of
it already. We might pay the residue
within the next twenty years. if we would
Nay. had the taxes been left as they
stood in 1868. we should have paid the
last dollar by the 4th of July l716. Bat
Congress has taken off many taxes and
reduced others; and still we are paying
off our debt month by month, and will
continue to pay SO long as any is due, if
the taxes are left as they are.
But those whom the debt defeated
hate those whe lent the money which
secured their overthrow, and will swim
die them, if they can. Their Journals
assail the public creditors as a pampered
class, the monopolists of exclusive ana
invidious privilege their orators inilame
the rabble with assaults on the debt and
propositions to evade its honest payment
When gentlemen by birth and breeding
like George H. Pendleton, can gravely
urge the issue of Two Billions and a Half