The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-04-11
Lame Ducks In Council.
From the Tribune.

ETOHt GtS AFtO"tes
To crowd the mourners, it must be allowed,
is an ofense against good taste and equally
against good feeling, and therefore when an
American laughs at the Confederate bondhOld-
ers, he should do it like the elder Mr.. Weller,
"inwardly." A convocation of these enterpris-
ing but unlucky spectators was held at the
London Tavern on the Goth ult., with gallant
but low-spirited admiral in the chair. Many
were the questions asked, and many were the
speeches made, but the sum total of the
whole matter was an assessment of l-l6 per
cent upon the ideal value OF the bonds, to
enable the Committee to hire lawyers, and
make attachments, and carry on suits, and
send good money after bad with courageous
recklessness and desperate profusion. The
Admiral stated that the Committee had been
taking an opinion of Zone of the first counsel
in America, - who thought not only that the
bonds ought to be paid, but that they would
be paid 'at no distant day." (Applause.)
The lawyer turns out to be the Hon. John l..
0'Sullivan, for whose "opinion" we hope no
very extraordinary sum was disbursed. The
best way, as his faith was so lively, would
have been to pay him in the very bonds of
which he has such an excellent opinion.
Most of the speakers upon this interesting
but melancholy occasion seem to have been
both morally and intellectually in muddled
condition. Men who talked so freely of
appealing to judicial tribunals should have
remembered that treason is felony and that
felony taints every transaction into which it
enters as an element. Those who hypothe-
Gated cotton to secure this loan began by
stealing the merchandise which they pledged;
for every ounce of it had, by the most elemen-
tary principles of public law, been long before
forfeited to the Government of the United
States. The cash was borrowed by men who
had no legal authority to borrow it; it was
employed in an effort to change the political
character of States; it was expended to
destroy American nationality; and now,
the experiment having disas trously
failed, those who lent their money fol-
these Benefcent purposes have simply
nobody to look to for repayment, for the
palpable reason that they lent to nobody and
nobody borrowed. They transacted business
with myths with shadows, with pretenders,
with confidence men; and these as is usual
upon such occasions, having eXhaled, it fol-
lows that the sad and the swindled may whistle
for their money, as so many sad and swindled
have Whistled before. The payee may be pas
sionately rampant, but the payer is not to bt
found, If people will lend their money Il
phantom States and ghostly Governments
they must take the consequences, among
which prompt payment OF principal, or evei
of interest, is hardly to be reckoned. Their
are only three parueS VINO Gan POsSiply "
called upon to protect these bonds, VIII
l. The Confederate States" which ar
slightly hard to get at about this time
2. The Reconstructed States, which are no
the parties that borrowed the money.
B. The United States, which can scarcely b
expected to pay for the petards prepared fc
their own hoisting
1t is true that Admiral Wallis the Chain
man, hit upon what he evidently considere
an exceedingly brilliant and conclusive illus
tration. By all international law" sal
this injured tar, the country which was til
conqueror recognized the debts of its pred
cessors. Prussia, for instance, had conquere
Hanover, and had recognized its debts but
appeared that the United States were dete
mined to repudiate those of the South
which is equivalent to saying 81 lent monC
TO a thief upon pledge of stolen goods b.
now, as the owner has received back
property, expect him to pay my little
nand - This Is very bad logic indeed ev
OF an Admiral Moreover, 1t is hardly like