The Portland daily press., 1867-08-08
----7 r.| O.
War upon the National Credi

Appeals are made to the people of Maine
to support Conservatives for Office, because,
forsooth, the Radicals are running the country
by their extravaganza and corruption. That
there are corrupt members of the Republican
party, and that there have been many in
stances in which too little regard has been
paid to economical considerations in the ex
penditure of public money, no one is called
upon to deny. But, on the other hand, it is
equally patent to all unprejudiced minds,
that the general aim OF the party is and has
been the good of the country--that its dis
tinguisbing characteristic is a passionate de-
votion to the cause of liberty and equal
rights-and that it has actually accomplished
more for mankind than any other party ever
organized. -
An entirely fair analysis of the principles
Of the Democratic party will show that with
respect to it both these propositions are re-
versed. The individuals composing it are
often men of integrity and patriotism, bur as
an organization 1t is guilty of crimes against
progress and civilization for which history
furnishes no parallel. 1t signally failed to
destroy the Union by rebellion. Now we
have supplement to the rebellion. The left
wing Of Lees army rallies two years after
the right wing has succumbed, when its
leader is teaching Virginia lads in quiet lit
tie town, what he knows Of science and phi
losophy. This is no idle assertion. The
Union has been saved to little purpose il ma
tional bankruptcy is to follow. Thank
Heaven, these little rebels of the North are
weak, or that misfortune could not fail to re-
suit from their malicious efforts to excite a
spirit of profound distrust of the solvency
of the national government. Every feature
of the financial situation is made the subject
of apimadversion SO bitter, aid criticism so
hostile, that the credit of any government,
not founded upon the eternal principles of
Justice, and supported by the devotion Of
millions of loyal hearts, would be ruined.
You deny this, gentlemen in invisible grey,
but it is true. The intent to avenge the "lost
cause by hiding its overthrow in the general
ruin of the commonwealth, crops out every
where. You manage clumsily with il in this
State, defeating your own designs by reveal
ing your purpose too clearly. The great met
ropolitan journals are better experts in
Machiavelian politics. They are as chary of
talking about taxing government bonds as
they would be of raising the rebel flag over
their publishing houses. 1t is SO plainly a
Inc asure that, if carried out, would forever
prevent the governments negotiating loans
hereafter, no matter what its necessities might
be, that they reach their object in a more
guarded way. They lie in wait for national
bank to fail. and then they gil the air with
loud and long continued lamentations. I ''
The national banking system ought to be
subjected to a searching scrutiny, but as it is
with the business interests OF the country,
criticism ought at least to be fair and candid.
1t ought 20 be called forth ouly by patriotic
desire to suggest improvements and devise
additional safeguards. Instead of this, the
rebel sheets would have their readers believe
that every embezzlement or defalcationa ON
the part of officers of national banks is new
evidence ofthe rottenness OF the whole finan-
cial system of the government. They do not
point out the true causes of the difficulty in
each individual case, but bury all the banks,
solvent and insolyent, under sweeping gener-
al denunciations. The national banks, no
doubt, have weak points as well as strong !;
but no sane man doubts that they were estab-
hshed in good faith, and that in many re-
spects they are admirably adapted to meet
/ the wants of the nublic Whv not sav a xvord
of the security afforded to the note-holders,
when discoursing so eloquently Of the woes of
the depositors and customers? People are
not obliged to lend their money to bank,
but they are generally obliged to hold great
er or less amount Of the current circulating
medium. Any device, then, which secures
the currency, ofwhich they must make use,
is more advantageous than one which should
protect them merely 10 the character of lend-
ers, which they assume only at their option
II both ends were attainable, the public ben
eft would be so much the greater.
The aims Of the conspiracy to effect by in
direct means the ruin which an armed at
tack failed to accomplish, are disclosed in
thousand ways. OF the same piece with the
Misrepresentation in regard to national banks
is President Johnson's theory that the debts
Of the rebel States must be assumed, and the
claim of unreconstrueted Maryland for com
pensation for slaves. But the result of the
coming fall elections will be to this latest
phase of rebellion, what the surrender of Lee
was to that ending in 1865. a.1 ae r.zi1