The state rights democrat. [volume] (Albany, Linn County, Oregon) 1865-1900, 1867-10-12
REPUTATION OF THE PUBLIC
DERT.


j. S. Gibbons, prominent member of
the Radical party, has recently published
work entitled the "Public Debt of the
United States" from which we extract
tho following:
s'Repudiation of debt Is therefore not SO impos-
sible that we are justified in treating it with
tempt. II is rot, per Sc, it has been generally
characterized, under sll circumstances, eetria-
sac, uanaHral oRd totally unjts indicative
of low state Of public morals, of that social
anarchy which proeedes national dissolution. 1t
may on theeontraFy. be a proof OF vigor-an ev-
idenee Of the sense OF ndridaaf right ia the pop
Ular Haiad-an assertion of the claims Of labor
against systeIn Of grinding oppression, such as
the Workingman of Great Britain Is subject TO N
the present day, and which il is considered highly
patriotic to resist.
1t is the theory Of government in the United
States that the people never lose the right Of re-
pairing their own grievances; aud il is Of no cen
sequence whether these consist in the direct
sway Of uSurped power, OF IN any other kind Of
public outrage. Of oil injuries that government
can infict on the people, the oppression Of labor
bg excessive tardtioB T. the most reratioHs. the
hardest to be borne aud the surest to excite tue
passions of multitude TO blind fanatieism."
Gibbons, it viii be seen, teaches that,
so far from Reputation being disgrace,
it is, under certain circumstances, "an
evidence of the sense of individual right
in the popular mind" Good for Gibbons.
He is progressing finely. He is some in
advance of some "disloyal copperheads,"
on the Repudiativn question.
DemagOgues of the Senator Williams
stripe have much to say about the "vio-
latiOn of pighted faith" and 'ropudia-
ton" And yet they belong TO the only
party that has not only politically repudi-
ated and violated public faith, but disre-
garded private contracts.
The greenback law, whereby green
backs, at times worth only thirty-fye
cents on the dollar, were made legal ten
der in payment of all debts previously
contracted to be paid in gold, was most
infamous reputation. The Radicalparty
has created a public debt, the largest aud
most enormous of any the world ever
saw, and taxed the laboring masses more
severely than was ever yet submitted %
without revolution at the same time
exempting one-ffth of the wealth of the
country from taxation. What is all this
but practical Reputation ?
All the State debts throughout the
North, before the war, were contracted to
be paid in gold. What party has repudi-
ated those debts? Who but the party
now in power have. By solemn enactments,
declared that these honest old creditors
shall have no goid-shall have nothing
but grcenbacIs for the gold they loaned
in good faith, and for which they were
promised gold again, both principal and
interest? The truth is, that the only
debt that these hypocritieal pretenders to
honesty would pay in gold is the debt that
was contracted in greenbacks at from
forty to ffty cents ON the dollar. The
bonds paid for in these deprecated green
backs, and these alone, they insist shall
be paid in gold. They are very clamor-
Gus lot Tue m1lDteuduce Vi Tic IaltH Vi
the nation.
Wasn't the faith of the nation solemnly
pledged that the war was not waged for
the purpose Of interfering with the do
nestle institutions of the South Was
not the faith Of the nation pledged that
the war was not waged for the subjuga-
tion or conquest of the South ? Was it
not pledged that the States of the South
should be re-admittcd into the Union with
their sovereignty, rights, and even their
dignity unimpaired? Was not the faith
of the nation pledged to each of these
propositions, and in each of them broken?
And by whom BY the very brazen po-
litical rascals who are now appealing to the
betrayed and beggared toilers of the land.
and, in the name of the nations faith,
asking them to pay the shylocks their
interest, and this though their own little
ones shall go hungry and in rags.