The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-09-07
THE PERIL or REPUDIAT1ON.
BY HORACE eREELF


Careful observers of political currents must
already have realized that there is gathering
over this republic cloud which threatens
deeper disgrace than that Of Bull Run,
heavier disaster than any Fredericksburg or
Chickamauga. A defeat may be retrieved, a
causeless panic dtspelled, lost State or pro.
vince recovered; but the guilt and shame of
systematic, wholesale villany, once branded
Infamy, once incurred, sits ever more and more
lightly on the culpriE being compelled to wear
its badge, he learns TO disregard and defy It.
Our great national struggle with the slave
holders Rebellion could only be brought to a
triumphant conclusion by means of men and
money Brave hearts and strong arms in field
ana camp were Indispensable; but weapons,
munltlons. I0od, tents, equipments, horses, etc.
etc., were no less SO. Civilized warfare becomes
year by year more expensive and exhausting,
The oombardment of a fortress like Sumter or
Fisher costs money; IL is impervious to naked
Xalor. defensive contest, like that of the
Rebels, may be maintained almost without
struggle when the Federal Treasury was unable
to respond to drafts upon 1t in currency that
for their muskets, their powder their beef their
bacon, the war for the Union must have had a
sudden and disastrous close or the many
dark hours of that protracted agony, recall
scarcely one darker than that in which 1
store in our city, Offering to sell greenbacks for
city bank notes and pay two per cent. differ
was nearly the highest a prominent citizen
bought a considerable amount of it to take
home. nom saying. II may need this for my market
In full view Of national impotence and
fathomless treason. and utterly inexcusable
dlScOmntureR, our Government was forced to
call on all who still had money. or could raise
any, for loan after loan of millions upon mil
lions. Every successive defeat created neces-
s1ty for another great loan. he lenders braved
heavy risk for the national overthrow, il
such should be our fate, was likely to be total
and remediless. Had dsunion peace been
dictated by Lee, after crushing defeat of our
main army on the Susquehanna or Delaware
1t would have been followed by pro-Rebei
Democratic trium phi In most of our States and
their consequent accession to the Southern
leaving national
utterly without redress. AS the Confederate
Se6 voud % aS baye S 50 the
But the Union gloriously triumphed. and its
debt is sacred lien on all the property of its
people No other debt takes precedence of il.
whether in law or right. AS we pay the pen
to the utmost farthing. And every attempt to
speclous, is the proclamation of rascality 4
which has its root In treason:
20 pay-manifestly that, or nothing. To say to
our creditors. "Take something less" is no whit
than To- say, Eve viii never : pay you a cceHt?.I
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, II he could
The fact that the Government was constrained
to make gigantic forced loan. by declaring It's
greenbacks q legaItender for certain purposes,
measure of Imperative necessity. under the
pressure of calamitous, exhaustive war.
horses fodder etc, the property of private citi-
zens, and paid for them as 1t deemed just: but
1t did not intend thereby to ignore & or defy the
higher obligation OF preserving the national
existence.
we have paid off tlthe of 1t already. We
might pay the residue within the next twenty
left as I they stood in 1855, we should have paid
the last dollar by the 4th of July, 1875. But
Congress has taken OF many taxes, and re-
duced others; and still we are paying Off our
debt month by month, and Will continue to
pay 80 long as any Is DUE II the taxes are LETT as
But those whom the debt defeated hate those
who lent the money which secured their over
throw, and will swindle them, If they can.
Their journals assatl the public creditors as
rampered class. the monopolsts OF exclusive
the rabble with assaults on the debt and propo-
sitions to evade its honest payment. When
gentlemen by birth and breeding, like George
II. Pendleton. can gravely urge the issue OF two
billions and half more OF gTeenbacks, redeem
when thus rendered worthless by their supera-
bundance for the interest bearing bonds OF the
hard to guess how demogogues like Vallandig-
ham and the Illinois Aliens will improve upon
Ohio has already rendered it obvious that theac-
cession OF the Democrats to power would insure
q virtual II not an unequivocal reputation OF
They will not be thus exalted, and the debt
will not be squarely repudiated; yet there is
danger of q more insldioug, wriggling, cowardly
misleading with the national creditors. Men
who should be ashamed of II do not hesitate to
call for the repeal or abatement of taxes, as
though the debt would somehow pay Itself, and
softly Suggest that the nations creditors might
better assent TO this, or accept that, than tempt
the hazard Of faring worse. But, should the
people prove too knavish to pay them in full,
they Will not be paid at all. We shall not pro-
claim ourselves nation of rascals TO save fiVe
per cent or twenty per cent. OF the debt; II we
repuulate AZ all, we shall cheat them out OF the
whole.
But there are those who softly whisper, ''The
interest ls TOO nigh for q state of peace; may 1t
not be reduced2" Certainly answer SO soon
as men can be found who will lend us al lower
rates. but TO this end IL u i'm operative that we
maintain our faith unbroken Our i'FiVo TWEEN
ties" will soon be falling due-that ia the Urea
surY has the option OF paying them after thew
shall have run hve years, and that term il
already nearly out for a part Of thano Tet
IL be assumed that we shall never renudiate
and these may be converted at maturftv into
n .aOn-taXaDle nVe per cent. having twentV or
thirty years 10 run; and the saving OF int crest
inns effected would serve To pay or the nrincI
nal of the debt In two or three eeneratinos
But there can be no saving, no abatement
S1ithout the gternest integrity in our dea1inesi
with our creditors. Were IL absolutely certsfn
that we should always De honest and solvent
we might In time borrow, as Great Britain
Ioas af less than four per cent; while, AZ we
heoin 10 cheat we shall not be able TO borrow
StelI No man can really afford TO be q knaVe
and debtor who owes largely least Of all