The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1868-10-09

To the worlSingmen and laboring popu-
lation of the country the result of the COM
ing election is one of grave significance.
1t will affect directly and imme-
diately their material well-being and pros
perity. Years ago, Mr.. Wendell Phillips
declared that the emancipation of the ne
gro would add two hours to the toll of
every laboring man in America for a long
series of years but it would be cheaply
purchased, he said, at that price.
But in addition to this infliction prom
ised them by Phillips, the laboring men
are now threatened with far heavier penal
ties by the continuance of the present party
in power.
These results may be recapituated partly
as follows:
1. The continued exemption from all
State and local taxation of one-fifth of all
property in the country, that property held
in United States bonds, and which is bet
ter able to bear taxation than any other
property. You will continue, for years to
come, to pay for the education of the bond
holders children, the repairs of the roads
over which he drives his carriage, where
you go on foot, and the police which pro-
tects his life and property from outrage
and depreciation.
2. The Five-twenty bonded debt, which
we can rightfully pay to the bondholder in
legal tenders, worth seventy-two cents on q
dollar in gold, will be paid at par in gold,
thus adding seven hundred millions of
dollars in gold to the principal of our
debt. At the same time the interest on the
debt will amount in forty years-and it is
not to be allowed to be paid off under that
periodic four thousand millions of dol
lars in gold. These monstrous sums will
fall upon the laboring population, as the
only producing class, to pay. Day by day,
and week by week, they will have to toll
and sweat to pay the bondholder his inter
est in gold.
3. For forty years, at least, one fifth of
all the property in the country will be
locked up in bonds, where it will afford no
man employment and give no man business
The owners of this property, inasmuch as
it is not taxed, and nets them an immense
interest, prefer to keep it in that shape,
rather than build houses, stores, steam
boats, factories, or to use it in any species
of trade or commerce. This is great par
alysis upon trade, and denies millions of
people of the employment they would have
if these bonds were paid off in legal ten
ders, and the holders Obliged as they
would be necessarily to invest their money
in enterprises that would conduce to the in
terest of the public.
4. You will be afflicted for years to come
with national banks, the owners of which
make from fifteen to thirty per cent. out of
the laboring public, and at the same time
receive $20,000,000 a year in gold coin, and
for what Simply because they furnish
you with currency which your Govern
ment could give you in legal tenders with
out costing cent. This $20.000,000 a
year in gold your Government throws away,
just exactly as if it should be sunk in the
seas.
5. You will continue to be oppressed
with income taxes, stamp taxes, license
taxes, monthly taxes upon business, taxes
upon sales, and whole host of taxes, that
we never heard of until the present party
came into power, but which will be fasten-
ed upon you as the only means OF paying
the bondholder his interest and principle
in gold. The income tax, especially, bears
hard upon men with fixed incomes and
small salaries. A clerk, for instance, who
has salary of 81, 500, is taxed exorbitant-
~ Nhoh no 10 Couipe W pay p1o us " III
rect tax, in addition to the 5000 or 5000
which he pays indirectly.
6. The forcing of negro suffrage upon the
South, and the giving up of that country to
negro control, will oblige white men to
leave that section, and its trade therefore,
will become valueless What do you sup
pose your commerce in the free negro
States will be worth How many engines
will they buy here 2 How much clothing
How many chairs and other articles of
household furniture These questions,
and many others of similar character,
suggest their proper answer.
z. The continued maintenance of what is
called q Freedmen's Bureau at the South,
by which hundreds of thousands of idle
negroes are supported at the expense of the
industrious people at the North, whose
own white poor have. no Federal Govern
ment Bureau to look after them, even if
they are starving.