The Ebensburg Alleghanian. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1865-1871, 1868-10-08

How could it be otherwise, after the war
But the men who made the rebellion were
responsible for the debt. In 1860 we were
Just recovering from the financial crisis Of
1857, during which there were in Penn |
sylvania $50 failures, involving money to
the amount of "a millions The rebellion
came in 1861, and there occurred during |
that year, $40 failures, involving money
TO the amount of "a millions the act OF
the rebel Government that year coniioca-
ted 300 millions owing from the South to !
the North, of which the proportion of
Pennsylvania was about 32 millions. Du-
ring the war the Northern States took
from the productive industry of their pop
ulation over two millions of men, who be-
came not only consumers but destroyers of
produce, and is it not one of the most
marvellous things ever shown by the world S
history, that we are able to 60 on with the
ordinary industrial pursuits of the country,
in such a way that there is no distress or
want, but on the contrary, work plenty, at
good wages? Before the administration of
Buchanan closed 10 millions of loan was
offered by the Secretary of the Treasury,
and only millions were taken at II per
cent afterward millions more were put
in market and only one-haf of it taken at
| S5 cents on the dollar. During the terri
bic campaign of 1868 and 1865, the same
men now making clamor about the debt,
were trying to induce the people not to
touch the bonds of the Government, and
saying that it would require a cord of
greenbacks to buy cord of wood. Taking
all these things together, it was a Gods
mercy that the country did not sink into
bankruptcy and ruin the next day after
the war closed.
The issue of the debt is not now before
the country. The first of the debt ma
lures in 1881, the next 1892 That is the
time the Government bound itself to pay /,
although obtained in five or ten years.
i These bonds are issued by the Govern
ment for the purpose of raising money to
carry on the war, the interest of some of
them payable in gold, and the principal
and interest of others. The right to bor-
row money is given by the Constitution.
; They raise the quarrel now, long before
, the bonds are due; whether we shall pay
them in gold or greenbacks, when we have
not got either The law limits the issue
of greenbacks to four hundred millions,
and no more can be issued without anoth-
: er act Of Congress ; we have not the gold
s and the legal tenders are not issned, and
> it would trouble the arithmetic of these
e men to pay 81, 500, 900 900, of bonds with
e $400 GOO of greenbacks The Democratic
g platform says, where the law does not say
: they are payable in gold they should bt
e paid IN lawful money OF the United States
S What is the lawful money of the United
States According to Democratic doc
n trine enunciated by Sunset Cox, at Brook
d lyn, it is the money that chinks Here
d then, the Democratic platform proposes tC
e pay all those bonds in gold. Judge Wood
e ward, he said, was placed in position il
n that Convention from which none of hi.
= friends would be able to extricate him
e having declared, when candidate fol
; Governor, that the legal tenders, issued b.
s the Government, were not lawful money
if and no man was bound to take them for
" debt, and now that the bonds should b,
: paid In the same currency he had pro
n nounced unlawful Pendleton and Val
e landigham declared in Congress that the,
/" had no power to issue greenbacks. Th'
r, Democratic party said that the greenback
N were issued i'll violation or tie Constitu
n ton This was their whole cry durin;
e the war, and now, in order to issue green
e backs enough to take up these bonds, tn
/ party must do the same thing it has beel
r decrying all the time. They are thu
= proposing to pay off bonds which the
( made payable in gold, by giving note
which they say the Government has n
e power to issue at all, thus getting rid @
h all the claims of the widows and orphan
e of our deceased soldiers and of the entir
e National debt by the issue of an unconsti
y tutional currency.
Mo co " nov tbooa hoodS Tr-boy, fbox- hn
l. come due, and when Grant and Colfa
3 take the Presidential and Vice Presidentia
lie chairs, as they will, then will follow ca
N reer of peace and prosperity that will max
of the greenbacks by that time as good a
r. gold.
to Upon this financial question we are
n as much danger of war as upon the que
a. ton of reconstruction. We had durin
as the war one hundred million dollars wort
at of property destroyed by the Alabam
at commanded by the pirate Semmes, VIII
n, lighted up the ocean with the flames {
I'd our burning merchantmen, and who
he now an ardent supporter of Seymour an
is Blair, and against Grant-for which "
n have been presenting our claims 10 En-.
ed land, and which will be paid. We Ia,
millions of bonds in the hands of the Ge
re uldH pcoplC, anu II d bSAIOcIdtlC duulIIlI
ia tration should ever take UP the obligation
It. of our Government to them by givir
de them an irredeemable promise to pa
ne would not the Prussiam Government be
yo justifable in protecting the rights of
ty citizens as we are ours And 1t Dem
in cratic administration should undertake
er carry out this idea, there would be just
in much danger of Prussia taking that grour
Il