Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1868-06-29
Spirit of the Ohio Democratic Press
From the Urbana Union.]

Gne least OF Wnlcn Will De Cne purpose OF
destroying the Government monopoly in |
borrowing money; for the Government has
complete monopoly, go long as it may
pay six per cent. gold interest, clear of tax,
and at the same time compel every other
lender to take shin-plastcr money, and in |
addition to pay State and municipal taxes
on the sum lent. The working of it is
this: The lender to Government gets six
per cent. gold interest-which is worth to
him eight and half per cent. in common
money. to which must be added two per |
cent. for taxes escaped, making ten and a |
half per cent. The private borrower must |
outbid this, and considerably outbid it, or
he gets no money; and hence come the ap- |
plications to our Legislatures to make new |
laws to permit contracts for higher rates |
of interest. The thing must be set right by
taxing the Debt and taking away the Gov
ernment monopoly.
Some persons will object that this will
be breach of faith, and they will say that
the Government pledged itself not to tax
the debt. The Government gave no such
pledge. 1t did, indeed, say that the bonds
should be clear of State and Municipal
taxes. Whether that provision was meant
for deception or not, it has been so used,
for United States Bonds cannot be taxed
by the States, and Congress cannot author
| ize the States to tax them, nor can they
levy a tax themselves to be distributed to
lay taxes to pay their own debts. Neither
government can tax the securities of the
other, and all the income tax levied on the
| income from States Bonds and from NUM-
| cipal Bonds was and is an unlawful spolia-
| ton. The Bonds of the Federal Govern
ment and of the State Governments can
only be taxed by the power that makes
| them; and if any one should say that
Government should never tax its own
| Bonds, we shall not deny it, but the public
| thought has not been SO expressed in prac-
tice.
The United States can tax its own Bonds,
| and they must do it. When we say tax
| the Bonds we mean to tax the Debt. 1t
the tax be specifically on the Bonds, that
will only drive them into the hands of for
eigners, as we are now steadily doing to
| make up the deficiency in our exports.
The tao mast be on the coupons when they come
to the Treasury for pay yment. The ordina-
| ry State taxes equal two per cent on capi-
tai, and that is One-third of the lawful in
come of money for interest, and is equal
to one-third OF the average rents of prop
erty. The tax on the coupons must be one
third OF their sum to be deducted by the
Treasurers when the coupons come in for
payment. This will reduce the gold inter-
est to four per cent. and if foreigners can
be assured that we will in truth con-
tinue to pay that rate, the bonds will sell
at par, instead of selling at 76 cents as they
now do.
If all the debt was funded to-day in 6
per cent. gold interest the annual charge
would be 150 millions of dollars. tax of
one-third on the coupons would yield 90
millions of this sum, leaving 100 millions
to be otherwise provided for. This can be
furnished from our impost revenue and
leave the government expenses to be met
by taxes on the people, and this direct pres
sure on the people will soon lead to a re-
nf IN fho
army-a reduction in the navy,-a reduc-
tion in the horde of officers-and reduc-
ton in tie public plunder.
[From the Crawford Co. Forum.l
THE New YORK CoNvENTIoN.-As the
| time approaches for the assemblage of the
New York Convention, anxiety becomes
more and more intense. and speculation as
| to results more and more bewildering.
That Mr.. Pendleton is the choice of a
large majority of the Democratic voters,
there can be no question:; nor can there be
| a doubt that it is the voice of the Democ-
racy that every dollar of the public debt
/ which is made payable by the terms of
contract in ''lawful money" should be paid
in greenbacks as fast as it falls due.
But such is the corrupt and practised
power OF the caucus, made a thousand fold
more dangerous by the money-influence of
| the bond holders, that it is within the
range of possibility that Mr.. Pendleton
may be defeated, and that the obligation to
pay the Abolition War Debt in gold, will
| be asserted.
All this, we say, is possible, though we
devoutly hope not probable.
| The friends of Mr.. Pendleton and his
greenback policy will be active and ener-
getic in his behalf; and his opponents will
| be fierce, inscriptions and untiring.
Mr.. Pendleton, in all human probability,
will have the majority, but not two-thirds,
on the first ballot. If his friends stick, he
will ultimately be the nominee. If any
| considerable number of them prove treach-
erous he will be defeated. All the appli-
ances that are ever brought to bear on weak
or venal me3, will be employed by his ad-
versaries. Here is the danger.
There are men who have attained. or at
least assumed, a leading place in the Demo-
cratic party, whose purpose lis to expunge
from the Democratic creed its vital and dis
tinctive principles.
lFrom the DAYTON Ledger.l
A CHANGE DEMANDED.-It is pretty gen.
orally conceded that the masses of the peo-
pie of both political parties demand q
change in the administration of the Gov
ernment; and what that change is to con-
sist of, is very clearly indicated, and it
would be well for those who aspire to rep
resent the popular will to heed these indi-
cations.
For the past seven years the Govern
ment has been, and still is, administered in
the interest of capital, until the lordly
bondholder, like Selkirk on the island of
Juan Fernandez, imagines himself mon
arch of all he surveys.
There never was time in the history of
this country, from the beginning until the
present, when such open and criminal dis
regard for the expressed will of the great
body of the people is so totally ignored.
1t is now an established fact, clearly and
distinctly manifest, that nine-tenths of the
voters of both political parties, East and
West, North and South, who comprehend
in any degree the situation, demand a
change in the financial policy of the coun-
| try.
Yet, in view of these facts, we have a
Secretary of the Treasury at Washington
in open violation OF the letter of the law,
increasing the burdens of the people al
ready too grevious to be long borne, by
| millions monthly in converting the Five
twenty bonds which are payable in the le-
gal tender notes of the United States, into
gold bonds, principal and interest payable
in gold.
There is no civilized country on the face
| of the globe, no reigning monarch or Au-
tocrat in them, more imperious or ire
pressible than McCulloch, the Secretary of
| the Treasury, of what was once and is still
called Republican America.
| We stated in the commencement of our
article that the wish of the masses of the
people was clearly indicated, we now state
what that wish is, viz: the payment of all
that part of the national debt created by the
war, in the currency that all are compelled
to take in payment of their goods and pro-
ducts, and whatever else they have to dis
pose OF for money.
There is another very clearly expressed
wish, which amounts to demand, by nine
out of every ten of those who constitute the
Democratic party, and that is that George
II. Pendleton receives the nomination at
the Fourth OF July Convention, about to
convene at the city of New York.
1t will not do for the bondholders MOI