Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1868-12-17

aQlOu0t Gt1SlI OIlSlldl
measured by gold standard. Upon
this statement of facts it would seem just
and equitable that the six per cent. in
terest now paid by the government
should be applied to the reduction of
the principle in semi-annual Install
ments, which in sixteen years and eight
months could liquidate the entire ma
tional debt. Six per cent in gold would
at present rates be equal to nine per cent.
in currency, and equivalent to the pay
ment of the debt one and half times In
| a fraction less than seventeen years.
This, in connection with all the other
advantages derived from their invest
ments, would afford to the public credi-
| tors a fair and liberal compensation for
the use of their capital, and with this
they should be satisfied.
Upon the subject of currency. he is
more rational, and few, except Pendie-
tonites, will object to anything he says
on that subject unless it be what he says
about excluding from circulation" by
law all notes under twenty dollars.
The time has come, however, when
the Government and national banks
should be required to take the most effi-
cient steps and make all necessary ar
rangements for resumption of specie
payments. Let specie payments once be
earnestly inaugurated by the govern
ment and banks, and the value of the
Ipaper circulation would directly approx
| innate to a specie standard. Specie pay
ments having been resumed by the gov
ernment and the banks, all notes or bills
of paper issued by either, of less de-
nomination than twenty dollars, should
by law be excluded from circulation, so
that the people may have the benefit
and convenience of gold anc silver cur
rency, which in all their business trans
actions will be uniform in value at home
and abroad Every man of property or
industry, every man who desires to pre-
serve what he honestly possesses, or to
obtain what he can honestly earn, has a
direct interest in maintaining safe cir
culating medium as shall be real and
substantial, not liable 60 vibrate with
opinions, not subject to he blown up or
blown down by the brutes of specula-
ton, but to be made stable and secure
A disordered currency is one OF the
greatest political evils. 1t undermines
the virtues Necessary for the support OF
the social system, and encourages pro
pensitiss destructive of its happiness. II
wars against industry, frugality. and
economy; and it fosters the evil spirits OF
extravaganza and speculation. 1t has
been asserted by one four profound and
most gifted statesmen, that of all the
lcontrivances for cheating the laboring
classes of mankind, none has been more
effectual than that which deludes them
with paper money. This is the most
effectual' of inventions TO fertilize the
rich mans fields by the sweat of the poor
mans brow. Ordinary tyranny, oppres-
sion, excessive taxation, these bear
lightly on the happiness of the mass of
the community compared with a fraud
ulent currency and with robberies COM
mitted by deprecated paper. Our own
history has recorded for our own instrue-
tion enough, and more than enough, OF
the demoralizing tendency, the injustice
and the intolerable oppression on the
lvirtuous and well-disposed, of a degrad-
ed paper currency authorized by law or
any way countenanced by the govern
ment.
E 1t is one of the most successful devices
in times of peace or war, of expansions
or revolutions, to accomplish the trans
fer of all the precious metals from the
great mass of the people into the hands
of the few. So here they are hOarded
in secret places, or deposited under bolts
and bars, while the people are left to
indure all the Inconvenience, sacrifices
and decentralization resulting from the
use of deprecated and worthless paper.
The balance of the message is oceupi-
ed with review of ths department re-
ports, and foreign affairs. = -aae
Universal lSuffraRe.-Letter from senator
Drake OF Missouri
Senator Drake has written letter on
the question of universal suffrage and
universal amnesty. His views are sum-
med up in the concluding paragraph,
which is as follows: "There is another
and broader ground, which, we're there
nothing else, would be sufficient with
me. / protest against this gushing mag
nanimity towards rebels, especially the
thousands of them who have added will
full and corrupt perjury to their other
crimes, while we coldly deny the ballot
to thousands of loyal men. Under our
Constitution, two classes of men are dis
franchised-one for crimes, the other for
the color of their skin. Both are some
time to be disfranchised. Which first?
To this question there ought, in honor,
Justice and humanity, to be but one an
swer. / have but one to make. L OBJ
ject to putting them on par and comp
ling them together. i refuse all bargain
ing in the case. repudiate all unasked
advances from Republicans to rebels in
this matter. demand the enfranchise-
ment of the negro first. insist that his
Just rights shall be absolutely secured to
him before we ever begin to consider
the restoration of justly fortified rights
to rebels, no matter how long they may,
exclude the latter from the ballot box
I invoke justice before generosity. To
vindicate the rights of man is a higher
duty and nobler work than to enfran
chiss rebels. In this | was very positive
before the people in my recent canvass.
and will stick to it. I'll thereby lose
popular favor i'm some quarters, so be it.
regard Justice and right more than any
mans favor, or that of any party, not
even excepting that which made me
United States Senator. If that party
takes any other position on this subject,
it will in my opinion endanger its
future success, if not its existence. Any
party that refuses Justice to its friends
while fastening to heap unsolicited IA
vOrs upon its foes, ought to go down,
and it will. [ will not be accessory to
and such heartless aot.. If the great
Radical party of Missouri, recognized
and honered by loyal men of the whole
land. must needs commit political sui
eide, in Gods name let IL be on some
decent pretext. Let not the jeers of
rebels at its trucking folly drown the
wall of the negro over the destruction
by his own professed friends, of his last
hope of Acknowledgement in that State.
zone other matter in conclusion
From the outbreak of the rebellion until
the latter part of 1858, the Union men of
Missouri were hampered by the conser-
vatives, the great mass of whom finally
landed in the ranks of the Democracy.
The Radical party there achived moth
ing till it parted company with them,
and planted itself upon radicalism stern
and fierce. This universal suffrage and
universal amnesty scheme seems to me
to indicate that we are in danger of hav-