Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1868-12-15
Repudiaaion Now and Then.

,Tle Journal, of this city, Is terrified be-
ca use President JOHNSON, it says, is in ia
v or of repudiating the bonded debt of the
C ountry, because that functionary says that
the debt has been paid in interest, and be
p roposes to pay it once more in interest,
and the n let it slide. This proposition the
j our nal in its new born zeal for the bond
holder, brands as ,E"shameful" and s.atro-
ciou.." ltmsy be so, but is it less i''atro-
cious,r orless '.shameful,' than the virtual
population of the contract made by Ohio,
with her creditors, that the semi-annual
inter st on the public debt shall be paid in
coin-repudiating the contract, because
State cannot be brought into Court
and made fulfil her obligation, by paying
the interest in greenbacks, when that cur
rem cy was worth but thirty-five cents on
the d ollar, as was the case in 1864, when
the atrocious scheme was hatched and car
ried into effect. s aliW h4s2 slq9 ssH
This violation of the plighted faith of
Ohio found in the Journal an advocate and
an apologist. Every man concerned in the
disgraceful and scoundrelly act, was then,
and is now, Radical. That sheet, too, sus-
tanned the Republican Legislature in SELL
ing the gold in the Treasury, and with the
premium received, paying off portion of
the interest due the men who, when Ohio
needed money to dig her canals, loaned it
to the State. with her honor pledged to its
repayment in gold. in which the bonds wel g
purchased, and the interest in the same
coin.l bus as1'7 ~ e7it5N sq7i nfH, af'S
Now, because President JOHNSON, elect
ed by the Journal and its party to high Of
flee, alarmed at the vast debt which has ac-
cumulated under Radical rule-vastly in
creased as 1t is, proposes toipay off the debt
In sixteen years, in equal annual payments.
without interest, that sheet is terrified and
devotes q column of weak argument and
Billing gsgate abuse on the President of its
own choice, because he Is unwilling that
the untaxed bondholder shall continue to
eat out the substance of the people.
| We are not the advocate of the JOHNSON
policy of paying the debt. The bondhold-
ers took a mean advantage of the necessi-
ties of the Government and exacted hard
terms. We 60 for living up to the letter
and the spirit of the contract, and to pay
the bonds, as they become due, dollar fol
dollar, in the currency they were prom
ised to be paid in, which is the same cur
renoy paid for them. sis-aa ii'
But the bondholders say they will not
receive greenbacks in payment of the
money loaned, although that was the con.
tract-they will demand and receive goli
or nothing else. This would be repudia
tion of the contract, and the Journal sus-
tains them in their demand. President
JOHNSON has just the same right, an6
much more of justice in his so-called re.
pudiation of the contract, than the bond
holders have in theirs. The latter have
received their money back many time:
over, and yet they demand that it be paid
in hard money, which, at the present ruling
price of gold. would add near, if not quite
a thousand million dollars to the vast in.
debtedness of the country. iafena~