The Plymouth weekly Democrat. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1860-1869, 1868-05-14
THE GREEkBaCK QUESTION.


GENTLEMEN | have received your fa-
vor of the 2Ist instant. / cannot be in
your county on the Both of May, as have
an engagement for another county on that
day.
My intention is to commence the can
vass at the earliest day possible, consistent
with my business duties and obligations,
and to keep it up until the election,
There is work to be done everywhere and
it should be timely and judicious work.
1 certainly will be with you during the
summer; and if can 90 any good, per-
haps more than once.
The position of the democratic party of
the northwest is now true and strong
enough to enable it to carry every state
whose people are not given up to believe
q lie eternally. The man who believes
that the radicals, "by the experiment of
war;" have saved the country and the cou-
stitution, is certainly one of that class.
The war, as waf in military point OF
view, was success, and has ended but
the union is neither restored nor recon
structed. Thousands Of lives and millions
of money have been lost, but the country
is in a transition state to consolidation and
Constitutional phraseology is
preserved to mislead the credulous and
confiding of the radical party but con-
rights and liberties have no ex-
istence, fear, but in free ballot and a
fair count ont at the next election. The
lLerties Of people are not generally vic.
lenty wrested from them, but usurped by
stealth, as ours are now being uSurped
In the Roman territory absolute monarchy
was established long before republican
phraseology was ab ,lished. 1t will be SO
here if we do not watch and work.
1t is wonderful that the man who raises
who produces-who owns anything
does not see that he has been laboring for
something he has not obtaiued. There is
no war, yet peace has no victories no tri.
umphs for him. He has no more hours
exemption from labor, no more tools, no
more machinery, no more lands. nothing
increased, but taxes; and they come to
him in every conceivable form which the
ingenuity of the untaxed can invent.
Taxes direct, taxes indirect; taxes incl
and duties prohibitory, Tor protection to
New England manufa :turers to secure to
hem higher prices; taxes that
1iznacle frcebo.n babes bc-a;c the tury slave"
Well may the thinking man ask, are
these taxes never to cease! Must they
continue to increase Why not? Is not
The radical decree that we must be nation
NOT in the United States--aud nations
must tax vigorously, for their strength is
in standing armies and privileged classes,
not in equally taxed aan prosperous anu
people. And then, is not the
productive industry of the
couu;ry-mortgaged in pcrpetuity to pay
a debt which represents nothing that can
earn a dollar. 1t is neither an arm or Il
leg horse or an OK. piow or hoe, an
acre or laud, or the bare seed which shall
in time bring grain. 1t is . war debt,
which, in all nations, represents destruc-
ton and an oppressed and impoverished
people Yet industry is to be annually
t1xed, beyond its profits, TO maintain this
debt to make it money and its untaxed
and gold exacting holders are "to eat out
our substance" without labor TIE bond
holders say this debt is just because it was
Incurred to save the life of the nation, and
must, therefore, be paid, interest and prin-
cipal, in gold To save the life ofthe na-
tiou! Daniel Webster said, 1.-The consti-
tuition Of the United States is written in
strument, a recorded fundamental law. 1t
is the bond, and the only bond, of the un-
ion of these states. 1t is all that gives us
a national character" Is that coDstitu-
ton saved +? But who is to pay this debt
which now makes taxation in every form
nccessary? Not the oondholders ? They
say they are exempt by the law, by the
contract. Who made contract to ex-
empt wealth, or the ability to live without
labor, from taxation? Such contract is
void, in every element, from the begin
ming. 1t is against public policy, an out
rag upon equal and exact justice, and is
nc law for any people. The greatest good
Of the greatest number demands that there
should be no such law. There is no bind.
Ing fOrce IN an unjust law upon people
whose constitution is not inviolate But
the money lenders, the ond-holdcrs,
made this law to enable them to convert a
deprecated Indebtedness, aud therefore
liquidated to the extent Of the deprccia,
tion (for depreciation was payment) into a
mortgage debt to be paid by the nations
industry, dollar for dollar, in gold. Its
spirit il. "let the peor lie work for us
bond-holders--aud our bonds shall tell Ms
how much work they owe u.s."
When the people understand these
things fully. know their rights and their
strength, they will say: "Let US work for
ourselves, and we will remove these bur.
dens there shall be no untaxed man
among us; no man shall take our labor
our gold, and withhold his own. We will
pay what we honestly owe, not what is dis
honestly held against US. The bond-hold-
ers must accept payment as we propose
and must help pay the debt, interest and
principal. and must be taxed, as we are
for all other purposes, OF the debt can new
H. - Tc - L. o,ocn,c Iova I,c