North Iowa times. [volume] (McGregor, Iowa) 1867-current, 1868-03-11
Reputation.

AHo oHPict1sdht tnlHS VIC cali 'rcpuQla'
ton" has already secured an "organ." A
! new journal has been issued in ST. Louis
entitled ''The Rcpudiator," and it is cx-
pressly designed to advocate the repudia-
ton of the national debt. If the shame-
tul extravaganza Of the government, the
onerous increase of the tariff and the al
most uncomfortable weight of taxation in
other shapes under which the American
people at present fairly stagger be not
promptly looked to, we may expect the or
Sanization Of a 'rcpudiation party as
our country's next aHliction Should that
| calamity betall us, one or the other great
party will be certian, in the end, to alb
sorb the new one and its vital principle in
order to secure a triumph at the polls, and
the journals that have SO approximately
thrust "repudiation' under our nostrills,
in order to accuse their opponents of fa-
voring it, will be entirely responsible for
the result. Reputation had no friends
awhile ago. 1t was abhorred by all peo-
pie and cherished by none. But republican
journals fancicd it q convenient piece of
mud to throw at the ''copperheads," for
getful Of General Buffers little p.nchaut
in that direction, and democratic newspa-
pers imagined Overlooking Mr.. Pendle-
tons little 'hobby') that it was damag-
ing missile to hurl back at the radicals
Thus both sides kept up chattcrins
about ''repudiation" and the term lost
! much Of the odum which first invested it:
and now it only needs the impulse of Il
popular conviction that all this tariff, all
this taxation, is required to pay expenses
not legitimateiy governmental, to strip
ran l,af,p of fI,o -h,l, 6
ness and tempt the masses to embrace
what they originally dctestcd.
The American people are honest. They
have paid Oft one national debt, though it
would be difficult to point out the nation
that set them such loudable example,
They were, up to year ago, even ponder
ing upon variety of schemes suggested
to enable them to pay off the present ma
tional debt Not Il murmer was heard in
regard to the sacred obligation of doing
so, and of doing it rs expcdtiously as pos
sible, until Congressman Kelley, of Phila-
dolphin, (who, it is said, will be secretary
of the navy under President wade if the
impeachment project succeeds.) publicly
asked Congress to accept a resolution of
exemption. He wanted it to resolve that
the present generation We're not bound to
liquidate the whole of the national liabili-
ties, and that posterity should be honored
with a carte blanche to wipe out all the
financial responsibilities incurred bv pres
ent legislation. This movement of Mr..
Kelley, seconded by his friends, led the
popular mind to hope that Congress was
sincerely disposed to lesson the burden of
taxation borne by the nation. 1t led the
common Judgment to infer tha6 the inter
est of the public debt, and Il retrenched
system OF government expenditures, would
be all that the people would be called up
on to bear at present, leaving to IL more
prosperous seeson the contemplation of
the best means of cancelling. little by lit
tie, the nations accumulated Indebtedness.
But we look in vain for promised re-
trenchmets. We look in vain for q re-
duced tariff. We look in vain for dimin-
ished taxation.
Is it not natural for the masses to feel
aggrieved at this disappointment? Is it
not natural for them, under such eircum
stances, to grow inquisitive as to the
source of their burden, to inquire into the
cause of such eXactions on the part of the
taxgatherer, and to begin to question their
moral responsibility for debts, if they can
discover any, not incurred for the public
good but for partison ACKNOWLEDGEMENT p
When they find that, instead of being di-
minised, the national debt has been in
creased twenty millions of dollars in a
single month; when they hear nothing on
the subject OF the tariff but the old c!aner
for protection more protection ~ which
simply means more money to be taken
out of the pockets of the many in order to
put it into the pockets Of the few; waen
they find Congress squandcring millions
on millions in wanton improvidence, reck-
less of the fact that every dollar of it has
to be paid by the honest industry of the
country; when they fnd that III the prop
ositons to diminish the internal revenue
tax amount to little more than drop ia
the bucket of taxation; when they find the
Freedmen's Bureau and military govern
ment maintained in the 'unreconstructcd"
states, at an expense of fifty or sixty mil
lions year, to feed and ciothc indolent
negroes, while thousands of more deserv-
ing poor white families of the .'loyal
north are left to fam;sh if they can feed
and clothe themselves, what are they like
ly to think? What are they likely to
do?
When the people at large find. in short,
that half II million of lives have been sac
rti5ed, that the prime cost of all the nee
essaries OF life has been doubled. that a
debt which threatens to crush them to the
earth Tor all this is suspended over them
and that tornll this the only return in
prospect is IA still inharmonious Union, ten
states in condition of anarchy, business
confidence destroyed by party zeal, and
na, nd 4
parently. as when the civil war first end.
eds it not natural for them to grow dis
coatented? Is it not natural for them to
copy the example of their representatives
at Washington, and proposeto ''repudiaten
the national debt as, in tie federal Capitol,
they repudiate the constitution? We re-
gret to see this inclination cropping out
so strongly in the west, for it is there that
we have most to apprehend in the matter
of reputation. Pendleton is no fayorite
Of ours, but his popularity in that section
is unquestionable; and we think it proba-
bic that his anxiety to avoid that repudia-
tion, which he perceives afar off on the
political horizon as a consequence of con- |
.ressional recklessness, is the reason why |
he has assumed his peculiar attitude. lie |
fears, as we do, that '!retrenchment" or
''repudiation' will soon be the only polit
ical alternative, and that the spirit of one
or the other will yet sweep the country
like whirlwind. There can be no doubt
of it.-Er.
WAS SHE A MAID OR WIrE.-IIere is the
way they do in France. A Mile de A.
became indisposed, so her family called in
The family doctor and left them togeth-
II.
The doctor was curious and suspicious
Is to the cause of the young lady's sick
ness. He drew lancet from his pocket
% bleed her, but at the moment he press