The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-12-12

fully share the preparedness of the Treasury,
Their demand for permission to buy and sell
for gold at pleasure is equally lust, and we
trust will not long remain unsatisfed.
Our National Disgrace.
From The ". y. Tribune.
The fact that barely twelve weeks of An
drew Johnson's Presidency remain to be en-
dured should console US under many Affections
and reconcile us to many haIdships. Plead
as we fairly may that the great party which
he has betrayed never meant to make him
President, while the party he has treacher-
ously served and fawned upon despised him
too heartily to think of accepting him as a
candidate, the Republic has been shaned as
well as scourged by him from the hour
wherein he reeled into the Vice-Presidency,
and will be till the place that knows him
shall know him no more. We have had bad
men in high Office before; yet we are confident
that no man but Andrew Johnson was ever
chosen ViceP President of these United States
who could have provoked the scorn of Christep-
dom by such an exhibition of native depravity
as is made in the following porti on of John
sons last message:-
"Our national credit should be sacredlv oh
served; bat IL making provision for our Credi.
tors we should not forget what is due to the
masses Of the people. II may be assumed that
the holders OF our securities have already re.
ceiyeu upon their bonds q larger amount Than
iNeIf original investment, measured Dy q gold
standard. Upon this statement of facts it
would seem bat just and equitable that the six
percent. interest Bow paid by the Government
should be applied 10 the reduction of the prin-
cipal, in semtannual instslments, which in
six cen yeals and eight month would liquidate
the entire national debt. six per cent in gold
would, at present rates, be equal TO nine per
cent. in curl en- ~, and equal 10 the payment of
the debt one and half times in fraction less
th0n seventeen years. This, Ia connection with
the other advan iages derived from their invest
ment, would afford to the public creditors
nan sat IN for
their capital, and with this they should be sat
isfied. The lessons OF the past admonlsh the
ex9cting from the borrower rigid Compliance
with the letter of the bond"
Comments By the Tribune.
Mr.. Johnson has probably borrowed money
in his day, and may have done so when his
debts were so heavy, and his prospects so bad,
that his note was not worth half its face. Let
us suppose him drawn into a difficult lawsuit,
which involved all he was worth. He applies
to thrifty neighbor for $4,000, being in abso-
lutte want of that sum to prosecute his suit to
judgment. The prudent capitalist inquiries as
to the security, and is pointed to the estate in
litigation. eyes, but il you lose the suit, you
will have no estate" "Well," he responds,
iii l lose the suit, you must lose the debit
but if | win it, will pay you double"
"Agreed," says the capitalist; 'I will take the
risk" So he borrows the $4,000, and with it
wins the suit. How much does he over How
much ought he to payH Your answer decides
whether you are honest or villain.
SO far, We have admitted the truth of John
sons fundamental assumptions; but that as
sumption is false. What the nation owes its
creditors is precisely what it agreed to pay
lhem-no less, no more. But the great mass
of them paid for their bonds the full sum
specified on their face-often more. True,
they paid in greenbacks; but those greenbacks
had cost them their full amount in gold. 1t
was the debtor not the creditor interest that
protited by the depreciation of our currency.
hundreds OF thousands paid off in greenbacks
their mortgage and other debts which were
contracted when the currency was at par with
gold-paid them oil with money obtained
by the sale of their products or their
labor at prices greatly enhanced by our
currency depreciation. Every one can call
10 mind instances where farmers and others,
who had for years been struggling to meet the
interest on the mortgage given when they
bought their lands, have been able TO wipe out
that mortgage by the proceeds OF two or three
crops sold during the latter years of the war.
Creditors complained (nOt uniuslly) that they
were thus paid of too easily, and were an
swered, LEND your mouey TO the Government,
and you will tie paid your bonds in gOld so,
what are you gTumbling at :" They did lend
it-not millions only, but hundreds of mil
lions-and thereby was the Union saved. Aud
now PRESIDENT or the United states tells the
public creditors that, if they are paid seven
teen years interest they may think themselves
lucky, though they never see a cent of the
principal.
The man who makes this suggestion is
villain-a bIazen, reckless, shameless vii
lain. He has sheepish confederates who share
his knavery but lack his e1frontery. The
people have set their heel hard down on the
whole tribe in indorsing the Republican plat
form of 1868 through the election OF Graut
and Colfax. Reputation will gain nothing
by Johnson's indorsement-it will rather re-
ceive a darker smiroh from his well-earned
infamy. How naturally a traitor to those
who trusted and honored him lends himself
to every form of baseness was already known;
but the truth has received fresh illustration
in Johnson's crowning infamy.
1t is extremely desirable that we should
begin forthwith to fund our past due Five
twenties at lower rate than six per cent;
but Johnson and his fellow repudiators seem
resolved that we shall never be able to do so.
This message will compel our people to pay
many millions in six per cent. interest which
they could have saved had our President been
content with the pyramid of disgrace he had
already so laboriously erected. Only twelve
weeks more and the country will be rid of him
forever. 1t is hard; but we can endure him