Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1868-08-16
NEGOTIATION avn REPIiDtAroRs.

The bondholders Of the government
sometimes express their fear that repudia-
ton may be the resnlt of polite Il agita-
ton. There il no repudiation, Il is true,
10 either Of the political platforms, aud
certainly not ia the Democratic Platform.
which proposes 10 pay every. government
obligation IN the precise kind Of money
promised in the bond itself. >..
But ia there not occasion, at times, to
doubt the means Of the government 10 ex-
ecute its obligalions2 The man who spends
more than he earns, in time must suspend
payment. The merchant who lives beyond
his means and his capital, cannot long
live at all, as a merchant. The farmer
whose crops and income are not eqaul to his
taxes and expenses, must 60 by the board.
/ There is no alternative. Extravaganza
ruds in poverty, poverty 10 an inability to
/ pay what you owe, when 1t is due, and this
is repudiation pt
The people, Just now, are taxed all they
can bear, and taxed upon every thing be.
tween production and consumption, and
between infancy and old age. No other
people upon the face Of the country are
taxed 40 much, and Congress has made the
United States the dearest country TO live in
upon the face of the earth. When a mil
lion men were ia the field to be fed, clothed,
moved and armed, when paper money was
! made as fast IA the printing press could
produce it, when the people were inspired
by q love of country TO save the Union and
the government from dissolution, taxes
were more easily paid than now.- But as
the debt grew, the demands increased, and,
! since the war, one billion four hundred
millions OF dollars has been raised by taxa
ton. 1t has all gone, and the financial
burdens every month become worse. In
July, the debt increased Sl2,280, coo; and,
IN June, over iifty-three millions of dol
| lars .' 7i
Congress was eight months in session,
not to reduce the army, not TO economic
in the navy, not to abridge offices and pre-
vent extravaganza, not TO reform abuses,
but to establish such governments at the
South as would perpetuate Radical rule ;
and hence the ineressed debt and these
/ enormous burdens upon the people which
prompt men at times TO cali for repudia-
ton. The way 10 avoid it is TO secure a
change Of administration, and the way TO
compel Il, nOteRs rolens, is to perpetuate the
power Of the Radical party, which has ex-
pended more money in three years Of peace
than in three years OF war. They keep up
a standing army of nearly sixty Thousand
men, where twenty thousand-Inore than
twice the peace establishment Of 1860 81
would do as well. They require over
S3l ,OOO,0 GOO for navy, with the country
everywhere at peace and the country spoiled
| OF one third Of its commerce. The are ex-
pending wasteful sum upon the civil ser
vice, aud employ between eight and nine
hundred officers in the Freedmens Bureau.
In word the Radical party has proved
itself incapacitated to govern the country,
and 1t Is time its reign was closed. Those
OF II and in it who fear reputation should
abandon it. To pay the debt there must
be more official economy, or less official
waste. Any change will be relief No
Cover nment could be cursed with a worse
set OF rulers than those in Congress, who
having had the popular confidence for
seven or eight years, have shown no capa-
city except 10 distract the people and set
back the tide of long expected peace and
prosperity .-Ne0 York Express