The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1868-08-25
GREAT SPEECH
HON. GEO. q. PENDLETON
AT
BANGOR; MAINE.
An Extract.


Now while we have been piling up this
gigantic line till it rises like monu.
ment on the happiness and liberties OF
our people, even unto heaven. While
we we're piling it up we recklessly cX-
handed the currency. When payday now
beoins to make its approach we are just
as industrioasly occupied in contract
ing the currency. Suppose nelshnor
of yours should act upon the same prin-
ciple. Suppose he should go into the
market in the spring and buy whatever
he wanted, and should voluntarily
have the price of whatever he wanted
enhanced, and should promise to pay in
the fall out of the proceeds of his sum-
mer's labor, whether agricultural or
otherwise; aad suppose when fall came,
and his notes were coming due, he
should voluntarily run down the prices
of everything he had to sell, so that 1t
consumed his whole crop to pay his
debt incurred in the spring, when, II he
behaved rightly and kept up the prices,
he might pay his debts and have halt
his crops for surplus. Would you not
cav he was a fooli Well, that is exact
Iy wha. the Republican party has been
doing for the people of the United
states. What is the result' You see
il in Maine, and from what you sec In
Maine YOU may judge of what the re-
suits are in the rest of the country.
Are YOU prosperous Are you growing
rich day by day, or are yen living OIL
the proceeds of your past laborsl 1t
you are not prosperous, why not Your
skies are bright, your ground is fertile,
your air is pure, your men are indus
trious, your women are thrifty-why Is
it that the wall of distress goes up from
all over this State of Maine, and that
poyerty and wretchedness find their
way into homes where before there was
nothing but luxury and comfortf Why
is it that your agricultural interests arc
so depressed Why is it that your
taxes consume such an enormous
amoant of ysur yearly SUPPLY Why
is il that your harbors are deserted and
your shipyards desert wastei Why,
the answer lies before you, so that the
wayfaring man or the fool may not err
therein. You cannet build your ships
because every article that enter into
their construction is taxed so high that
the British colonies undersell you al
ways. You cannot employ labor, be-
cause labor is compelled to pay these
taxes, and the bone and sinew and
blood of men cannot work and pay
taxes and be neither fed nor clothed
You cannot carry our Western produce
to other countries, because when we
have paid eur labor and taxes and trans.
portation there is nothing left to send
abroad. You cannot carry the Southern
produce because under Radical recon.
struction farmers have been converted
into politicians, and cotton, rice, sugar,
have ceased to be the staples. A gar
den has been turned into a desert. A
| liberal system is the life of your com
merce, as it is the hope of your indus
try; yet the tariffs must be kept high
to pay interest on our public debt, and
the daily expenses incurred by Republi'
can policy, and while it skins the rich
alluviam of our fertile valleys to make
the sterile rocks and barren coasts OF
Massachusetts, to smile, it destroys your
shipping and palsies your industry that
her manufacturers may be protected
have stated to you that the last official
report of the Secretary of the Treasury
shows the debt to be s., ,633, ,5S5, ,756; OF
this amount Sl,5S3, 10000 are in five
twenty bonds. l maintain that these
bonds are payable in legal-tender notes
The law under which they are issued
expressly declares that the lsgal-ten,
ders are payable for every debt due
from the Government except interest
| op tha npbli, daht The honls saw they
are payable in legal-tender notes. Sen
ater Sherman says so. Senator Morton
says so. Thaddeus Stevens says so. The
Funding bill says so. The Democratic
conventions of Pennsylvania, Ohio, In
diana, Illinois, Missouri, Wisconsin, 10
wa, Minnesota, and Michigan sayIso. Tht
Democratic Convention of Maine say,
so. The great council of the Democra
tic party at New York says so. A yea
ago, when l asserted this theory, hat
opposition enough to justify an argu
ment. Now have not. do not know