The Bedford gazette. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1805-current, 1868-08-14

upon which the credit of the country
has been wrecked. Our remedy is to
use the public money to pay the pub
lie debt. 1t is a simple, brief, but
q certain remedy for our national NAL
ady. Our ailment is debt, aggravated
by despotism.
But we see that the War Department
this year spent sl28, 1856, ,466, when the
year before it spent only about s95, ,0OO,-
600. The longer we have peace the
more the army costs. How is this p
Well, it costs great deal to keep SOL
diers and Freedmen's Bureau agents,
and to feed and clotbe negroes at the
South. But why do you do it? Let
the negroes support themselves as we
do. You make the laborers of the
South work to feed aad clothe these
idle Africans. True, bat by so doing
we get their votes, and they will send
our travelling agents to Congress we
shall get twenty Senators in this way,
while a majority of the people of the
United States, living in nine States,
have only eighteen. The people nay
vote as they please, but they cannot
get the Senate nor repeal any Of the
laws we got through for our advan-
tage; we have managed it so that one
quarter Of the people have more power
in the South than the three-quarters.
We now own the negroes of the South.
Did we not buy them by your blood
and money? We now see where the
money goes we now see why the cred
it of our country is SO tainted; we now
see why the value Of our paper money
is sinking. 1t was only at twenty-One
per cent. discount in 1866 it is now at
a discount of about thirty-one per cent.
We now see why our laborers and pen
siOners are cheated by false dollars. If
the mechanic cares to know why he
works so many hours, let him study
the reports of the Secretary Of the
Treasury. 1t is clear why business is
is hindered and business men perpleX-
cd. We now know why the public
creditor is harassed by our dishonOred
credit, and the taxpayer is hunted
down by the tax-gatherer.
IHe Negro Policy the Cause Of Tncation
and PeRury.
The negro military policy of the Re-
publican party is at the bottom of all
these troubles. We now get at the
real issue between parties. The Re
publicans, by their nominations and
resolutions, are pledged to keep up the
negro and military policy, with all its
cost and taxation. These will be
greater hereafter. The government Of
the South is to go into the hands of
the negroes. We have said they are
unfit to be voters at the North. The
RepubIicanssay they shall be governors
at the South. We are clearly opposed to
this policy. We have seen how much
it costs the taxpayer, the bondholder,
and the laborer in the past three years.
1t will be as hurtful in the future. We
have also seen how our policy of using
the money to pay our debts would have
helped the taxpayer, the bondholder
and the laborer in the past. 1t will
do as much in the future. The whole
question is brought down to this clear
point: Shall we use our money to
pay our debts, relieve the taxpayer,
make our money good in the hand of
the laborer or pensioner, and help the
bOndhOlGer? or shall we use it to keep
up military despOtism, feed idle ne
groes, break down the Judiciary,
the Executive and destroy all
rights? Cries of ''No!
now
The discount upon our paper money
was tWenty-one per cent. i'll April,
1866; it is now about thirty-one per
cent. 1t will continue to go down
under the same policy. As it sinks it
will curse all labor and business, it will
endanger still more the public credit,
for the greater the premium on gold
the harder it becomes to pay specie to
the bondholder, and its claims become
more odious. What claim have the
upon our soldiers? They
take away from him one-quarter of his
pension by paying him in false money,
which is worth less than seventy-iive
cents on the dollar. A wise and hon
est administration would have made
it worth its face in gold. What right
have they to call upon the mechanic
and laborer? They have heightened
Out the hours of their toll to feed
swarms Of office-holders at the North,
and to support armiesand hOrdes ofne-
groes at the South. How can they look
the taxpayers in the face, when they
have wrung from them SO many nymilliOns
upon the preteXtthat the debt compell-
ed them to do 50, while they were
using the money thus collected to sup
port standing armies and to trample up
on the rights and liberties of the Amer
lean people? Can they, with decency,
appeal to the bondholder, after tainting
the national credit and sinking it to
the level of the Turks and endanger-
ing their securities, by throwing upon
them the whole odium of taxation?
Their let the East and West, the North
and the South, the soldier, the sailor,
in ships or in the field, the taxpayer,
and the bondholder, by one united eff
fort, drive from power the common
enemies of liberty, honesty, honor,
right, and constitutional law. Loud
applause.