Wyoming democrat. [volume] (Tunkhannock, Wyoming Co., Pa.) 1867-1940, 1868-11-04

travagant appropriation. Enormous ex-
renditures are dema ldad fpr purposes the
accomplishment Of which requires large
standing army, the perversion of the Con.
sti'ntion and the subjngation of the States
to negro domination, with military estab.
lishment costin. in time of peace not less
than 500, 100000 annually, and debt
tue interest upon which draws from the
treasury each year nearly $l50.000,0O0,
making q total of of $350,000,000 tor
those two items of expenditure alone. Re-
trenchment has become an absolute neces-
sity, or bankruptcy must soon overtake us
and involve DE country in its paralysing
and disastrous results. II, however, a wise
economy may be adopted, not merely for
the benefit of few, but in the interest of
all, a revenue would yet remain sufficient
for the administration of the government,
as well as for such public debt would in
few years relieve the people from mil
hons of interest now annually drawn from
their resources.
The idea that the debt is to become per-
manent should be at all times discountc-
nanced as involving taxation too heavy to
be borne and payment of Al amount Of in
terest every sixteen years equal to the
original sum. The gradual liquidation
of the pubic debt would by degrees re-
ieve the large capital invested in the Sc
curities of the government, which, seeking
remuneration in other sources of income,
would add to the wealth Of the nation up
on which it is now so great a drain This
immense debt, if permitted to become per-
manent and increasing, must eventually te
gathered in the hands of Che few and ena-
| ling power in the affairs OF the govern
ment. The debtors would become the
servants of the lenders, the creditors the
masters of the people. II is our boast
that we have given freedom to three mil
| lions of slaves; it will then be our shame
that by their own toleration of usurpaiion
and profigacy forty millions of people have
enslaved themselves and exchanged stock
| holders and tax gatherers.
Hence the vita! whether Con-
! gress and its arbitrary assumptions. of au-
thorlty shall supercede the supreme law OF
the land; whether in time of peace the
country shall be controlled by multitude
of tax collectors and a standing army, the
| one almost as numerous as the other, and
making the debt a permanent burden up
on the productive industry OF the people;
or whether the constitution. with each and
all of its guarantees, shall be sacrcdlv pre-
served; whether now, as in 1889 and 1916,
provision shall be made for the payment of
our obligations at as early a period AS
practicable, that the fruits of their Labor
may be enjoyed by our citizens rather
than used 10 build up and sustain a money
mon opoy AT home and abroad. The con-
test is not merely who shall occupy the
principal offices in the peoples gift, but
whether tie high behests of the Federal
Constitution shall be observed and main
tanned, in order that orr liberty may be
national; fraternal feeling re-estabished,
that our national strength may be renewed;
the expenditures diminished that taxation
may be lightened, and the public debt once
more extinguished, that it may not injuri-
ously affect the life and energy, the pros
| perity and morals of the nation.
Believing that for the redress of these
great wrongs, and the correction of these
many abuses under which the country is
now laboring, we must look to the Ameri-
can people, and that in them is our hope
l am truly your friend,
ANDREW JOHNSON.
To General Thomas Ewing.