The national Republican., 1868-12-03
The Pollard MurderNwbat Il DeveI.
opcs-The Resumption Of specie
Payments.

| The Pollard uMur0er-What IL DeveI-
opcs-The Resumption Of specie
Payments.
December 2, 1865.
To THE REPUBLICAN, There appears to DO
no division Of sentiment on the part Of the
press concerning the recent murder Of Pollard,
Of Richmond the editor and publisher Of one
Of the vilsst papers that havo disgracsd the
history Of tho American press treasonsbie,
mendseiou', and licentious newspaper in its
every attribute. write. not so much Of his
murder, as OF the atrocious demonstration Of
Richmond popular sentiment In sympathy
with deliberate and oowardly assassination, Of
which II was the occasion. While no decent
man alive can Justify Pollard's conduct Of his
Southern Opinion. no community north Of the
Potomac would have sympathizsd with the
perpetrator Of so cowardly murder as that
committed on Pollard BY young Grant.
That Richmond sympsthiIed with It, 10 the
result Of the fact that Its sentiments and
views Of the fitness Of things are based on
the incidents Of slavery. "chivalry" Is wor-
shipped In that tcommunity-not "chivslry" as
written Of by Froissart and other historians Of
the middle ages; but the ''ohivalry" Of funthrift,
ignorance, and brutality; of the bowie.knifs,
quarter.raoing, the grog- shops, and swsat.oloth,
into which that which was possibly admis.
sible in tho beginning OF the fifteenth century,
has degenerated in America In the last half Of
the nineteenth. In England, whore the laws
still protect and pandsr to more or less Of the
elsewhere obsolete ideas Of the middle ages,
that Of Its "ehivalry," In the matter Of the
settlement Of private grievances by personal
combat, has at least been done away with
He who kills another thsre in 4 fair duel Is sure
to hang, II caught. In our South, instead Of
being hung by the law, he Is half deiGsd by
society. This vitiated condition OF popular
sentiment Is simply the result Of the influence
Of slavery, in inducing Southern society to dis
dain and reject the progress Of ideas. 1t clinss
to the middle ages notion of the worthless.
ness Of human life, when weighed against
mems conoeits Of their own personal honor
1t clings to the middle ages practice Of vindi'
eating ones personal wrongs BY private ven
geance.
That custom was originally the result Of
the insecurity Of personal rights in the dark
ages-in the times whom laws and courts were
powerless to redress injuries perpetrated by
: the powerful. Yet at no previous time in the
: worlds history did such community as that o
: Richmond justify and applaud deliberate AMI
cowsrdly assassination, even in vindicatioi
II of an alleged family wrong. In truth
Richmond has yet to be educated-to be hu
manizsd and Christianizsd.
T. Il r. al
" Is the increased aud increasing public in
~ terest In the question Of the resumption o
specie payments The newspapers Of all sec
~ tions ofthe Union are olamoring for IL, and wit
" numerous public men are already foreshsdow
> ing plans to consummate II. All this tell
u simply Of the rapidity with which the coun
: try's enterprise and energy are riddins US o
tho disabilities Of the late war. Besides tn
= Thousands Of millions spent by tho Govern
70 ment and paid for by tho people, three thou
: sand millions were also spent by the Govern.
ment in the prosecution Of the war that have
not been paid for. The current national debI
. !. represents this last-mentioned expenditure
It is fair to estimate that the war also cost
individual citizens, North and South, quite ai
much as 1t cost the national Treasury. Thus
every dollar 1t cost the so.called Confsderat,
Government-noarly,i II not quite, as much Al
IT na.t Anra- 80. -h-.---A-i- -H----"S--.-S "
millions worth Of property was destroyed
, wherever armies operated-in some case
necessarily, In others wautonly. So ]
o do not write eItravagantIy in estimating
that the late attempt to destroy our Unio,
cost US as nation at least twelve thousand
millions Of dollars from frst to last, and from
Canada to the Rio Grande. By that sum, a
' least, was our national ability to carry ou
4 three thousand millions of war debt dimin
a ished when Lee surrendered. Already, ant
|. without any Government or concerted indi
i. vidual efforts to prepare for tho resumption Q
n specie payments, we have been rapidly pre-
4, gress'ng towards that SO desirable end; unit
10 gold Is worth far less now, comparatively
ID with Government currency, than when th
d war ended Every conceivable combinatio
10 that speculators In gold could institute I
keep up its relative value has been essayeG
"a all In vain, however. The country's wonder
4. full resources have proved an over. match 70
r. both the oxhausting calamitiss of the war an
1t the ohioanery Of the Spectators In gold. A
OF aN P'e''oeo taV uaNo tuVso IesOurCeb Dcen nc
b. completing as much towards bringing abou
" resumption Of specie payments as at present
10 All fears Of financial crash likely to involy
10 general individual as we'll as national bank
ruPtey have vanished. Your readers will re
member that for at least two years after Lee
50 surrender the press was crowded with sucl
1t representations. We see none Of them now
n Tho relative value Of the precious metal
j. has also been kept much higher than 1t woulS
l. otherwise have been, by the immense fraud
d perpetrated under our crude and inefIicion
d laws for the collection Of internal revenue
o Had those laws been framed by the light Of
, the experience in such matters of older gov.
' ornments, and executed with the fidelity that
attends the collection Of tho internal reosnuss
Of England and France, 1t is fair to estimate
that our GoVernment's means Of payment
would have been q hundred millions more an.
nuauy than they have been for the last three
years. This increase Of revenue would have
brought our Government issues for money, by
this time. up to par with gold. Were those
issues at par at this moment, specie payments
would be the order Of the day among us, with.
out any direct Government interference what.
ever to that end. / feel confident that great
reforms will be consummatsd by Congress at its