The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1868-08-20
An Appeal 20 the Neral Sense Of she
People.

An Appeal TO the Moral Sense Of she
People.
1T is certain that many Republicans over
look the importance of maintaining the firm
est possible front in opposition to reputation.
They overlook the fact that it can be made
clearly to appear that thing is utterly
wrong moralin, no matter what its effects on
material well being may be, so large m aior-
ity OF the people will unite against it as vir-
tuallv to secure unanimity. Demaeogues
suppose that the bread and butter question is
paramount in popular estimation to all 9th
ers. Nonsense! They reason from their
stomachs and not from their heads, and so
reasoning they ignore the most obvious facts
of history and philosophy. OF all the
great events in the history of the race not
one in ten thousand has had its origin in an
idea of immediate material good. Peo-
pie have and always will have their natures
most thoroughly aroused on abstract ques-
tions OF ri! ht and wrong, it being an i1ea
firmly implanted in mans nature that IN the
right solution of those questions their well
fare depends. Much the Union soldier going
Southwark with his musket to lay down his
life for his iatherlaLd was moved thereto by
considerations of the bread and butter kind!
There are those who iell us that the DEM
ocrats are making great impressions "upon
the masses" by bidding Tor their support with
the various phases OF repudiation-taking
them by thousands with the different species
OF rpudiatiOn bait. Such men don't know
"the Masses" The masses, aggregations OF
individuals, are as capable OF dislnterested
feeling and action as individuals themselves.
We believe that the Democrats, before this
campaign is over, will lose thousands by this
contempt for moral ideas and this very action
predicated upon the assumed low moral con-
dition of the people. The plank in the
the others is that which pledges the party to
keep the national faith unsullied. The case
against those who would violate il is 50
strongly presented in the following extract
from an article in the New York Nation that
ii it could be universally read and under
stood the man who should thereafter prate of
payment in greenbacks would be regarded
as felon: i"H Aa"- w
The persons, of whatever party, who now
call for payment in greenbacks, in defiance of
the declarations of the government agents,
are not entitt d to hearing, for the simple |
reason that their failure to speak sooner is
presumptlve evidence either OF their stupid
ity or dishonesty. 1t they remained silent
during the whole period of the contraction
OF loans from inability to perceive the mis-
chiet which the declarations OF the repre-
sentatives OF tie government were working.
they must be too obtuse to make their opin-
ions OF the slightest value. If they remain
ed silent wilfuily, well knowing that the gov
ernnent agents were raising expectations
which they were not authorized to raise, and
that the payment in coin was not intended
by Congress, they simply connived at an
odiOus fraud, and their present protests are
simply proofs OF their monstrous impudepce.
In tact, their appearance on the scene now,
when the money has all been paid in and
spent, to put new Interpretation on the
contract, before the bonds are payable, is one
OF the most remarkable exhibitions within
our knowiedge OF moral callousness on q
great scale 1t is hard to say whether their
speaking now or Their having previously held
their peace IS the moe dscreuitable.
There is no other consideration with re-
gard TO 1.-The letter OF the aw''wheh deserves
more cons .deratiOn than IL has yet received.
"Ihe letter OF the law" is, after all, letter only
so many words, covering so much paper
To make it OF any value as a rule OF conduct,
it has had an Interpretation put on it; and in
iact, the only difference between 1.-The letter"
and the spirit" OF law lies in the mode OF
Interpretation. "Tbe letter oil the law" is, in
other words, the law strictly construed; 1.-The
spirit OF the law" is the law broadly con-
strued; but construction you must have in
both cases, and construction by some consti-
tuted authority. Admitting, for sake of ar
guinent, that the acts OF Congress creating the
loans are real laws, and that 1.-The letter of
the law" ought to govern the manner of re-
paying the loans, the question, What does
''the letter of the law prescribe ?" remains
stiil undecided. And who IS to decide it?
There are two parties to the controversy
about the terms OF the loan the borrowers
and the lenders; and il the acts be laws, there
ought to be Indifferent person or persons
Competent to interpret them. 10 say that
when creditor and debtor disagree as 70 the
meaning oil tie law under which they have
framed their contract, that one oil them which
happens to be the stronger may inter pret the
law to suit himself, and the other is bound
by his decision, is simply preposterous; and
yet this is precisely what the repud iators,
both Republican and Democratic, do ssy.-
They proclaim loudly that the very party