Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1869-01-12

n
Democratic journal, the Iff6ua,
would have pOunced upon it, say
the St Louis Republican, with grea
vigor and alacrity as ga Copperhea(
lie" designed to mislead the PEG
pie and steal votes for Seymour anG
Blair. Now that the election is over
the Radical candidates successful
and "the cohesive power of public
plumber" consolidated for the mex
four years, the Tribune, and its
political associates elsewhere, are
magnanimous enough to tell the
truth, Coming from such an sun
conditionally Loyal source, this truth
has a peculiarly sharp point to it
especially at the present time when
the commercial interests of the
country are PROSTATE, and business
men standing with folded arms star,
ing prospective bankruptcy in the
face. We have then, according to
the President elect and his Chicago
mouth-piece, "a national debt
equaling twelve, per cent of the
total property of the United States. -
which, with taxes for national,
State and municipal purposes, con-
sumes one quarter of the income of
the people AS an additional en-
phasis to this startling exhibit, the
last financial statement of the Sec
rotary of the Treasury informs US
that this debt, so far from being di-
unfinished during the past year, has
actually been increased thirty nil
lions of dollars. If Jay Cooks
theory be true, that ga national debt
is a national blessing" the swelling
proportions of our "blessing" GER
tainiy call for another day of thanks
giving, which we respectfully re-
commend Congress to appoint at the
earliest practicable moment. But we
have no desire to enlarge upon this
unpleasant theme. Enough for US
TO know that we are saddled with a
load which the child of the young
est child living may never see re-
moved and that this load weighs
lRe an incubus upon every branch
of productive industry in the land,
and is destined to grind down the
laboring classes of the Republic I'M
til they reach the miserable level
now occupied by their toiling bretL-
rem in the old world. As the intel
ligent citizen looks at this vast and
growing debt, overshadowing like
the deadly upas tree the expanding
energies ola nation not yet a centu-
ry old; as he watches its effects, no
less perniciOus than inevitable upon
individuals as well as the communi-
ty: as he realises that, although
nominally free, every house, every
foot Of soil, every dollars worth OF
property within our borders is
mortgdged for the payment of this
debt, he may well ask himself
"What have we got for il"
There are some things so precious.
50 utterly Indispensable TO the happi-
ness and prosperity of a people that
no price, however high, is too great
to secure them. Liberty regulated
10y law, and all those elements which
go to make up the essence of civil
and religious freedom are worth
richly worth whatever of blood anC
treasure is necessary to wrench then
from the grasp of tyranny. On
fathers thought SO when they pledged
their lives, their fortunes and thei
sacred honor in desperate conflie
with the first empire on the globe
and history has justified their reso
luton and applapded their success
But what have We of this generation
gained by a war, compared wit
which the revolutionary struggl
dwarfs into a mere skirmish
the constitution preserved intact i
all its original proportions, its IN
sullied purity as bequeathed to u
by its trainers No single par5
graph, no one fundamental prime
pie Of that sacred instrument that ha
not been violated over and over agai
these last eight years. The Dol
announcement of Thad. Stevens tn;
the Radical party was then, had beer
and expected to be " operating on
side the constitution" has passc
, into 4 political proverb which At
4 mits of no dispute. The cOnstitu
c ton was suspended by the late l.
5 mented Nc Lincoln, and his follow
} ers have suspended it by the nee
r until whatever Of vital force an
= binding authority the venerab
f parchment contained has been etfec
a ually strangled out Of it. With
: fettered Executive, a gagged il
: dietary, and Congress which de
t antly usurps the functions of bot
$ these coordinate branches of Il
+ government, our organic law is !
It ready dead enough to justify
prompt and perpetual burial. AS
y controlling and protectingpower,
It a bulwark against the encroachmen
d of advancing despotism, the const
r. tuition Of the United States has vi
l. tually ceased to exist.
e Is the Union restored? WheI
e Where: Ten sovereign Stat
III nr.L, nL;. IL IL. d..