The Republican journal., 1869-03-18
Issues not Dead.

made in the late Presidential election are by
no means dead. They viii not die SO long
as truth and right survive. AS principles
they must endure SO long as conscious and
sterling justice confront bitter, burning
wrong. No triumph at the polls. no lease
of power, no customary acquiescence, can
ever reconcile the people Of this country to
the eNtorton and robbery they now endure.
Whether the scheme be newly conceived in
sin and brought forth in iniquity, or hoary
with years, there must ever lie deep down
in the hearts OF the laboring and producing
classes of the country, loatling and ha-
tired OF those cunning schemes by which they
are robbed with so much regularity and pre-
cision
| We have had recent occasion to allude TO
the copper and salt monopolies, passed thro'
| Congress in q way which creates more than
suspicion that members are pecuniarily
interested in the increased price which these
articles will bring as & consequence. The
power of National Banks il Congress is
now claiming attention. These institutions
have gained a footlold there which enable
them to form ring, and log-roll with other
monopolies until its ends are answered.
More than sixty directors in National Banks
hold seats in the House of Representatives
being two-thirds Of the quorum. These
sixty have only to combine to pass or defeat
any measure. When the money power of
the country is also its Legislative power can
there be any question how the people must
fare:
Mack, the well known correspondent of
the Cincinnati Press, lets a flood of light
on this subject in recent letter. He says
| "Of the seven members of the Committee on
Banking and Currency, two are bank presi-
dents, four bank directors, and five are
largely Interested in banks by the ownership
Of stock. 1t never seems to have occurred to
any of these gentlemen tnat there is q statute
in force which forbidS any Member or Senator
to vote on a question in which he is personally
i interested. They have not only voted but con
| trolled the votes of others in every measure
relating to the National Banks. Then, we have
| the Pacific Railroad Committee, of which Mr..
Cakes Ames, OF Massachusetts, who owns three
millions Of stock in the road, is the leading
member in the House; and, as for the Senate
and its Pacific Railroad Committee it is the
most utterly corrupt concern that ever dis
| graced legislation. The Senate Is quite as bad
as the House in this particular. Mr.. Sherman,
| the chairman of the Finance Committee, is a
large stakeholder in a bank at Mansfield, and,
perhaps, in others elsewhere. Nearly every
member Of his committee Is bound like him by
the ties of peCuniary interest to these swind-
ling institutions. And the result of it is, that
the people are robbed TO keep up the National
Bank circulation and to sustain the most cor
rupt banking system ever devised on EARTH
That is said Of the Congress which ex-
pired on March 18th. The new one is the
same, only more SO, and will continue the
same oppressive legislation, until the people
rise in their wrath and drive them from
power.
f. A. Pike, the late radical representa-
tive from this District, said in a speech de-
livercd Feb. 18th, in speaking Of the dis
orders and Inconsistencies in finance
One set Of creditors is paid in one currency
and another in an inferior one. Taxes which
were paid cheerfully during the war became
burdensome when assessed year after year dur
i ing peace, and diScontents, out of which may
arise strong and controlling support for I'M uri-
Gus financial heresies, are not improbable.
In addition to this continual cause of uneasi-
ness is the fact that state of financial disor-
der is always profitable for the capitalist. For
tunes were never made S o rapidly in Wall street
as since the suspension in 1861 and all over
the country capital is reaping an enormous
harvest. The national banking system is prof
table beyond all president. No returns have
been made of the dividends paid, but it is be-
4 lieved that the whole immense capital of the
national banks is earning an average of twenty
per cent. clear of all expenditure and taxation
This state of things will continue as long as
suspension continues. But it cannot be we'll
for the productive labor of the country to pay
such enormous gains to capital; and if Con-
gress consents to prOongation of the reign
of these money gods, diScontentS more or less
noisy must prevail.
This is radical testimony from member
of Congress about to retire to private life,
and who doubtless knows whereof he af-
firms.
As we said at the outset, the financial
principles on which the Democracy fought
out .HO Iato SailIPdiSd aIG lOt uedu. Lucy
are gaining in strength and vigor day by
day, as the wrongs Of an opposite course
become more and more apparent. 1t is not
F in the nature Of things that the people O.
! this country shall not understand their rights
after such sharp lessons as they are rece iv
ing. And when the political forces again
meet in the field, unless by some new device
/ bank shares are permitted to vote, money
} bags and legislative corruption will 90 to
the wall.
, The new President is souring some of the Oldest
+ and abest Republicans by his method Of making
appointments. Personal friendship overrides all
other considerations. Amy who has BACKED
the boots of U S. Grant is more certain of favor
than those who have been saints and martyrs in
the cause.