The States and Union. [volume] (Ashland, Ohio) 1868-1872, 1869-07-21
Reputation

The Republican leaders prate a good
deal about the public faith and the
redemption of United States Bonds
in gold and silver. The apprehension
of reputation, causes them to quail
with holy horror. The Plain Dealer
remarks
s'The Republican press have again
commenced the cry of Reputation
against the Democratic party, and APP
pear determined to force that issue
upon the people. They seem to think
that the bondholders and New Eng
land manufacturers were created es-
pecially to lord it over the rest OF man
kind, and with their feet upon the
necks of the tax payers, force them to
take the bread fom the mouths of
their wives and children and turn it
into gold for their benefit. They over
look the fact that nine-tenths of the
community, composing the industrial
and laboring classes, without respect
to party, borne down as they are by
the oppressive and almost unNearablc
weight of taxation, are becoming res
tive under the Ra1ical policy which
compels them to labor day and night
to raise money to pay taxes for the
benefit of men whose capital is locked
up in Government bonds, totally eX-
empt from taxation. We should think
that the small class of persons who
hold the Government bonds would be
Il little bashful about bringing this
question prominently before the PEG
pie in a political canvass. There l.
not the least doubt but that the great
danger of reputation lies in In South
and the following from the Rochester
Union should be well weighed and con
lsidercd by those most Interested II
says:
That section has no interest what
ever in the payment of the war debt.
1t has been impoverished ny the ST ug-
gle which created the debt-impOver
ished not alone by the natural waste
and causalties of war, but also by the
resulting consequence Of a de truct.o
of hundreds of millions of dollars OF
property in its peculiar institution,
and an overthrow Of the Republican
form of government established in its
States by the fathers of the revolution
But beyond this its loyal people whose
property was taken by the command
ers-ride the Sue Murphy claim, which
was made a test case-for public Use,
are by Congress denied the compensa-
ton guaranteed to them in the con
stitution. Now the claims of those
loyal men and IN at the South are
in law and in equity just as valid
against the government of the United
States as the claims of any man hold
ing a federal bond. The only differ
ence between the two classes Of debts
is that one is acknowledged and inter
est paid uron it in gold, and property
in it is exempted from taxation, while
the other is r~epudidted. And what
makes this rejection of loyal southern
claims lore unjust if possible, more
CALLING toloyaI Southern creditors GER
tainly, is the fact hat the Congress
which repudiates them is so constitu-
tuted that the National Bank Presi-
dents, Directors, sc, in it control its
action by virtue of their majority on
the majority side-is, in other words,
the creature and servant of those who
own the recognized or bonded debt.
The danger is that the South will be
I unit for reputation when that ques-
ion comes ~squarely before the coun-
try, as it is likely to come through the
folly of the bondholders
1t will "go," Reputation without
distinction OF party, as the Radical
tSoutheln Senators gave the country
most unequivocally to understand last
winter, when the Sue Murphy claim
was under discussion, unless the debts
due loyal Southerners were audited
and paid. The Southern men popu-
farly called "rebels" Will have no
conjunction of conscience to restrain
them from reputation. The loyalists
will have every possible justification
and pr~ovocation to r~epudiate. And
our colored fellow citizens of African
descent, al hough they fought so brave
ly in the war, are according to the
code of plantation ethics which gov
erned their early education, repudia-
tionists upon principle. These three
classes are the political power OF the
South. They form the leven of repu-
diation which the bondholders have to
bear.
Under this view of the subject the
shortest and simplest way of getting
rid of the question of reputation, is
for the bondholders to come down
gracefully, except the situation, re-
ceive their interest in the same kind of
money which the laboring man is
compelled to receive for his days work.
the farmer for his products, the mer-
chant for his goods, and the soldiers
widow for her pension, and submit
their boarded wealth to taxation for
the support of the Government that
protects them in their persons and
property, in the same manner il which
the poor mans little house and lot are
taxed. If they do this we will hear
nothing more of reputation"