The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1869-01-21
Who are RepudiatOrs3

ate the public debt. Although there is not
particle of evidence upon which to rest the
charge-aithough no Democratic State Con-
ven.ion, nor any member of the Democratic
party enjoying its confidence, has ever sane
toned or approved the doctrine-yet the
shameless libel is still repeated, as though it
were founded on fact. For year previous
to the meeting of the National Democratic
Convention at New York, aud when it Was
deemed highly probable that George H. Pen
dleton would re :eive the nomination for the
Presidency, the Radical press of the country,
with concerted movement, charged that
gentleman with being the advocate of repu-
dating the obligations of the government
No charge was ever more InfounGed or I'M
just. In all his utterances Mr.. Pendleton
uniformly declared that when the bond of
the government. as for instance the ten forty
bonds, stipulated on its face, or when the
law authorizing its issue provided for its
payment in gold, payment of it must be
made in gold, and in no other manner. But
where neither the bond, as is the case with
the fve~twenty bonds, the law under
which it was issued, specified that it should
be paid in gold, then it might and should be
| paid in greenbacks, which is the lawful cur
rercy Of the country for the payment of all
debts public and private except interest On
the national debt and duties on foreign i'm
ports.
! And in this view Of the question Mr.. Pen
dleton was sustained by the Radical party
in all the western aud northwestern States.
All the Radical candidates for Congress in
those States adopted the greenback theory
the Radical State Convention of Indiana
planted itselfsquarely on the PeEdleton plat
form; Senator Morton of that State, the
ablest man of the party, and Senator Sher-
man of Ohio, both recognized it; Gen But
Ter advocated it, while Thaddeus Stevens
declared that any man who contended for
the payment Of the five-twenty bonds in gold
was either knave or a {, ,ol, or perhaps both.
In order t. test the sincerity'.of the Radical
party on the question Of paying the principal
of fve-twenty bonds in gold. Mr.. Edmunds,
! Radical member of the United States Senate
! from Vermont. offered a resolution in that
body last summer declaring it to be the sense
| of Congress that the bonds should be paid in
| gold. That resolution remains unacted on
10 this day, and although its author has on
several occasions threatened to press it to
vote, he has never done SO, and We predict
that his Radical friends in the Senate will
never permit hin. to do so.
But our object in commencing this article
was to direct attention to another aspect of
the question of reputation, which is ntt gen
orally understood, and which shows the utter
duplicity of the Radical party in reference
to it. On the 18th of June, 1910, when
David r. Porter was Governor Of this State,
the Legislature, which was largely Demo-
cratic, passed an act requiring the interest
on the State debt to be paid an specie or its
equiUaIent. Tine provisions of that law were
strictly complied with by the State Treasurer
through all the subsequent administrations
of the State govern ments until 1864. An
drew G.. Curtin was then Governor of the
State, and the Legislature was intensely
loyal. That Legislature, in opposition to
the unanimous voice of the Democratic mem
bers and the earnest protest of Democratic
State Treasurer, passed the following act re-
peoLing the law Of 1910 and providing for
the payment of the interest on the State
debt in greenbackS, then at fearful discount:
BE 1t en0cted by the Senate and House of
Representatives., &c, an General Assen,6iy
met, That so much of an act approved the
18th day of June, 1910. as required the in
terest on the pIblic oebt of this Common
wealth to be paid in specie or its equivalent,
be and the same is hereby repealed; and
that the said interest shall be pad by the
State Treasurer, as the same shall hereafter
fall due, in such notes as have been or shall
hereafter be declared by any law of the Uni
ted States to be lawful money and legal
tender in payment of debts, public and pri-
vate, within the United States -
Here was an act of plain, undsguised re-
pudiation perpetrated by Radical Legisla-
ture. Under the provisions OF this law the
interest on the State debt is now paid in
greeubacks. The effect of this is that cred
itor of the State who is entitled to.receive one
hundred dollars of interest only..gets Sirty.tUe
that being the difference between the rela-
tive value of geld aud greenLacks. We have
thus in our own State a swndling act of
Assembly, fastened upon us by Radical
Legislature, which openly cheats her credit
ors and is foul blot on the fair name and
credit of our Commonwealth In view of
this fact how serenely impudent is it in this
reckless party, which has thus debauched
the financial virtue of Pennsylvania, to prate
about the sanctity of solemn coptract.-
The Democratic party of the State can look
the public creditor in the face, and in reply
TO his well founded denuuciations of viola
ted contract and dishonored obligation, ex-
claim. Thou canst not say did it,"
The PHILA DELHHIA PATRIOT is the title
OF a new Democratic journal recently estab-
iished in the city of 'Brotherly Love-" and
that it will prove successful enterprise is
evident from the fact that it is in every re-
spect worthy of success. 1t is'a large eight
PACED paper, and every column is filed with