The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1869-02-25
Shall We be Driven to Reputation?

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is ugly in its look, in its meaning and in its
associations. 1t is tainted with falsehood,
and rank with treachery. 1t means bank
ruptcy, dishonor and moral death. To the
individual it is disgrace, to the nation it
is shame.
But the terms of language are in their
nature convertible. Ideas only are perma-
nent. The vocabulary is full of words that
by curious combinations of circumstances
have changed and even reversed their mean
ings. Words of reproach have become IL
ties of honor and terms of renown. Habit
ually call rogue an honest man, and you
degrade the word until it becomes reproach-
full, and upright men will shun it. Habit
ually call an upright man rogue, and the
sting Of the epithet is taken away, and it
will come to be said 6 If he be rogue,
then is roguery not dishonorable." When
the Netherlands, goaded by injustice and
cruel oppression, rose against the formida-
BILE power of Philip of Spain, they were
called, in allusion to their poverty of means,
Beggars. They adopted the term, and said
- We are beggars-but we are right"
And they fought on through long and dis
astrous years, till their own right arms
gave them victory, and the beggars became
masters, and the proud Spaniards were re-
duced to beg.
So the radical plunderers in Congress are
doing all in their power to make respecta-
BILE the term Reputation. The terms "hon-
or" and =" sacred obligation" so often quot
ed in connection with our national debt,
are, by the action of these harpies, made
to stink ia the nostris Of the nation They
are wrenched away from their true mean
ing, and made cloak to cover robbery and
oppression of the most daring kinds. The
public debt, under which the country groans,
is being yearly increased to enrich the re-
cipients of corruption at Washington.
Railroad rings, whisky rings, public land
rings, contract rings,-all truly loyal-are
sucking the very life blood of the country.
Mr.. McCullock, in his report for 1867,
drew a very pretty picture which was much
admired at the time. He figured reduc-
of the debt during 1868, amounting to
S24,000,000. And he projected this entic-
ing picture into the future, and showed the
extinguishment of the debt in seventeen
years! Instead of this, we have realized
an actual increase of thirty-two millions
Garry this fact into the future seventeen
years, as the Secretary was carrying his
very pretty picture-and where shall we be
The Omnibus Railroad bill, so called,
now before Congress, is specimen brick
from this radical edifice. 1t proposes to
guarantee the regular payment of the in
terest on the bonds of five Pacific Railroads,
for thirty years, to the total amount of
a guarantee is always a contingent promise
to pay the whole. And it is safe to say
that this scheme is substantially to increase
the public debt by just this amount. How
much Of this sum goes to swell the boards
of Congressman may be conjectured.
Another source of shameless and bare
faced robbery is the high tariff. Ths old
protectionists, Of the Henry Clay school,
contended only for tariff for revenue, with
such incidental protection to home indus
tries as might thereby be afforded But it
was the revenue that went into the Golfers
of the government that was the main OBJ
ject. 1t is 1t familiar maxim to all who
study these matters-the very A, B, c. of
political economy,-tha the high duties do
not produce the largest revenues. A tariff
may be so high as to be prohibitory, and
keep out entirely the articles on which it is
laid. Then the home producer puts his
commodities where he pleases, and pockets
enormous profits. This process cheats the
people in two ways. They have to be tax
ed for the duty which a reasonable duty
would produce, and they pay the enormous
profit asked on the article when they pur
chose. The tariff laws are full of article,
that pay from one hundred to one thousand
per cent The duty on copper has recent,
been raised enormously to make monopo
, ly on the Lake Superior mines, and to take
money from the pockets of the Maine shi,
owners. Salt, that article of the first i'm
portance to civilized communities, is take,
enormously to enrich the owners of tn
. monopoly at Syracuse. The same is tru
of hundred articles on the list. Manu-
facturers like Sprague are enabled to con
troll the Legislation of Congress for thei
own selfish purposes, and to enrich them
, selves from the sweat and toll of the people
These are but few of the many burnin.
. wrongs inflicted on the laboring classes O
, this country by their enemies in high places
who riot in luxury and idlcness. The peo
pie are wearying Of this endless fraud an,