The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1870-04-07

more than two. a5 lsr5q r.
If the sons of toll and moderate
means could afford their lives and the
widowhood and orphanage of their
homes for the supremacy of the
Union, how much more could the
masters of wealth afford to divide
their substance and give of their
abundance in the same great cause!- =
The duty of the citizen is in proper
tion to the protection which ne re-
ceives. The capitalist has the benefit
of the government more than the
humble laborer, who has little to be
guarded by the law. To the bond
holder much had been given. The
government in its prosperity had fos-
tered him with its blessings; he had
become by its nurture as one of the
splendor, and over all his gains and
accumulations the government held a
sleepless guardianship and assured
him the enjoyment of his wealth in
safety. But when the deadly peril of
dissolution came upon us no senti-
ment of gratitude to that govern
meIit, no generous or just recognition
of its protecting hand animated the
hard and bitter selfishness of boarded
capital. 1t relied upon the people to
uphold a cause of more absolute VAL
ue to it than to any other interes,.9
Hearts bounding, with warm affec-
tions and brains filed with visions of
peaceful and happy years, sprang up
from every little spot, from away up
in the dark pines of Maine to the far
off mouth of the Columbia river, and
gave all that God enabled them to
give. They were taken and the bro
kers of the nations credit were left.
The throbbing- pulse is still land the
bright eye is dark; but above and
around the graves of heroes who died
for glory and not for gain, specula-
ton is busy reaping its double har-
vest from the halloWed blood which
they shed. a -...-..ss} .f,t rs.a
b, But, Mr.. Chairman, there is another
feature in the creation of the national
debt which demands consideration in
this connection. The system of fla
grant injustice which / have thus far
exposed, has its final fitting climax
I have shown the enormous specula-
ton made in the purchase of the
bonds, a, clear profit of over fifteen
hundred millions. I haye demonstra-
ted that this vast sum is absolutely SO
much out of the pockets of the peo-
pie for nothing ever paid out of the
pockets of the bondholder, But was
greed and cunning and malignant iay-
arice content with this stupendous
plunder? Did shame, or remosse, or
honor, or forbearance seize the obdu-
rate heart of the capital and arrest it
in its. career of mereiless exactioni?-
Did the nature of Shylock. relent, or
the edge of his knife grow dull when
the consideration of his bond was
rendered ltwo-fold in the Venetian
court? Not so.5 There was one more
blow to be struck at the victim, there
was one stab to be inflicted upon the
helpless cause of labor. The usurer
with all his gains, his bonus, and his
usuries, still withheld his money from
the aid of his government until its
bonds where placed in his hands as SO
much property exempt by law from
taxation. The advantages which. he
took of the necessities of the govern
ment not only doubled his estate, but
released it also from all future bur-
dens in its support. This wrong up
of their other injuries in this, connec-
ton, that it is difficult to speak of it
in terms of moderation. 1t is cry
ing, burning, infamy. Taxation stalks
up and down all the land with hum
CRY, rayishing strides, like some fam
ished beast of prey, and commits its
ravages on every substance save that
which is richest 1t pursues every
footstep and haunts all the humble
and obscure ways and wants of the
people. 1t knows no sleep nor rest
from WEAKNESS or surfeit. Its hard,
tithing hand is laid on every momen
of hfe's journey, from the children
born to toll and of toiling parents, to
their graves in the closing twilight of
old age. There is no sign on the door
posts Of the poor to guard away the
angel of extortion from their homes.
The tax-gatherer is as even present as
the breath of the pestilence when cit
les and nations "wail its stroke" He
goes with the husbandman to the
counter of the merchant. and there
gathers in for the bondholder on eve
ry purchase made for the necessities
of family. The shirtings, the fan
nels, the calicoes, the muslins, the de-
LANES, the bonnets, the hose, the cas-
simeres, the cassinettes, the boots, the
shoes, the buttons, the thread, the
needles, the pins, the hooks and eyes,
and the eyelets, have all been taxed
from forty to two hundred per cent,
and the amount paid upon them has
been put in their price for the con-
sumer finally to pay. The collector
of revenue walks by the side the far
mer in his daily labor and reaps a
golden income for the holders of a
spurious debt, from the plowshare, the
hoe, the sickle, the scythe, the reaping
machine, and the mower; the
wrought-iron finish of the wagon, the
chains, the clasps, the buckles, and the
bride bits of the harness; the iron
teeth of the harrow, the grain shov-
els, and the shoes on the horses feet.
He goes into the shop of the mechan-
ic and puts a two-fold tariff price on
the saws, the augers, the knives, the
planes, the anvils, the hammers, the
tongues and all the utensils of those
who work in wood, and brass and
iron. He sits down at meal time with
the laborer at his table and points out
to him that his knife and fork and his
unpretending plates have cost him
double because of the bondholder's
demand upon them before they came
into use. The coffee, sugar, and tea
at this frugal board, have paid their
twenty-five to fifty per cent. to the
government, and the very salt that
savors the bread and meat of the peo-
pie, and the coal which warns their
humble abodes are enhanced in their
prices by the present system of tariff
taxation from one hundred to one
hundred and twenty-five per cent.
over their real intrinsic value. Wa
ter itself, the flowing fountain of life,
without which human nature sickens
and dies, is not free. The pump with
its machinery, the windlass with its
chains that control the wells, and the
buckets which come and go from the
springs, and the cups from which |
thirst is at last quenched, all stand |
their levy of an eXorbitant per cent. |
Nor in this Unsuitable system any re-