The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1871-09-22

"VIoiShV piOHto CEeulSu 1auCleu wants,
which could bo gratilied at almost any
cost. business was intoxicated with
the excitement of "hush time5.n When
the war ceased these consumers were
rcmitted TO their position of producers.
They needed work. The government
market was instantly closed, and the
only substitute was the demand of
these discharged soldiers and Of the
Impoverished South. The debt, funded
and floating, all had been created under
an increasing currency, and at the high
est prices. Taxation, the amount Of
which was necessarily enormous, must
be paid, every dollar of it, by the earn
lngs Of labor. Now, what was the die
tate of reasOn-I will not say of finan-
cial 1carning-but of plain, common
sense! obviously 1T was to pursue such
Al policy as would foster trade and offer
fair returns for enterprise and Industry
and secure TO activity an ample, gener.
Gus reward, to encourage bold, brave
mon to open up new channels for con-
slant and hopeful labor. This policy
would furnish employment to those
millions of men. Their necessities
would furnish n market, and their
wages would pay the price,, Industry
thus fostered would yield its sure re-
turns The price of labor, and of tho
products of labor thus maintained,
would bear their burdens of taxation
chccrlully, at least without suilering.
Public creditors would be paid in full.
The tax. payer would not be harrassed,
and when the debt was paid or equita.
bly, adjusted, the transition from war to
peace could have been made without
the shock or panic which have been
| felt. 1t only needed a steady hand to
keep the currency at its proper height.
| 1t only needed to keep the warm, rich
blood-so much as the system had al.
ready shown that it could utilize
coursing through the arteries and re-
turning through the veins. But blind.
| ly-or else wickedly, with their eyes
open-they adopted n different policy.
They discouraged enterprise, they pal
sled activity, and closed the avenues of
industry. They kept idle these millions
of men. They closed the markets, they
caused falling prices, and while they
decreased the nominal amount of the
debt they increased the actual burdens
of taxation. They contracted the cur
reucy, and thus injured every man in
the community except the private cred
itor and the public bondhOlder. And,
not content with this, they exempted
the bondholder from taxation, and in
sisted upon paying him not only his
debt, but also bonus of ten or twelve
or fifteen per cent. for receiving it.
And this policy has been pursued until
this day. In the meantime, taxation
has been kept up to more than four
hundred millions of dollars per annum
The currency has been decreased more
than three hundred millions. And
the bonded debt of the country, though
nominally reduced two hundred and
thirty millions, has been actually in
creased in weight and oppres5iveneSs.
The earnings of our country are sup.
. posed to be sixteen hundred millions o.
dollars.
Our taxation is equal to twenty-five
per cent. of all the earnings, of all the
F., intellect and all the ingenuity and la
Dor of every man and woman and
, child in the country. Is it not true
, that nothing could have saved us from
the ruin Of the policy except the unpar-
[ alleled fertility of our soil, and the
wonderful energy aud activity of oui
people? This whole policy, in all fea
lures its contraction of currency; it
establishment of banks funding of th(
debt; purchasing of the bonds paying
them in gold taxation and tariffs, is il
the interest Of capital and to the injury
of labOr-one and all these measure,
. are designed to, and do, in fact, benefit
the capitalist at the expense Of the
! working masses.
No country in the world has Il system
so onerOus as our Internal revenue sys
!, tenn. 1t is unequal, unjust, unquisitOr
! ial. 1t has held out temptation to dis
honesty, and rewards to dishonor. |
has rendered revenue atiidaVits suspect
"a Il IL
perjury and bribery common, if not re
spectacle. 1t has filled the land witt
spies, informers and pimp5, who have
imposed upon honesty the burden!
from which vice has corruptiy bough
exemption. 1t has realized the time
"When knGves and fools DER all prevail
; And weigh out Justice In golden scale"
RINGS AND MONEY IN CONGRESS.
The whole system of the Republican
party produces this result. | will no
trace the means; the result is before us
The legislation Congress on taxation
and tariffs, and banks, and railroads. 1
| controlled by rings, and influenced By
money on political questions on Ku
! klux bills; on the san Domingo treat
les, hy the interference of the Presidcn
I and the bribery of his patronage. Pub
. lie offices are bought by presents o
!, awarded to needy relatives. Delalci
I tons are rs frequent as the weeks, an,
neither restitution is enforced nor pun
1 i1hment awarded. Corruption hides no
= its head in secret places, but tlaunts il
= self in the public gaze.
e So common is this that every ofllcia
1 act is believed to be in the interest of
T. job, and there is not in the govcrnmen
@ Il character 80 pure as not to he suspect
$ ed Of participating in its profits. Th
i obligations of official duty sit light
= upon the President; can we wondt
;. that his subOrdinatCS fail TO perforI
:, theirs? Gentlemcn, | say this sadly
Il but it Is sometimes better that the ea
:, should be shocked with the expressio
Il ofa sentiment which lies silent ia ever
Il heart.
REPUBLICAN DISREGARD or TIE co,
u STITUTIoN.
- But, If we turn from the considerable
n, of these questions to the other phases
w our condition, what ground il there f
~ Mr.. Sherman's eulogy on his party
~ our government was-I say was
:, constitutional government. 1t w
~ framed by the delegates from States.
i was ratified blythe conventions ofStatt
a 1t was a creature of States, endowed
- them with all the powers it possesse
~ and was so plentifully endowed that
a could, Of itself, perform the duties, {
~ fend the powers and perpetuate the G
" istence which had been given to
-. Those duties We're few. Those powe
II were ample, but they We're limte
a. The Constitution and the laws made
pursuance thereof We're the supren
m law. All powers not delegated to Co
," gress nor prohibited to ates were I
,y served, The system was so simple tn
Il a wayfaring man, though fool, ne
ID not err therein; SO apt, so fitting, tn
W. it rec0nciled liberty and law and DC
~, mitted an indefinite expansion witho
~ anarchy on the one hand or despotis
os on the other, The maintenance of t
70 rights of the States and the doctrine
to "A strict construction of the Constitute
=" These are the essential elements of [
w system. The rights of the States as tn
nn ere defined in the Constitution and
'w where else; and not otherwise. Il
~ Constitution as it is, fairly read, accol
St ing TO the open and common meaui
A' n liz forms -,