The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1873-10-24
Il Year Ago.

passed away since the country was in
the midst of the heat and passion of
the Presidential election The prin-
cipal events of that exciting period
are still fresh in the memory of mil
lions who participated in the memora-
bic contest.
Gen. Grant was supported by for
midable combination of banks, rail
roads, and other corporate agencies,
independent of the partisan machinery
by which the whole army of office
holders was marched in solid column
to the polls. On the other hand, Mr.
Greeley had mainly to rely upon the
Democratic organization which had
adopted him, materially enfeebled by
q disaffection procured and purchased
by the Administration, and the Liber-
al Republicans without party organ
ization, who had refused to longer
tolerate the frauds and corruption at
Washington.
One of the most effective appliances
employed by the friends of Gen. Grant
was concentration of the money
power in his behalf To bring it about,
a circular was issued from, this city,
signed by twenty~one bankers and
others, mostly known for their init
mate relations with the Treasury, and
then supposed to represent a large
amount of capital and wealth. This
circular was sent to all the banks in
/ the United States, and to almost every
private banker, commercial firm or
] Af c-fo
influence The design WAS to create
political panic on the eye Of the elec-
ton, and to excite the alarm of the
vast interests engaged in commerce,
manufactures, and banking.
1t was represented by the signers of
this paper that they had no confidence
in the principles which Mr. Greeley
advocated that his policy would be
ruinous, and that his election would
inevitably be attended by n financial
crash which must bring distress on
the country and involve a repetition
of the consequences of 1851. They
held up Gen. Grant and the system of
which he is the incarnation as a SOW
ereign panacea for these threatened
evils. The success of his administra-
ton in reducing the public debt by
/ political figures prepared at the Treas
! ury, and by the endorsement of these
/ financiers, was one of the greatest ar
guments i'll his favor The influence
! which the circular exercised in cOnsol-
/ idating the mighty corporations and
! in intimidating individuals and com
/ panies of less ostensibie strength, is
well understood by everybody. II
requires no illustration or argument.
/ The result is known. Gen Grant was
reelected President through the aid
of this vast Capitalization of capital
actual and supposed wealth, and its
ramifications.
Among the persons most energetic
in this political financiering, and il
exciting the fears of the timid, were
Jay Cooke & Co, Henry Clews &
Co, (both financial agents of the gov
ernment abroad), Fisk & Hatch
Howes & Macy, and others of like
standing They threw all theirstrengtt
against Mr.. Greeley. They rallied al
their depositors and clients for Gen.
eral Grant. And yet the very state
ofaffairs which they com bined to pre-
dict rs inevitable should Mr.. Greeley
be elected by the people, came to pas.
recently, although Gen. Grant wa.
chosen according to their programme
And what is most noteworthy i,
the fact that the bankers who got ur
and headed the circular, WHO stood
forward as the impcrsonation of th,
ilf ln1 no
ury, who had the entire confidence o
the President, who dined him anC
wined him, who subscribed to hi
bonds, his houses and his goods, anC
who supplied his cellars at Washing
ton and Long Branch with the bes
that money could procure, were tn,
first to fall and bring OH the crash
A bout that there is no mistake Ten.
of thousands stricken suddenly Will
ruin and misery, poor women whC
work with their needles, helpless chill
dren, failing old men, farmers will
their slender savings, orphans .almos
destitute, and multitudes like then
scattered far and wide, have been en-
quilted by this awful collapse of tn,
Presidents friends and bankers. Goo
help them
That is what Grantism has done
Look at it. Study it. Think of it
is 1t not time there should be change
and that the country should be rescued
from the hands of robbers, no matte
what their disguises IN Y San.
Hon. SAMUEL S. Cox has been nom
mated for Congress by the Democrat!