Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1874-10-02

'HC WotSc tuc panic Dcc1lc TN
more his money was worth. Tia
panic proved our currency to be til
best that we ever possessed. Bank
cr and dcpositor, merchant and farm
er, rich and poor, high and low
everybody, everywhere, sought it AM
showed that they had confidence il
it. Voluntarily or involuntarily, al
the people throughout this vast ma
ton paid the highest possible com
plilncnt to the sagacity and states
msnship Of the Republican party
Never was such a compliment a,
that paid to any party before. Yo,
very well know, the whole countr,
knows, that it We had had the cur
rency last fall that was in circulation
in 1887 and 1857, ruin would have
been inevitable and universal, from
Maine to Georgia, from the Northern
Lakes to the Gulf, from New York
to San Francisco. But with this
currency, devised by the Republican
party, We rode out the storm, VI.
passed safely through the panic, and
every day the panic continued the
money appreciated in value, until OIL
the day it ended it was worth more
than when it commenced. | submit
to my Anti-Monopoly friends, to men
of all parties, by whatever name,
whether in regard to our finances the
Republican party has not done well?
The Republican party has done
well in connection with the public
debt. Since the close of Johnson's
administration, on the 4th of March,
1869, we have paid three hundred
and ..eighty-five millions of dollars of
the public dcbt-which constitutes
one-sixth of the entire debt. This is
at the rate, on an average, of seventy
two millions q year; or six millions a
month; or u million and q half a
week; Or two hundred thousand dol
lars day; or eight thousand dollars
an hour; or one hundred and forty
dollars y minute. This is the rate at
which we have been paying off the
oablic debt since the Inauguration of
Gen.. Grant.
The payment Of three hundred and
cighty-tivc millions of dollars of the
public debt results of course in the
saving of interest on that sum.
Such interest amounts to twenty-fOur
millions of dollars annually: or two
million dollars q month; or half a
dollars week; or nearly
seventy thousand dollars day; or
twcnty-scvcn hundred dollars an
hour; or more than torty-tive dollars
a minute. This is the saving to tn,
people Of the United States in inter
est alone.
And while thus paying up the pub
lie debt and reducing the interest
thereon at a rate positively enormous,
this Republican administration has
reduced taxation more than three
hundred millions of dollars. 1t
has removed import taxes from
hundreds on hundreds of articles,
until now our internal revenue is
made up almost entirely from taxes
upon tobacco, spirits, banks and bank
At the last session Of Con-
gress We re luced the expenses of the
more than twcnty-seven
millions of dollars. We reduced the
army, and abolished a large number
of civil offices that seemed not abso-
lutcly necessary. l contend that in
the payment of the public debt and
in the reduction of taxation, the Re
publican party has done well.
The Republican party has done
we'll as to the constitutional Amend
This is more than any mat
ter of policy, or any mere measure OF
Congress. | have not come to this
hastily. Go with me to
the galleries of our national temple;
listen to its debates; go to the courts
of the land, remembering what those
amendmcntsIare declaring that claw
cry or involuntary scrvitude shall not
exist except as punishment for crime;
citizenship upon all; pro
hibiting any Infringement upon the
rights of any citizen, and atfording
to all the equal protection of the law;
declaring the sacredness of the pub
lie debt, and prohibiting the payment
of any debt incurred in aid of the
rebellion. Keeping these in memory,
go with me to the national Capital;
listen to the debates; enter your
and you would soon become
satisfied that if the Dem
ocratic party were to be restored to
power these constitutional guarantees
would be regarded by them as mere
'glittering generalities"-as worth
less Us 4 rope OF sand.
Take these men, with their old
hatred of the colorcd man to whom
the ballot has been given; these men
and there are hundreds and thous-
ands of them-bclieve that there re-
sides in the federal government no
power to coercc state,and compel its
citizens back to their allegisnce;
these men who hold that this is and
should of right be "white mans
these men who deny
that the right and the power exists
to make these amendments,
and that they are not rightfully a
portion of the constitution; give
these men the control of the govern
'nent again and those, constitutional
would be largely shorn
Of their power in the courts of the
nation and several states. Go with
me to the national councils and noto
how ready these men arc to vote for
every measure and to favor every
claim upon the public treasury pre-
scnted by any man Of doubtful loyalty
Or of known prominence on the con-
fedcrate side during the rebellion.
Those amendments are Incorporated
in the constitution in order to secure
in the tirmcst possible manner the
rights which were purchased 1T the
expense of hundreds of millions Of
treasure and tens of thousands of hu-
nan lives. The republican party
about the passage of those
amendments, and has
ever since enforced them, i'll spirit
and in letter, by appropriate legisla-
ton. Here again, ! contend, the Re-
publican party has done well.
| might refer you to the work Of
the Republican party in connection
.,.;tb thu Su1,innt nf nvpa. ration