The Portland daily press., 1874-04-07

ments az the earliest practicable moment. Ii
there is to be any departure from this policy it
can only be justified by renewed submission
of the whole question to the same tribunal
which has once passed upon it, and disposed OF
it with an unusual approach to unanlm'ty'
Upon the consequences which must result
from expansion it is difficult to reason Win pa
thence or moderation. Other countries nave
suffered terribly from them, and our own mas
had youthful experience which ought to be
decisive in its influence upon every legislator,
who is not too wise to profit by the teachings of
history. We may go on watering until our pa
per reaches the continental or the confederate
standard, or we may dilute it gradually so that
enough of it will buy food and clothing for
years to come. But in any event, the effect of
using such discreditable tokens will be to
enhance the cost of all the necessaries of life
and the weight of tho burden will fall upon
the poorer classes while it will be severely
felt by every person who lives on moderate
means, or By salary, or on fixed income. 1t
is an awful oppression to the masses, to compel
them to buy and sell with deprecated money.
The rich have nothing to fear from such
scheme. They can always protect tn mselves
In fact they can profit immensely by it, if they
choose to take the chances of escaping the ul-
innate deluge which is to water this mass of
rags into the 'impalpable pulp of utter worth
lessness. 1t is more likely, however, that the
adventures of the country Will reap the larg-
est harvest from inflation,-the fellows who
plunge in with recklessness measured only by
the confidence of their creditors, which is al
a+oI 10 tbo ,;rhac x,a;,,
when money is cheapest. Paper is the parent
of shoddy. Legal tender has furnished the
palace and gilded the equipage of many par
yenu But there is this to be said in behalf of
| this latest fungus of society. He believed in
| his flag. He profited by his faith in the star
of his country. His greed was savored with
patriotism aud confess that as between the
loyal parvenu and the disloyal patrician, my
sympathes are strongly with the former. But
| the later incubation of mushrooms which Con
gress seems bent on encouraging will not be re
lieved by any infusion of the patriotic element
into the new brood. They will have all the
vulgar gaudiness of their prototypes without
any of the moral graces which softened the
| glare of their tinsel. An aristocracy of lltera
| ture is respectable, an aristocracy of birth i,
! endurable, but an aristocracy Of money is sim
| ply intolerable
If Congress persists in drawing the natior
into the rapids of imitation, they will give thu
President superb opportunity. Such an op
| portunity was thrown away by Fillmore wher
he failed to veto the hideous fugitive slave law
by Pierce when he signed the bill repeating
the Missouri compromise, by Buchanan whel
he consented to the Lecompton outrage. Ev
cry body knows that the present Executive en-
tertains thoroughly sound views on the great fl
naucial topic. If he possesses the courage t.
emphasize them by the exercise of his constitu
tional prerogative, he will establish his CLAIM
to the gratitude and homage of posterty
Whichever way he acts, he will be subjected t.
searching criticism. But if he pursue the ben
of his convictions unmndful Of the censur
or applause of his contemporaries, he will illus
trate by single stroke of his pen, career
which has been fuller of honor to himself an
service to his countrymen than that of an
American of this century. YARMOUTH.