Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-04-22
IMITATION DEATH 10 THE RE
PUBLICAN PARTY. n

f.
Republican journals in all sections
are warning the party leaders that they
are in the most serious crisis during
the past ten years. and that if the Re
publican Congress and a Republican
President take the side of imitation til,
party's doom WILDE sealed. As a spe
cimen of the manner in which Journal
lists talk, Mr.. A. C. Hesing, editor o.
the Chicago Stats zeiturg, the leading
German Republican journal in Illinois
wasinvited tomake speech at the meet
ing of the Republican State COMMITTEES
at Chicago on the 18th inst, when he
said he was unwilling to advise the
holding of a State Convention until il
was demonstrated that there was a Re.
publican party-the one that went to
Philadelphia and adopted a resolution
in favor of resumption of specie pay.
ment. Mr.. Hesing read the resolution,
and then invited his auditors to con.
template the efforts of Senator Logan
and Oglesby to insure imitation. Con-
tinuing, he said:
"Your party is torn asunder, gentle
men; there is nothing left of you.
Where is your Philadelphia platform ?
Where are your principlese You have
none. What is then left of the Repub-
ican party but Office, Office, Office, and
what mission has it now but to supply
ofice-seekers with fat places? 1 viii
not belong to any party that has no
higher aim OF aspiration than Office. /
prefer to be, and shall be independent,
without the incumbrance of party ties
and lying platforms"
Harper'S Weekly forecasts the future
of the Republican party with a frank
ness which would have been creditable
in November, 1872, and quotes the
proof of Morton's personal t~ergiversa-
ton in respect to imitation, which is
a match for his regeneration in re-
spect to the payment of the bonds in
greenbacks:
Mr.. Morton, we say, has been the
real leader of imitation In the Senate.
Yet on the 18th of December, 1868, Just
after the election of Gen. Grant upon
an anti-repudiation platform, and a
general understanding of a prompt re-
turn to a sound financial basis, these
were the opinions of Mr.. Morton:
off the currency is deprecated,
tauctuating and deceptive, the prosper
ity of the country must inevitably be
seriously injured and its general pro-
gress and development delayed.
I'm whateyercountrypaperhas been
made a legal tender it has invariably
driven gold and silver from the circula-
ton, and in great part from the coun-
, Thus it was during the
French revolution, when the assignats,
a legal.tender currency like our own,
drove French gold into all of theneigh-
countries, 81 that when the
assignats paper money finally col
as they did in a single day,
France found herself almost destitute
Of eoin.'
"'Why is our currency deprecated?
And why would it be deprecated if the
did not owe a single bond?
Because the greenback note is a prom
Lse by the Government TO pay so many
dollars on demand, which it does not
pay. The promise is daily broken and
mas long been dishonored. The note
travis no interest, and the Government
hes fixed no time when it viii pay it.
Under such circumstances the note
must be ~depreciated.'
"'The greenback currency is a part
# the public debt, for the redemption
# which the faith of the nation is sol
.mnly pledged. The redemption of
his pledge Is not only demanded by
very principle of national honor, but
5 imperatively demanded by the in
erests of the people, collectively and
Individually
E" If the greenback note is to be re-
as an obligation, for the pay
nent of which the faith of the govern
nent is pledged, the continued failure
f the government to make any provis-
On for Its redemptlonc cannot beregard-
d in any other light than population
at cannot be shown that the legal
nd moral obligation to pay those
Onds of the United States at matur-
-y is greater than that resting upon
be government to make prompt pro-
ision for the redemption of the green
ack currency
This was the faith Of the nation.
his was the solemn pledge of the Re-
ubEcan party. 1t was bound by its
ord to make prompt provision for the
of the greenback currency.
-nder the lead of Mr.. Morton In the
enate it has deliberately. in the words
{ his fellow-leader, Mr.. Conkling, re-
lsed to do so. The party has by this
ote passed a bill which departs from
lie principles of honesty and s~olvency.'
re believe that Mr.. Conkling speaks
II the great mass of those who have
itherto supported the Republican par
r, and that Mr. Morton's policy, If 1t
1ciU certainly destroy that
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