The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-04-27

As President Jackson's famous and intrepid
veto of the old United States Bank in 1882
gave color and complexion to the politics of
monetary and fiscal subjects the staple Of
public discussion and party controversies
until the slavery question came in with the
annexation OF Texas, SO we are likely to have
another era of financial contention as . con-
sequence of President Grants courageous
Veto Like the strong-willed old hero Of . for
mer period the military chieftain who holds
the Office of Chief Magistrate has reused and
electrified the public mind and stirred popu-
lar feeling to it's profoundest depths. Like
General Jackson he has erected dixie against
which the paper money flood viii dash in vain.
while great question goes through the ordeal
of excited discussion and angry elections
and, like Jackson, he will ultimately be
indorsed by the whole body of his grateful
countrymen. But for the ensuing few years
the battle will be strenuously fought, until the
controversy shall be finally closed by the ire
versible Judgment of tho people expressed
through the elections.
s~AcAV AOoOAxANAo2Oo
are also points of marked difference between the
circumstances of General Jaokson's famous
veto and that of General Grant, which viii be-
come equally famous. In Jackson's time the
currency controversy was not sectional the
dividing line was not geographical, but
merely political Il arrayed parties in oppo-
sition to each other, but not wide sections of
the country. But the present division in
stead of running parallel with party lines
cuts directly across them. President Grants
noble veto does not infame the mutual hos
tilty of existing parties, but tends to disrupt
both and rearrange their elements in new
combinations with the great question of the
currency as the dividing issue and geo
graphical limit as the line of demarcation.
This tendency to general breakup and re-
construction is obstructed only by the cohe-
sive force of government patronage, which
complexities the question and retards the
operation Of natural afinitics. But the veto
and the profound feeling it awakens bring the
currency controversy into the foreground as
the overshadowing issue in American politics.
Like the repeal of the Missouri compromise in
1854, it must lead to revolution Of parties
All the questions growing out of slavery, the
war and reconstruction are practically defunct
and have lost all active hold on the public
mind. Their only wretched remnant consists
OF the tactious squabbles over the disor-
ganized governments of some of the Southern
States-the politics of the anti-slavery period
going ont like the smoky flicker of candle
in it's ill-smelling socket The mongrel negro
carpet-bag governments of the South have
become so odious and abominable that no
political party can afford to stand sponsor for
them, and their authors are eager to wash
their hands of the disgrace. They are the
last surviving relic of the questions which
have divided parties for the last twenty years.
II we are to have any future politics other
than those of the spoils parties must be organ
| lied on new questions and there Is no ques-
ton either of such far-reaching importance or
such rising interest in the public mind as this
of the currency, which is cleaving both Of the
old parties into segments. President Grants
veto will operate like the displosive force of
nitro-glycerine in the family marked seam Of q
ledge of rocks irving asunder what had
already tendency to part.
This currency question viii not end with
General Grants veto any more than the bank
question ended with the veto Of General Jack
son. Instead of quenching the controversy
the veto will lnHame it. The infatonists are
too strong in numbers to succumb under one
defeat They will carry the question into the
Congressional elections and make q strenuous
fight A majority of the people in the West
and South are undoubtedly with them, and an
infusion Of sectional bitterness will animate
and exasperate the contest. The infationists
will delude themselves with the idea that
time and the progress of events will work in
their favor. They fancy that in this sectional
question they stand upon strong vantage
ground, like that occupied by the North in its
great contest against slavery. The North was SO
rapidly outstripping the South in population
that its triumph was inevitable if the dispute
were kept alive. There is o similar growth of
the West as compared with the East, and after
the next census, or at furthest the next after
that, the valley of the Mississippi will be the
seat Of political power, comprising majority
of the voting population and controlling the
government. In any sound cause, in any
cause which could stand thorough discussion,
the West, if persistent and united, would ul-
timately carry the day with as much Ger
tainty as the North succeeded in its protracted
controversy with the South, and by the same
inevitable preponderance of numbers. The
imitation leaders, imagining their cause to be
good, and conscious Of the growing strength
and great destiny of their section, will boldly
prosecute this dispute, and the country seems
on the eve of another heated sectional con-
troversy.
But the East will not labor, as the South