Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1874-01-15
The Opposition War-Cry.

The Opposition War-Cry.
A year and half ago the socalled ain.
! dependent" press of the country clam
ored furiously for the election of Horace
! Greeley and B. Gratz Brown to the Presi.
dency and Vice Presidency. President
Grant was bitterly assailed, and every
! prominent member of the Republican
party connected with the Government
was maligned and traduced without stint.
! The people coolly considered the situa.
| ton, made up their minds that the at
tacks upon the President, the Republican
party, and its prominent members were
! slanderous and false and repudiated, by
overwhelming majorities, the party, its
candidates, and lis "independent' press.
| The crusade was at an end; nobody had
| been hurt, except the men and newspa-
| pers engaged in the enterprise, but they
were bruised and broken. The humilia-
ton of disaster was the greater in pro.
! portion as the movement had been
Matched, nursed, and prosecuted in a
spirit of unparalleled audacity, and the
modification of defeat was the more in.
tense in proportion as the heralding of
the new party had been loud mounted
and impudently aggressive. The tragic
death of the distinguished man who had
been made the standard bearer of a move
Inent already defunct, added shade OF
rem0rse to the accumulated mistortunes
of the plotting political knaves whose
! discontinue was rs complete as that of
| the COntederates when Lee surrendered
his sword to Grant.
1T is necessary to recall these striking
| a Of 81 | -
order to appreciate the more recent past,
and to comprehend the present political
! situation, Individual leaders OF the OPP
position of 1872, whose terms of office ex.
| PRED, were promptly 'relegated" to pri.
vate life. Few dared to become candi-
dates tor re election, and those who had
the temerity to offer themselves to the
popular suffrage were mcrcilessly slaugh-
tered. But the "independent" press
could neither voluntarily retire from pub.
lie notice, nor offer itself as a sacrifice to
the popular disgust The newspaper
must discuss public questions the day
after, as well as the day before election.
| Hence the independent press, having lost
the confidence of the people, was com
| PEELED to submit to the general Judgment
or antagonize it. For time 1t main.
tanned an attitude Of stolid indifference,
| contenting itself with sneers and sar-
casm; but as the shame and humiliation
| of defeat wore away, it made choice and
| hoisted the black flag. 1t poured its
walls of wrath upon all existing things,
! first upon the National Administration as
| the object of its most supreme hate; and
| secondly, upon the people, because,
against its slandering protest, they had
recently given TO the Republican party
| an emphatic Endorsement. In the panic,
the independent press, now become sa-
| taniC, beheld a source OF yeted
revenge Hence it FASTENED to assume
/ that the country had long been on the
verge of ruin, and with ill.cOnCealed NAL
| ice, declared that universal bank
ruptcy must quickly ensue. IL
! quarreled with, and denounced, the Pres.
! idcnt and Secretary of the Treasury at the
! bare suggestion Of the reissue OF the SAL
! coo, 900 reserve. 1t charged to the cur.
| rency the financial Tevusion and cOnse-
! quent disturbance to business, ana heaped
! contumely upon the Republican party as
| the author of the national banking system.
| When it became apparent that the panic
! would not accomplish all the disaster
which had been predicted, specie resump-
! ton was demanded as the only cure for
ills that had already well nigh disappear
ed Those who objected were assailed
| with sneers, as "inhationsts, spectators,
| ignoramuses, and debtors" The crusade
! for specie resumption has been as bitter,
as wild and reckless, and as void of com
mon sense and common prudence as was
! the heartless, maevolent, and unreason-
/ ing contest in favor of the fraud named
"Liberalism." The currency Of the coun-
/ try has been pronounced an engraved
! lie" and greenbacks sneered at az dis
/ honOred promises to pay" With $4,000
/ 000, coo American debts held in Europe,
! upon which interest must be paid in gold,
! the Independent press noisily demands
specie resumption" Possessing cur
rency commanding the utmost confidence,
OF which it is not possible for the holder
to lose one per cent, the independent
I press cries, Down with National Bank
/ notes down with Green backs let u have
/ gold" Demonstrated a hundred times that
resumption IS practically impossible, and
that to attempt it l. only to fail and involve
the whole country in financial ruin, still
/ the independent press cries THE way to
resume is to resume