The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1875-07-28
Mr.. PendletOn's Position.

The argus says that Pendleton's speech
last week is a "perfect sumner" It is-to
those Democrats who believe in honest
money. The great confidence man of the
West says he is hard-money man. In the
East to be hard-money man means to be in
favor of paying the government notes in hard
money. But Mr.. Pendleton does not seem
to be in favor Of paying them at all. He ex-
pressly declares that he would let them alone
until the return of prosperity shall sin time
bring greenbacks to par with coin." He
wishes Congress to possess the power to
issue legal-tender notes, which he nowhere
recognizes as debt, in such quantities as in
their opinion ''the wants of trade demand"
He nowhere places a limit to the issue, and
if Congress should be made up of dema-
gogues like the Ohio Democrats there would
be no limit. If this is not indefinite infla-
ton, what is it? Mr.. Pendleton protests
that he is hard-money man, but he desires
to give Congress unlimited discretion to add
to the volume of paper, and he Opposes all
means designed to pay the paper now out
He is declaredly in favor of breaking the
promise to pay the legal tenders in coin on
and after the first of January, 1879. He
does not wish to pay the legal tenders then,
nor make efforts to pay them. These views
may constitute hard-money man in the
West, do they in the East? Are these the
views of the hard-money Democracy of
Maine, and do they accept Mr.. Pendleton's
definition as the definition of hard-money
Democrat? We doubt if even the matchless
effrontery of the argus will induce it to give
an affirmative answer.
But Mr.. Pendleton is not only an expan-
sionist, he is in effect an advocate of repudia-
ton. He stands upon that plank of the
Ohio Democratic platform which declares
for 'the payment of at least one-half of the
customs in legal tenders" Now the govern
ment owes annually for interest about $1O7-
100000 in god. II receives from the Gus
toms in gold $163,0OO,OOO. 1t the plan of
the Ohio Democrats is carried into effect it
will receive only $s1 100000 in gold, thus
leaving deficit of $25,OOo,OOO in the gold
with which to pay interest. That is, the
Ohio Democracy and its leader, Mr.. Pendle-
ton, clamor for reputation of one half the
interest the country owes on its debt This
is hard-money Democracy in Ohio, and the
Aryus, which enthusiastically endorses Mr..
Pendleton, would apparently have us be-
lieve that it is hard-money Democracy in
Maine.
The speech of Mr.. Pendleton in which
the above views were set forth is commended
by the argus as "a sumner" That journal
says that Mr.. Pendleton has shown that che
is a better hard-money man than his present
revilers." Thus the argus plants itself upon
the platform which Mr.. Pendleton endorses,
and, speaking for the Democracy of Maine,
heartily applauds the position of that gentle
man, the Ensign Stebbins OF finance-for re-
sumption ''but agin its enforcement" This
action confirms the view often expressed in
these columns that the drift of the national
Democracy is toward initiation and repudia-
ton, and that the advocates of honest
money in the party will be swept away in the
current.
The argus mentions with appreciation
that Mr.. Pendleton ''voted against the legal
tender act, that he did not then and does not
now believe in it," In this statement ex-
actly represents his position, as in others it
has grossly misrepresented his position. 1t
applauds the man who one year denounces
all legal tenders as unconstitutional, and an
other year goes over the country calling for
more of them. In this respect as in others
it is fitting representative of the shifting
and contradictory policy of its party.