The Andrew County Republican. [volume] (Savannah, Mo.) 1871-1876, 1875-10-08
Precedents of Reputation.

'tuN "cditd Ny Sl~orl-SlThted knaNeS
when the path OF honesty is difficult,
and readily accepted by ignorance,
which is usually knaviShIy inclined.
Fortunately they do not often have an
opportunity of being put in practice, as
t Is extremely rare that the ignorance
n the ~rascality necessary for the
propagation of such schemes get adj.
mltted to the high places of govern
mcnt, where government is in the
hands of Il few, or are able to poison Il
majority of community in common
wealths ruled by popular suffrage.
But cnce in 4 while in the course OF
ages, by Il fatal concurrence of circum~
stances, the experiment has been made
possible, and the result has been al
ways the same. 1t was tried by two
successive kings of Spain in the days
when the king of Spain was the great
est 0S mortal men, and when his cdlCtS
ranked next in authority To the u teran-
ces otomnipotence. Philip II. consid-
cred himself as much beyond the opera
tons OF natural laws and scientific
truths Is any statesman of our day D n
siders his country or his party. He was
Il dull and ignorant birot, who thought
Just as the repudiationiStS of to-day
think, that he could afford to treat with
contempt all the traditions OF trade. all
the maXims of public law, and all the
obligations of public morals. He had
wasted money IaviShly and borrowed it
1T kigh rates of interest. 1t began 10
grow Cumbersome. and irkSome to pay,
and 50 the anointcd monarch, very
much as if he had got his ideas from
Democratic mass meetings in Ohio,
came to the conclusion that creditors
We're maletactors, and that lending of
money was a crime deserving eXem-
plary punishment. II 1.-THE 20th of Nov.
1896, he issued Il long and pious procla-
NATION, saying in substance that he had
been to great expense in butcheriug
ProtestantS. and that he found it hard to
pay 1.-THE gricvouS damages, discounts,
and interest which had been forced up
on him. (making it seem, just as his
imitators do to-day, that the loan was
put upon him originally in an outrage
Gus manmer) that his creditors would
not advance him any more money
without security, and that he was SO
much in debt that this was embarrasS-
ing; that he therefore cancelled all such
obligations rescrving for himself to de-
eide whether he would hereafter pay
any of them, and took again into his
possession all his mortgage property,
We do not know but that we shall be
encouraging the bedlamites of Ohio by
relating the consequences OF the lnta-
NOUS act. They do not appear to object
to ruin and disaster provided it makes
things lively IN the locking Valley and
on the james River. But we will at all
events quote 1t few lines from Mr.. Not
ley us to the result of Phillips work.
The effect ofthe PRONUNCIATION of this
measure was instantaneous. Two mil
lions and a half Of bills of exchange sold
by Cardinal Albert cam back i'll one
day protested. The chief merchants
and bankers OF Europe suspended pay.
ment. Their creditors became bank
rupt. At the Frankfort lair there We're
more failures in one day than had ever
been in all the Years since Frankfort
existed. There was Il general howl OF
Indignation and despair upon every
every exchange, in every cottage of
Viii JUL "
as this had never been conceived by hui
man heart before.n All this would per-
hapS not warn our bedlamites. They
would only gloat Over the prospect of
taking it out of the mOneyed class IN
this fashion. But they may possibly
think 1t worth while to consider that
this tremendous crime did not pay. \
year later Philip found that house-keep-
ING was impossible under this load, and
lie was obliged to revoke his proclama-
ton and pay his debts, to eyade which
he had incurred such infamv.
To Philip II. succeeded his son Philip
III. The greatest bigot and murderer
who ever sat on a throne gave place to
II of the greatest imbecilps. This
paltry creatW was SurrOun ded by a
greedy court of thieves and pandererS
who wrought their own toul wills with
the public treasury. There were mil
lions for these vicious favOrites, but not
enough for their ayarice, and from their
vast needs and their narrow brains came
forth another brilliant scheme tor
excepting money equal to the demands
If trade" They debaSed the coin of the
calm, they issued millions of copper
tokens, they lowered the rate of interest
on government loans, and finally, as if
, give an eternal proof OF the folly of
;navery in high places, this idiotic gov
eminent decreed that the price of four
laravedis should be worth eight mara
eds, and that the piece of two should
Z worth four. Here is an exact paral-
LA history to the immortal intiationist
Shakespeare who promises the rabble
lat 4 th~ree-penny loaf shall be sold for
a penny, and that the three-hooped pot
shall have nine hoops.
There is no room for satire or for ar.
gument in dealing with the repudiation-