Daily Kennebec journal., 1875-06-23

confidence in the faithful performance OF
contracts, with its resulting sense of Sc
curity; respect for moral obligations the
| sacrifice required from each individual, to
suffer the consequences of his own blum
ders-lhese are some OF the conditions of
national prosperity, and they have their
roots in religion and morality. 1t is be-
cause these virtues have been outraged,
because confidence has been disturbed,
credit shaken, reputation threatened. and
the spirit OF the scoundrel markedly re-
vealcd, that the business of the country
now languishcs. and the laborcr lacks
employment. But once let the policy of
the Ohio Democracy be adopted rs the
settled policy Of the Government, and the
disease we may now hope with confidence
to recover from, by simply acting with
common honesty and common sense, will
strike into our life blood and cripple Us,
weaken MS, and make Us infamous for
centuries to come. liquidation in time
OF peace and in the broad daylight of the
nineteenth century will be very different
thing from insolvency forced on a nation
by a long and desperate war, or the knav-
cry of a dospot debasng the coin, or seiz-
ing like brigand the private property OF
his subjects, and be it remembered that
imitation ends in Reputation as surely as
the rivers end in the sea.
Our purpose is not to show that il is ras-
cally Tor man to sneak out OF obliga-
tions which he assumed with his eyes
open and is amply able to live up to, but
to point out that Mcssrs. Allen, Pendle-
ton, Ewing, Cary, and the rest of them,
have openly declared themselves hostile
to the honor and welfare of the nation.
Let US take first Mr. Pendleton. lie calls
the platform, which we examined on Sat
urday, "a wise and sound declaration of
"principles, and says that every prin-
"ciple and policy announced is just and
"true. and if carried into practice would
"conduce to the best interests of the com
"munityr contraction, " he loudly tells
his audience, "has destroyed the indus
tries of the country" Mr.. Pendeton, by
education and by the gifts of nature, is ca
pable of distinguishing q true argument
from a sophstry which would be detected
by a college freshman, yet he actually has
the hardihood to utter the following con-
secutive sentences as proof that contrac-
ton of the currency is running the coun-
try, and that reputation is our only sal
vation:
This whole policy Is wrong. The contraction
of the currency, the exemption Of bonds from tax
alton, the collection of the customs in gold, the
Gold bill of 1869, the National bank system, have
produced their necessary result. They have de-
stroyed all business, and yet we are tod that mon
ey is too plenty, because it accnmulates in New
York and finds no occupation.
Aye! 1t accumulates because it is not used. 1t
is not used because there is no business. One
hundred years ago Spain had scarcely any money,
and yet the rate of interest in Madrid was lower
than in Amsterdam, and Holland was the richest
country in Europe. Spain had no business in
which to use its little money. Holland kept ev
cry dollar of her vast resources forever active.
Passing over the obvious misstatemcnt,
that there is "no business" doing, how
can it be maintained that there is no bust
ness because there is scarcely any money,
while at the same time it is asserted that
there is an excess Of money because there
is not sufficient business to employ what
money we have? The latter is plainly
the true state of the case, while the hue
and cry recently raised against contrac-
ton is pure claptrap. Mr.. Pendleton
knows, furthermore, that at the time OF
which he speaks Spain had exhausted ev-
cry resource of despotic power to give her
people plenty of money" even to pro-
hibiting under pain of death the eXpolta-
ton of the gold and silver which she re-
ceived from Mexico and Peru, and he
knows also that Holland at that time toll
Grated no paper money except the notes
dollar against dollar for specie and rigid
ly limited to the quantity of specie left on
deposit
There are rumors that Gov. Allen and
Senator Thurman are In favor OF honest
money, but assuredly their courage in the
presence of the great high priest of repu-
diation vanished like the Apostle Peters.
Gen. Cary, the candidate for Lieutenant
Governor, whom, as the Enquirer tells us,
it has been a common thin. in Ohio "to
deride and denounce as "demagogue,"
naturally took in the platform, hook, line.
and sinker. When we consider that these
principles, as Mr.. Pendlcton calls them,
are deadly poison to the most vital cle-
mcnts of modern civilization, and to near
ly everything which distinguishes society
in the Barbary States from society as it
exists in England and the United States,
we cannot doubt that the people OF Ohio
will let Mr.. Pendleton and his followers
know, once for ALL that common honesty.