The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1875-08-19
SEYaT0R NORTON ON THE 8ITU1,
TIOM r


their functions, and gave up the direction
of the political campaign, upon which
depended the election of Governor and
Senator, to Mr.. Morton, of Indiana. He
appeared upon the scene as an acknowl-
edged chief, and dictated the policy OF
his obedient partisans.
Confident in his strength, because Gen.
Grant had carried the State in the pre-
vious November by more than $4,000
majority, he predicted a certain victory,
and claimed it as an act of grateful JUS
tice to the Republican party, which had
given the country great prosperity, an
unrivaled currency, and an administra-
ton of affairs equal to the best of its pre-
decessors.
Sixty days after that speech Jay Cooke
& Co., who fitly represented the financial
wisdom and boasted prosperity of Grant
ism, collapsed like pricked bubble, and
carried down with them the rotten sys-
TEN, by means of which they and others
of the same stamp had succeeded in
swindling thousands Of deluded victims,
and in cheating labor of its hard-earned
and scanty savings.
The whole fraud was exploded as fby
an electric shock. There is no example
of swifter exposure and retribution than
that which followed upon the heels OF
Mr.. Morton's false claims to confidence
and support for the Republican party.
Ohio stamped upon the deception, spong-
ed out a majority which never before fall
t red in many years, elected Mr.. Allen
Governor, and returned Mr.. Thurman to
the Senate,
This rude experience in 1873 does not
appear to have instructed Mr.. Morton,
for he is again in Ohio and reCiting his
old part, as if nothing had occurred in
the last two years. Unfortunately for
him, the outrage mill is not running at
this time; and Landaulet Williams, with
his army of Marshals, Deputies and hired
spies to swear and steal without limit,
are furloughed and driven to short COM
mons.
But Mr., Morton still sees imaginary
Ku-Klux in the air, is distressed about
the colored voter, and Mortified at the
idea of States being anything more than
satrapies Of central power, as intended
by his reconstruction acts. Half his re-
cent speech at Urbana is devoted to this
theme, as if those partisan dogmas and
mildewed stories which the country has
long ago turned from in loathing, would
fill the empty stomachs of hungry labor,
or give employment to the million or
more of willing but idle hands, brought
to want and suffering by the corruption,
imbecility and extravaganza of the party
which he leads.
Of all the men in Congress, Morton has
been regarded as the peculiar champion
of rag money, of initiation and of tinker
ing with the currency. He was the real
author of the bill Of 1874, which the
President promised to sign and thensud-
denly vetoed under stockjobbing infu-
ences, by which those in the secret ring
pocketed a round million of dollars. Now
MIR. Morton appears in new role and
sets up as resumptionist after a fashion
of his own. "I had," he says, "some-
thing to do with the preparation of this
bill" referring to the Sherman sham Of
| last winter, which "was in its nature a
compromise" and received the vote Of
every Republican Senator save one."
| These admissions would be sufficient to
stamp the deceptive scheme with its true
character, but everybody knew when it
was concocted that this political trick
was intended to bridge over the Presiden-
tial election and to keep the financial
issue under by fraud on the country.
When the bill was submitted to the
Senate from a caucus where the Republi-
can rag-money men were largely in the
majority, Mr.. Sherman utterly refused to
explain the intention of the proposition
on its most vital point. Mr.. SChurz, Mr.
Stevenson, Mr.. Bayard, Mr.. Thurman
and others who were in earnest for re-
sumption, and who wanted plain, hon
est, straightforward measure to attain
that end, demanded to know ifthe green
backs to be redeemed in coin would be
DESTROYED absolutely or could be re-
| issued. If the former, when it was gen.
uine contraction, and move in the di-
rection of specie payments. If the lat
ter, then it was a cheat covered by false
pretense. There had been deception un-
der former bill, and the very men who
had voted for contraction of fortY-four
millions condoned the reissue oftwenty-
six millions made by Mr.. Richardson un-
der the name of reserve.
Hence Mr.. Schurz and his associates
who meant fair dealing, repeated the
question, and Mr.. Sherman answered by
a disgraceful dodge, that the Courts would
interpret law which he was then pro-
posing! The duplicity was thus made
| transparent. Mr.. Morton sat silent, and
could not be forced to utter word ofex-
planation. So did Logan, Ferry and the
whole tribe of bubble blowers. The gag
had been put on in caucus, with full
knowledge that word in open Senate
from either faction would ruin the con-
spirary. The bill was thus driven through
the Senate in double quick time, and the
House majority was drilled to order.
The President was party to the plot,
and the trick became law, Now, Mr..
Morton breaks silence, and tells the peo-
pie of Ohio, in order to gain initiation
votes
"The bill provided that the greenbacks
should not be retired so as to leave less
than three hundred millions in circula-
ton, and Il contemplated that they should
continue to be a part of the circulation, and
the main purpose was to improve their
quality and bring them to par value"
1t is thus confessed by one Of the au-
thors of this scheme that its professed
intention is false, and that the cry about
specie payments is fraud. Yet in the
face of these facts, and with the knowl-
edge that Morton and his followers, and
Mr.. Conkhng and his, agreeing to truce
on the financial question, patched up this
contrivance, the people Of Ohio are asked
and advised by the organs ofmere specu-
lators and stock jobbers, to support the
ticket which these tricksters have putup
NJ, Aortor v,;1l H,J ont in Ontphpr