The weekly Oskaloosa herald. [volume] (Oskaloosa, Iowa) 1855-1885, 1876-10-19
LET US REASON TOGETHER.

THURSUA UUlUDEh IL, 1ofO'
LET US REASON TOGETHER.
Man is an uneasy creature, especially
the American of to-day, and the Indian
was not far from wrong when he said
white man mighty unsartin." We heal
men of good sense apparently, men OF
influence, men who should know better
saying 1--WE want change" They have
become restless, and without any good
reason think change would be beneficial.
Let us see for moment what that change
means, and see if we can afford to make It,
At present, as heretofore, the Demo
cratic party has in its membership nearly
every rebel who was in arms, and all the
mossback Copperheads of the North dur
.ng our struggle. The Republicans as a
mass consist of the men who were Repub-
hcans during the war, the men who as
,
the men who wore the blue coats and
carried the y. S. muskets, and the men
who aided them by raising money, arms,
munitions of war and other necessaries.
You can have your choice, for you must
acknowledge the fact that the question SIM
mered down is: The rebels and Copper
heads on the Democratic side; the Union
men on the Republican side. DO not
meet this by saying that the war being
over we should drop the past, for no great
er mistake can be made. The great error
made by Democracy in rebelliug cannot
be easily looked over; but if the rebels
had accepted the situation as it was ten
dered them, there would be much more
reason for rubbing out" tn; past; but we
know they did not. We have every day
evidence that they did not We have the
utterances of Ben Hill and thousands of
others to prove that their love of the reb-
el fas and their hate Of the Union is as
strong as ever. We have the daily muir
ders of Southern Republicans, black and
white, as ample evidence that they are as
much rebel as they were in 1861. In
view of these facts can any fair minded
Republican for moment entertain a
thought of changing the administration of
affairs from the hands of the man who
saved the country, and put it into the
hands of the men who sought its destruc-
ton. Any fair-minded man knows that if
you take all the rebels and all the Copper
heads out of the Democratic party, there
would not be enough left to carry single
electoral vote north or south; yea, more,
the same application would leave them
without candidate on their National
ticket, for two meaner Copperheads than
Tilden and Hendricks, never drew breath,
and any man who reads must know it. III
these are facts and you knoao they are,
how can you take up the insane cry of "a
change?"
When the change was made in 1860
the Democracy thrown out and Republi-
cans put in power, the government credit
was so poor that our per cent. bonds
would not sell at all-only small por
ton being sold, and they at t,oelre per
cent. discount; and the body of the loan
then made under act of June %, 1860
bore interest at ttoeEUe per cent. annuna.
That please remember, was before the
Democratic rebellion had saddled debt
of such immense magnitude upon the
country, for at that time the whole Ma
tional debt was less than one hundred
millions (but was daily increasing as Bu-
chanan was selling bonds to raise money
for running expenses), but the Democrat
&c party was in power, and the people dis
trusted them. Afterwards, during the
var, debt of $2,5OO,OOO,OOO was con-
tr;cted to put down the Democratic rebel
lion, and the highest rate of interest paid
I'LL Ter a Republican administration was
y per cent and that only, on asmall sum;
while to-day we are funding the per
cent. bonds at Al per cent, and the bonds
at the latter rate, are eagerly sought after
both at home and in foreign markets. If
we had no other reason for not making
change, the confidence, expressed by the
world at large in the Republican adminis-
tration, is sufficient. The Democratic ad-
ministration could not sell its bonds bearing
IL per cent. interest, at all, while
Republican Al per cents sell readily.
This is as strong an argument as can be
urged against change If Democratic
fnanciering, when the country was out
of debt couldn't sell bonds bearing less
than IL per cent. interest what could you
expect them to do, after they have sad
died the immense war debt upon us? and
when they are pledged, personally to pay
off an equally large amount of rebel
claims. Make change and you put the
rebel gray in power, and make the Union
blue take back seat.