The Russellville Democrat., 1876-07-20

these fteyen years tO inahe gooti the promise of the legal tender notes wlich are a changing stan dard of value in the hands of the people, and the non payment of which is the disregard ef the plighted faitl. of the Nation.
 Ne denanncc the rmprovidencc which, in eleven years of peace, has taken from the people in Federal taxes thirteen times the whole amount of the legal tender notes and squandered four times their sum in useless expense without accommodating any reserve for their redemption. We de noancc the financial imbecility and immortality of that party which, during eleven years of peace, has made no advance to- ward resumption, no preparation for resumption, but instead has obstructed resumption by vast ing our resources and exhausting all our surplus income, and while annually prcfessing to intend a speedy return to specie payments, has annually enacted fresh hin drances thereto. As such hin dranccs, we dcnounce the rcsump- tion clause of the act of 1875, and we here demand it's repeal. We demand a judicious system of preparation by public economies, by official retrcnchments, and by q wise finance which shall enable the Nation soon to assure the whole world of its ability and it's perfect readiness to meet any oi it's promises at the call of q cred itor entitled to payment. We be- licye such system wcll-adylsed and, above all, entrusted to com potent hands for execution, creat- ing at no time an artificial scarci- ty og currency, and at no time alarming the public mind into withdrawal of that vast machin- cry of credit by which ninety five per cent. of our business transac- tions are periormed-a system open and public, and inspiring general coniidoncc-would. from the day of its adoption, bring healing on it's wings to all our harassed industries, set m mo tion the wheels of commerce, manufactures and the mechanical arts, res tore employment to labor, and renew in all it's sources the prosperity of the people. Reform is necessary ill the sum and mold of Federal taxation. to the end that capital may be set free from distress and labor lightly bur .lened.
 We denouncc thc present tariff levied upon nearly 4,000 articles IS a masterpiece of injustice, in- equality and false prctonse, which yields q dwindling, and not q yearly rising revenue, has impoy- crishcd many industries to subsi- dize q few. It prohQD imports that inight purchase the products of American labor; it has derang- cd American commerce from the first to an inferior rank upon the high seas, it has cut down the walls of American manufacturers at homo and abroad it has depict. ed the returns of American agri- culture, an industry followed by half of our people; it costs the people five times more than 1t produces to the treasury; ob- structs the process of production and wastes the fruits os labor; it promotes fraud, fosters snug gling, enriches dishonest officials, and brnkfupts honest merchants. We demand that all Custom House taxation shall be only for revenue. Reform is necessary in the scale of public eXpense-Fed eral, State and Municipal. Our Federal taxation has swollen from $60.000,00o gold in 1860 te $I50,000,0 ,000 in currency in 1870: our aggregate taxation from Slj1,- 000, ,0O0 gold in 1860 to S730,00 coo currency in lS70-all in ole decade from less than 50 per head to more than BIS ger head. Since tbe peace, the people have paid to their tax gathererS more than thrice the sum for the Federal Government alone. We demand rigorous frugality in every de par,ment and from every officer of the Government.
 Reform is necessary to put a stop to the proiiigate waste o.pub- lie lands and their diversion from actual settlers by the party in power, which has sqaandered two hundred millions of acres upon railroads alone, and out of more than thrice that aggregate lias dis posed of less than sixth directly to the tillers of the soil.
 Reform is necessary to correct the omissions of a Republican Congress and the errors of our treaties and our diplomacy, which has stripped our fellow citizens of foreign birth and kindred race re- erasing the Atlantic from the shield of citizenship, and has ex- posed our brethren of the Pacific coast to the incursions of d race not sprung from the same great