New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1876-09-22
NO REPUDI1TION.

The voters of Ohio and Indiana have resting
upon them great responsibility. There the
Democratic party openly avows the purpose
which in Eastern States it tries to hide with
the cry of reform. At the West it wears no
mask. It's fight is for the repeal of the Re
sumption act, for indefinite postpOnement of
the payment of demand notes, for "NO forced
resumption.r Banners and transparencies
proclaim this purpose; speakers declare 1t
openly, as if it were title to public conf
dence the private conversation OF Democrats
in every village and on every street corner is
full of it. Republicans and Independents at the
West arc at no loss to discern the meaning
of Democracy. The mystifcation which has
placed some good men at the East on the
wrong side, does not exist at all in those West
ern States in which the Presidential election
will be largely decided by the vote of Octo-
ber There no man can misunderstood
the purpose of the Democrats there is clearer
light, and therefore greater responsibility.
What is that purpose
The repeal of the Resumption act is the re-
pudiation of a solemn pledge of public faith.
Gov. Hayes strikes the keynote when he
declares that "all the laws of the United
~ eoJlUe6 ItlulluB W luC pay hiC'O VI Wv pN'4'S
Indebtedness, the legal-tender notes in
cluded, constitute a pledge and moral obi
" cation of the Government, which must III
good faith be kept" This act, fixing the
time for payment OF the demand notes, Is a
more sacred obligation than any other, be-
cause it is the basis upon which all transac-
TONS public, municipal, corporate, and private
have for twenty months been made. The
limited States is to-day borrowing millions
upon do per cent bonds, i'll part because 1t
has shown the honor TO fix day for the pay
ment of It's demand notes. Railroads and
cities have borrowed hundreds of millions,
giving currency bonds, and the lenders, having
faith in the pledge of the United States that
the currency should be made as good as gold,
have loaned at rates of interest based upon
that assurance. Money by the thousand mil
lions has been earned, saved, loaned, depos-
tied, or otherwise invested, upon the faith of
this pledge of the Government. To repeal
that pledge is not merely TO repudiate sacred
obligation 1t is to cheat public creditors, to
wrong those who have loaned to cities or rail-
roads, and to rob all who have saved their
earnings of part of the value to which they
are entitled.
II Is right that Republicans and lndepend-
cnts should remember that the legal tenders
form part of the war debt. The nation was
saved by this and other loans. Is it strange
that those who did not want the Rebellion
suppressed do not want to help pay the cost
of its suppression Indiana, for example,
knows what the Knights of the Golden Circle
did during the war. Notice what they are
doing now Which one of them all is in
favor of meeting the war debt honOrably, ac-
cording to the pledges of the nation1 Look
across the border; how many of the Demo
cratic Members of Congress from that section
opposed the repeal of the Resumption act ut
the last session Of Congress- Less than one
in twelve. Let us have reconciliation and
peace, by all means, but let us not have peace
upon the basis of reputation. Let us not