New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-05-14

the superior value of free trade and. the in.
justice of a protective system. In 9
word, Hon. Mr.. Hendricks succeeded in
getting into an address on manufactures
and agriculture on expression of his pc.
litical creed, with q distant intimation Of
"That's the sort of Democratic candi.
date for the Presidency would make"
Among other provisions of regula,
business to political ends may be noted
the capture Of commercial celebration
by a couple Of eminent politicians.
1t was at dinner given by merchants.
The honorable antiquity of the associa.
ton was under celebration. Orator;
might have been expected to speak of the
commerce of New York from its origin in
beaver and bear skins of the Dutch
traders to the serried masts of hundred
nationalities now crowded together in he,
spacious port. What the men of the ship
and yardstick had to say has not attracted
much attention. Governor Tilden and
Hon. MIR. Pierrepont descended upon
humble workers in the field Of usefulness
pretty much as a couple Of pugilists might,
with their attendant roughs, light out Of
the cars to settle the question of contested
championship in the best wheat field of a
laborious farmer. These ccmbatants sci
the merchants out of the way, in the spirit
Of Governor Tilden's observations:
l think the wisdom Of the commercial
community, no doubt, is concentrated and
nersOnfied in your preceding officer
Laughter and applsuse],
The laughter and applause show what
a joke the politicians consider an asso-
citation Of men for mere purposes OF
honest business to be.
Hon. Mr.. Pierrepont had the floor, and
said many things which are. in our po-
itical opinion, perfectly true. He has
INDICATED, by his own personal testimony,
the integrity, the magnauimity, and the
public services Of President Grant. He
contrasts the poverty of the President
with the opportunities Of aggrandizement.
He enumerates among the embarrass-
ments Of administration the emancipation
of flour million ignorant slaves" and
attributes to the President the undoubted
merit Of having received the sword of
Lee, and terminated "a great civil war. "
Then, Mr.. Pierrepont passes to the COM
mercial situation of New York, chiefly to
hang upon the reference theory Of
financial reform. Es premises that when,
80 year ago." he went into the Cabinet at
Washington, and says:
You told me that you were not prosper
Gus, that trade was depressed in this great
city, but that in the coming fall it would
revive; and last fall when l talked with
some of you who came to see me in the
city of Washington, you said that trade
had not revived, but it was going to revive
in the spring. Well, / come here in the
spring, tonight, ard have talked with
several OF you, and you have told me that
spring has nearly passed and yet trade has
not revived.
He then asks:
Well. what is the matter With your trade2
Conceding that all the elements Of business
are prosperous, he prOnOunoes that the de-
cline of trade arises from the system which
has arisen in this country, and which has
not been corrected. Does anybody who has
reflected for q moment think that you can
have values except such as depend on gov
eminent! PropOrtionate to the goodness Of
your government is the value OF the things
you have. You can not have values with
out government. Why have your values
SO shrunken! Because your government has
not been good.
Mr.. Pierrepont has obviously in his
mind the Democratic misgovernment Of
New York city, with the millionary frauds
of Tweed & Co., the immense increase Of
municipal debt, and the excessive rate of
municipal taxes under Democratic adj
ministration. This is plainly his mean
ing from the following phases:
Suppose you have blocks of houses here
in the city OF New York, or in the city Of
Brooklyn, and your government, through
fraudulent taxation for the purpose of rob-
berry, SO taxes your blocks of houses that
when you have paid your taxes, your insur-
you have not dollar left, where ia the
value then of your blocks OF houses! And
why has their value departed Because
your government is corrupt, and is not an
honest and faithful protector Of your pro-
perty. Applause
He further inpresses this purpose:
Every man OF you tells me, and one of
your oldest members told me in the other
room, that in bis experience Of fifty years
never was New York so depressed. Why
is it so depressed? Because by fraudulent
government your taxes have been SO in
ere ased that trade can not prosper here;
that everything is made so expensive that
other cities come in and undermine yoa
and take away your trade.
He tells that bale of goods can be put
down Sin Chicago cheaper" than in Union
square to-day, and attributes it to the bad
government from which the city has suf-
fered, and reiterates that 1.-The property
of the city has been destroyed" and its
value ruined by bad government" He
then proceeds to explain what has been
the influence Of federal legislation upon
local prosperity. In the opinion of Mr..
the staguation of New York is
due to the want Of "a permanent and uni
form system of finances" SO the causes
Of commercial decline are municipal rob-
berry and the uncertainties of specie re-
What this system is, or to
whom New York is to look for its
we are not told, but
We receive the Delphic assurance that
when it shall haze been established con-
idence will return, industrial enterprise