The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1876-09-09

resumption, which you do not believe il Il
be, is the fly in your pot of ointment-th
mote in the st. Louis platform which bind,
you to the Republican beam. Was evel
such II political perspective? Was cvel
such microscopic vision the cause of such
cosmic blindness? To parody the sonno
of Blanco White.
oh who could find
While fly and leaf and insect stood revealed
That TO such countless 0rbs thou mad st him blind
| am not endorsing the demand for the
repeal of the resumption-day clause whicl
was foisted into the st. Louis platform By
the men who yet rejected that limited de
mand as satisfaction Of their soft.money
sentiments. Their position was untcnablt
in every respect, and they should have
been dislodged. Could the repealers have
kept their demand in the platform, il
probed by the question whether they would
support the platform thus modified ? But
they did refuse to support it, after thus
making it less satisfactory to the majority.
Of course they could have been defeated
by the majority, and should have been.
Had | been member of the Platform
Committee, would never have assented
to the insertion Of that demand. That
was good place to stand aud twin or
lose it all. /" And victory was easy. OF
whom could the demand be made? The
House is not Congress and the Executive.
By whom can it be complied with Does
Republican Senate or President take
orders from Democratic Convention? ?
THE REPEAL VOTE OF THE HOUSE.
Nor am l defending the action of the
House of Representatives under the lead
of Mr. Cox. Was the House to assume
the demand for repeal to have been ad.
dressed to itself2 1t could not repeal.
The utmost of its competency, by vote
for repeal, was to make false and foolish
issue with Republican Senate, and take
the wrong side of it; was to give those au.
thors of paper legal tender, those finishers
Of initiation, chance to masquerade as the
better friends of resumption.
As to the proper course for the House
to pursue, that stanch and prudent leader
in our party, William X. Morrison Chair.
man Of the Committee of Ways and Means
did me the honor to ask my judgment,
while We were in St. Louis, and after he
returned to Washington; and the Hon
Randall i. Gibson, Of Louisiana, Abdiel
of Democratic Representatives did the
same. To them replied
Surely, the platform is whole. The re-
peal clause is one sentence in one plank. TC
| construe that sentence as ifit where the whole
is to falsify, belittle, and misconstrus the
work of the Convention. How can this House
execute the platform? 1t is within its com
potency only to make an issue with the Senate
10 press bare repeal does not appear to me
| to be the supreme stretch of human wisdom
in shaping political issues. To do nothing
| this session is better than to do merely that
But now say, candidly, do you not dis
cern in Gov. Tildens letter sounder and
more Just construction of the whole St
Louis platform than that of the so-called
Independent" or Republican, or soft.
money critics, who find nothing therein
but a demand for the repeal Of the re.
sumption-day clause? He certainly does
not believe that Democratic resumption
with preparations to resume, will, in 1879
be as impossible as Republican resumption
with no preparations to resume.
IMPORTANCE OF REPEAL CLAUSE EXAG,
dERATED.
Your solicitude exaggerates the impor-
tance of clause ioisted into the platform
which, without that addition, was satisiac
tory to Gov. Tilden's friends. For, the
repeal of the resumption-day clause of the
act of 1875 leaves in undiminished vigol
each and all the means to prepare and
provide for resumption (unused by Secrc-
tary Bristow, whom you would now prefer
to Gov. Hayes which that act created
The repeal of that clause cancels the pro.
mise, to be sure, but it does not eance
any the least of the means therein provid,
ed to make that promise good. And, i
indeed there be, as Western Democrats
and Western Republicans alike allege, any
considerable number of persons who are
in mortal trepidation least resumption day
shall roll the heavens together as scroll
and melt the business world with ferveni
heat, even though the fear be folly, never
theless, must it not in candor be said, tina
to cancel the promise may be to disengagt
real preparations for resumption from on'
serious impediment to their success Tit
promise never should have been cancelled
till something better had been put in it
place, yet one of the first steps Of any sue
cessful effort thereto is step which "cre
nation projects, and contraction" pro
clamations overlook the necessity Of, a stel
which such an open contractionist al
Amasa Walker was at last driven to fee
the necessity Of, to wit, the necessity, in I
country governed through universal suf
frage, of dissipating the vague alarms ant
even the unfounded fears Of any large clas
of people, having votes, that progress to
ward resumption will cause, either in the
wise process or the bene6cent result, ad
ditional disaster This is practical diff
Guilty which economists who are not states
men and hard money men who do not ap
preciate the essential conditions ofpolitica
leadership, are liable to underrate. Blu
it is a difficulty which Gov. Tilden, in hi
letter, handles, both as economist anC
statesman, with consummate sagacity.
You would persuade yourself that Gov
Hayes has no less firm convictions ant
purposes as to resumption aud other fnan
cial reforms than Gov. Tilden, and juml
to the inference that he will be no les'
! competent than Gov Tilden to carry thos
reforms to successful issue. The infer
ence is unsound; the premise false. Their
is no such equality as you allege, and 70
evidence one may prefer his public speechc
to your friendly preiudices.
GOV. HAYEs's FINANCIAL RECORD.
Gov. Hayes, in speech which he mad
at Hamilton, Ohio, in the summer Of 1856
; is authority for the statement that he "foI
lowed Thad. Stevens in voting for pro
position to issue one hundred millions il
greenbacks to pay compound-interest note
falling due" The very reverse Of tina
process is the plan for resumption adyoca