The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1877-11-29

Inc law, ne COnlnueup was not BOinB
to stop with this fall Of prices. Whoever
hugged the hope that the bottom had
been reached, had only to look at the
facts to know that lower and lower ground
had to be reached. A further fall of val
ues had to be witnessed. There had
also to be Witnessed greater poverty and
suffering, the practical conhscation of
property, and the reputation of large
part Of the public debts of the country.
He appealed to the money men whether
they would persist in their scheme of in>
fatuation Had they not heard enough
to warn them that they had better stopl
What meaning had the labor rots-that
almost civil war six months ago? The
meaning was that labor had been tramp
sd upon as much as it would stand. Go,
said he, to any of our cities, and see the
hundreds of thousands of pale, wan, rag
ged and hungry people. have seen
them clubbed out of the parks of New
York city at night-men who went there
hoping to lie down on the grass and get
little fresh air and cool resting place.
The thing has been pushed as far as it
will bear.
What are we to gain by inhicting such
losses on our industry and labor? What
is the great advantage to be accomplish
edI 1t costs this country in loss of pro-
ductive industries, in the unjust transfer
Of wealth from the debtor to the creditor,
in the unjust increase of taxation, in the
loss ol labor to wage-people more than
all the wastes of the rebellion combined
And what are we to gain by adding to
the enormous sacrifices of the rebellion,
a self inflicted sacrifice even more stu
pendous? Why, we are to get back to
the banking system which existed before
the war, modified little; little better
in one respect than the old State Bank
system, but a system the very genius Of
which will be panic a system which in
the very nature of things cannot be staN
Bile.
He spoke of the law for the payment
of bonds in gold as an act of reputation
of 50 900, ,ooo, 900 ofcoutracts, whose val
ues rested on it, and declared that the
repeDl of the law, and the putting back
Of those contracts to what was the un
derstanding of the parties at the time
they were made, was an act demanded
by every consideration of individual in>
terest and National honor lfthe repeal
of that law were reputation, the hapless
sufferers would not be the people at large
but the mea, probably, who had instiga,
ted the passage of the law, He quoted
Edmund Burke to the effect that it is to
the property of the citizen, and not to
the demands of the creditor of the State,
that the original faith of the nation is
given, and that the claim of the citizen
is prior in time. paramount in title and
superior in quality,
In conclusion, he said no greater ques.
ton than this was ever presented to an
American Congress for its action. 1t
touches the happiness, the prosperity,
the future of three~fourths Of the men,
women and children in this land Thou.
sands of men have been driven by the
Resumption Law to insanity or suicide
Hundreds Of thousands have been cast |
down from competency to poverty. Mil
lions have been deprived Of employment
for their labor, on which rests the de-
pendence of their families. tits now too |
late to right that wrong, but we may
avert any greater wrong from them, and |
millions by prompt action on the part of
Congress and the President. l do not
appeal to that money power which seeks
its fortune over the wrecked happiness
and the accumuations of its fellow men
a power to which our unhappy civil war
gave birth, which has grown so enor-
nous through unjust financial legisla'
ton; which now "bestrides our narrow
world like Colossus" which subsidies
the press captures statesmen and par
ties, and makes them its subservient
.ools. which hounds down and vilifes
every public man who dares to raise his
voice against it. That power, in the
lush and arrogance of its enormous and
IL gotten gains, has heart OF stone, not
% be touched by human sympaty and
appeal to the masses, to
heir faithful representatives, | thank
God, of both political parties, on this
door. The true aim of government is
he greatest goodto the greatest number,
and whoever, by legislation or other.
wise, changes the value Of contract, is
IS accursed as he who removes his neigh
oors landmarks. For twelve years the
past financial legislation of this country
has been dictated, one would think, in
Lombard street or Wall street; and the
people have been plundered by every
,resh enactment. They have suffered
he fate of the giant C'ulIiver, who was
led down by Lillputians. Thank God.
hey are now about to rise, to burst the
ponds which their petty foes have fast
ened upon them while sleeping, and to
walk abroad again in their own majesty.
Applause,
At the conclusion ofhis speech, which
vas listened to with the closest attenS
ion and interest on both sides of the
Mr.. Ewing yielded the floor to
Mr. Fort. who moved the House adjourn.
Mr.. Hale endeavored to have the
House adjourn until Monday but his
was rejected, and the House
adjourned until Tomorrow.