New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1877-12-28

merely material point of view, to DO honest
and pay our debts promptly, in full, without
evasion or bubble. Men reputed to be honest
and honorable in all their individual transac-
tons are so liable to have distorted
views of duty, when their personal re-
sponsibilty becomes merged in society
or the State; it is so easy to unload
upon a corporation or the mass OF voters the
responsibility for sharp practice and question:
able proceedings, that it is not always aD-
solutely safe upon financial questions to trust
TO the unselfsh moral sense OF the community
for right conduct and rigid morality. When
the principle of honesty and the policy OF
self interest are in accord-as indeed
they always are, if men would only
see tit is wise not to neglect the
appeal to selfish considerations. 1t might be
dificult in face of the smooth plausibllites
of the nilationists, to persuade majority OF
the people to resist the temptation to financial
dishonor, by an appeal simply TO their sentl-
ment of honesty, or love of integrity and FAR
dealing. But once convince them that qulD-
bling and haggling about payment are unpro-
ftablc. as well as dishonOrdblc, and there Is
no further difficulty in the matter.
1t is not an exalted view to take of human
nature, it must be confessed, but observation
and experience have shown it to be correct
and we may as well acknowledge it. We shall
pay our debts in full and escape the ruin of re-
pudiation, simply because we have the IN
tcllicence to see and understand that 1t
is more profitable to pay than repudiate, and
that by building up our credit we are increas-
l,,, no al n
solid prosperity. After we have accomplished
it, we shall of course cOddle ourselves with the
delusion that our motives were without the
least alloy Of selfishness; that we resisted
temptation to enrich ourselves at the
expense of our creditors, and that
purely for the sake of principle we made great
sacrifices to pay our debts in full. We al
ways do that. There is IA notion, we believe,
that the North took up arms against slavery
from motives Of the highest philanthropy, and
that emancipation resulted from our cOnscien-
tiOus opposition to the institution. Well, 1t Is
true that, in measure, it did, the
aroused conscience of the North being
the first cause which provoked agitation
and discussion; but this sentiment alone, as
everybody knows, would never have effected
abolition. 1t was the strongest kind of self
nterest-the instinct of self-preseryatiOn-
that brought it about at last, not as matter
of philanthropy, but as a war measure, made
necessary by the circumstances OF tine case.
All the same we boast of 1t as though motives
of pure humanity had actuated us, and we had
not been driven to it by the stress OF circum-
stances and the logic of events There Is no
objection to il. Let us eXalt ourselves while
we may. so by and by, when we have come
safely through the perils of reputation, with
which Democratic successes have surrounded
us, there will be no harm in our INDUCING
in similar eXultatiOn over our answering nom
esty which would not listen TO the song OF the
tempter, but paid up the public and private
creditors at the rate of one hundred cents on
the dollar. Just now, however, it will be wise
TO adopt the suggestion above referred to, and
appeal to the intelligence of the country, sim
ply as a matter of business policy, to sustain
the credit of the Nation.
1t is upon the Intelligence of the people that
we must depend, not merely to sustain the
good name of the Nation, but to preserve the
credit so essential to National prosperity and
individual success. The world does not
doubt the ability of the United States
to pay, ont OF their bOundlcsS resources,
every dollar of their Indebtedness, at its
full face in the recognized coin of the world
We do not doubt our own ability. 1t is only
question OF disposition and will. In the
midst Of prolonged and severe business de-
preston and the straits of great financial dis
trcsa, the demagogues who play upon the
passions and prejudces and weakness
of the ignorant, press forward schemes
for eyading payment, or postponiag it
indefinitely, or scaling it down. anything so
they can injuc the credit or debase the coin
of the country. The present duty is to resist
these insdious beginnings of population and
keep aloft the standard of National honor. We
shall only be safe when the intelligence of
the country is thoroughly imbued with the
JrIctical, cOmmon-sense, business idea that
nothing pays but to pay.