New-York tribune., 1877-11-23

think, would excite distrust and cast shaue
" on public credit. Who has attacked the pub
"Iic credit. or questions the obligation to pay
the public debtP Are the bondholders not re-
ceiying their interest, even in advance, and IN
" gold 1hcy trusted tie good tdih Of the people,
" aud there is no breach of that faith stand
" by the public credit. which Is pubic hohor
"and individual safety" At the beginning
of the same session of Congress (De-
cember 3, 1860, Mr.. Randall offered, IN
the House of Representatives. resolution
declaring, as the sense Of the House, "tEat the
"public debt created during the late rebellion
"was created upon the faith and honor OF the
"Nation that it is sacred and inyiolate, and
must and ought to be paid, principal ana IN
terest. and that any attempt to repudlate' OF
" in ana manner impair or scale the SAID deDt
should be universally discountenanced by the
"people and promptly rejected by Congress II
"proposed.n This resolution was Immediately
adopted, with only one dissenting voice.
Good faith was cheap in those days. The
debt had long while to run. Paper-m0ney
was plenty. Dishonest politicians had not DIS
covered the enormous amount of latent DIS
honesty which infects the more ignorant Amer
lean communities, and had not learned how
easy it is to excite the animosity of the man
who squanders against the man who saves.
Few suspected that in ten years the Nation
would he engaged in a desperate struggle to
preserve that honor which bIr. Hendricks
thought it absurd even to assert; nay,
that Mr. Hendricks himself would be
leader of those who attacked the
public credit, and made breach OF
the good faith of the people the cornerstone
Of their policy. If a resolution like that OF
Mr.. Randall's, which passed with one dissent
ing vote, were to be offered in the House OF
REPRESENTATIVES to-day, it would not pass at
ALL Mr.. Randall would not offer it, because he
knows that ms party would disapprove. The
Democracy insists to-day upon "imparnS the
"dcbt,n By making it payable in deprecated
and fuctuating currency and they tell us with
insolent frankness that, unless we consent totbls
partial and tentative reputation, they VIII come
back in the next Congress and "Wlpe out all
"thc bonds as with n sponge" They waste no
time in argument. They attack us with threaS
and violence, rs the highwayman attacks the
travellers; and if they succeed III this outrage,
of course they will 90 on to other ana Stlll
more dangerous assaults upon the public creoit'
teaching the masses that the man VINO lchGS
money is the natural enemy of the man VINO
borrowa, the man who saves his earn
ings and puts them in bond is
the oppressor of the man who spends
his earnings in whskey. Already, with the as
eistance of demagogues and crack-brains from
the other party, they have organized tre-
mendous opposition TO the plain, stralghtfor-
ward, honest course of keeping oar national
word, and living up to orr national profess
sIons. All who fancy that it is smart to cheat
creditor, all who hate those more prosperous
than themselves, all who regard it as a good
business principle to pay nobody except on COM
pulsion, and to keep no promise II there is
any way of getting ont of it, are up in arms,
helping the Democratic party to scale down
debts and impair the Obligations Of honor.
And this, then, is " the good faith of the
"pcople." This is the faith which Democratic
leaders. few years ago, thought it almost an
anront to hedge about with laws. This is the
integrity upon which rested the good name of
our country and the safety of individual for
tunes. For the present, we have reason
to hope, the schemes Of the repudiators
Will be thwarted. The President and the
in Congress will stand by each
other staunchly in defence of honesty. Bat if
the assailants are beaten off they are not de-
feated and in any event we shall find that
they have fixed Il stain upon the reputation
of the United states which years will not ef-
face. All over the world, if they are not
quickly and decisiyoly put down, they will
make american faith a synonym for swind-
linz