The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1878-04-24

erty and to cover their pakedness. God and
nature and the manufacturers of the coun-
try have all been good to us. But the hand,
the cruel grip, of miserable financial policy
has been upon us since 1873, and for five
years we have been, as IL were, in vice
each year making the pressure worse
and worse, until We are fast
becoming nation of bankrupts
General Jackson once said: 'It is not in a
splendid government that the American
people may expect to find happiness, but in
'one that is justly and economically admin
'isteredn The wisdom of these words COM
prehend the whole difficulty of our national
embarrassment. The justice which should
have marked the policy of our government
for the last ten or fifteen years was ignored
in its legislation in regard to our finances.
Gold was exalted above blood. The poor
crippled soldier has been forced to take his
the country, while the bondholding specu-
lator has been assured that his bonds should
not be taxed and that the interest and prin-
cipal should both be paid in coin as good as
gold. This was the wicked injustice which
the policy of the republican party
perpetrated upon the soldiers OF the Union
and this was the financial grab which was
given to the bondholder. Then followed in
the same line of unjust legislation the ma
tional bank theory of giving to the bond
holder the privilege of obtaining six and ten
per cent on $4,000 for every 100000 he
held. which has enabled him to patch over
with mortgages the most valuable property
and interests of the whole country. Then
this was not all. They clandestInely passed
bill demonetizing silver, and on top OF that
another bill to resume on a gold basis of cur
rency and exchange by January, 1879. Such
legislation as this, followed by contraction
of the currency, would bring any people to
ruin, and it has so resulted in our present
financial misfortunes.
In these and in hundreds of other inter
ests republican legislation has been destruc-
tive of the public property. 1t is no wonder
that the people of the land mourneth. But
just turn over now to another page and look
at the extravaganza OF the republican party.
They began with the president, and
doubled his salary they increased the salar-
led offices of the country from 45, 600 to 90
OO0 they filled the offices at Washington
with three or four times as many clerks and
employees as were really needed; they have
pensioned for life on the government hun
dreds of men who had no more claims to
such honor than the man in the moon; they
have multiplied offices Of emoluments until
our national revenue is exhausted to pay the
salaries of the men who fill them. They have
grown rich amidst all our financial and ma
tiOnal calsmities.
II is not therefore matter of wonder that
their wealth has made them respectable in
church and state. They wear good clothes;
they drive fine horses; they ride in fine car
riages; they live in fine mansions. The
bondholder has doubled his wealth within
the last four years, and the Shylocks of the
country are twice as rich as they were
But where are the people-the working
men. the poor men of the land? Have they
not been living now for years on the very
verge of poverty and starvation? Has not
our whole land been filled with American
citizens, who once had bread to eat and
clothes to wear, who are now only
vagabond tramps? They have no
work. and they have been forced to beg.
They are cursed for being poor in 'the best
government the sun ever shone upon"
We have looked at all this injustice and
extravaganza until we have grown sick and
disguised even with men, and we have
asked if there is not coming storm of pub
lie indignation that viii sweep from the
land the last vestige of this party corrup-
ton as with a mountain avalanche. 1t
must come. A free people. will not submit
to any such enslavement. The storm is
coming. No one can stop it until it drives
out of power the reigning dynasty as with
the bosom of destruction. We are willing
to bde our time, for we know that God and
truth and justice are on the side of the poor.