Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1878-06-11
laiIp Sirnnrbct soarnai
AUG u - IA,
Tuesday Morning. June IL, 1878.
Solon Chase Reviewed.


speech do much to create the impression
that he is honest. We fear, however. that
he is not so honest as he appears-that
underneath that honest farmer-like appear
auce, there is the craft OF an arch dema-
gogue. and that he is not by any means
the Scion Chase which he seems to be.
We are led to this opinion by an article
which appeared in the Lewiston Gazette
of last week, in which Mr.. Chase's career
as politician" and his course in rela-
ton to financial matters is shown up and
reviewed. According to this it appears
that Mr.. Chase has belonged to all parties.
been everything by turns, and remained
with no party long, and that his course on
financial questions has been as erratic as
that OF a comet. the doctrine of his Poor
Mans Tract of eleven Years ago being
Numerically opposed to the doctrines
which be now teaches, while he then as
now claimed to be speaking as the friend
of the laboring poor. What the Gsz atte
says upon this matter seems to be so well
authenticated that it cannot be successful
" contradict ID, and we therefore copy
from that paper:
Mr.. CHASE POLITICALLY.
"when the republican party wa, formed Mr.
Chase was q wing. While calling himself
straight whg he went with the democrats in
or two elections. During the war he was elected
by the repu blcans to the legislature for two years
IL lal - kwaa ,.tt, ~.
republican party, he undertook, by the use of fed
ersl Offices and the vast patronage at his com
mand, to buy the support he soreiy needed, 50
that it was well understood throughout the cOun-
that any active politician who would enter upon
his defence and support would get his due reward.
Accordingly our unique friend of the poor
man" speedily developed into jealous johnson.
tie. and the substantial result of this novel exhi
bitiou Of consistency" WAS his appointment AS
collector of internal revenue for this district Ia
the meantime Congress passed the Tenure OF
Office Act, and when the Senate assembled they
would not confirm the appointment, aud an un-
grateful country turned this struggling patriot
out of his comfortable berth in less than six
months. BY q curious coincidence, his interest in
the johnson movement was observed to suddenly
collapse Just about this time. He then transferred
his valuable allegiance to the democratic party,
until, by q subtle process of evolution from his
inner consciousness, he WAS suddenly converted"
to greenback principles
SOLON CHASE AS A INANCiER.
We do not here refer to Mr., Cha,e's experience
as a practical fnancier in his interests but to
his curious~ Consistent record as a fnancier 10
the wider field Of National interests. Eleven
years ago, Mr. Chase was Is loud a champion of
''the poor man" a he is today. Eleven years ago
be had definite aud positive views about Nation
al finance as be has to-day AID as bitterly
opposed to money Kings" and "Bloated Bond
holders" and, animated by those principles, be
published eleven years ago his Poor Mans
Tract" copy of which now lies before us, aud
which we ind mighty inerestin reading" in
connection with his more recent uitcrauces.
Mr.. Chase is never weary of expstisting now
upon those "hush times" which made n perfect
Paradise for the poor man until "the rObber re-
sumption act came and swept it all away.
Nevertheless, writing in the midst of those flush
times" be declares in the opening sentence of
his Tract that ut is hard winter for the poor
man. That is the keynote of the entire pamph-
let. Neither WAS that the first hard winter. He
says I'VE must eat less meat and coarser bread,
60 thinner clad and burn less wood than we did
last winter and then, zoe had TO practice strict
economy in all these Miags" Again he says
Taxes are high, work is dull and wages low and
many of us have hard time to earn q living"
This was in the flush times" he now talks so
much about, when paper money was plentiful,
and before "contraction" had done its deadly
work.
Now he delights to dwell upon the ruin"
which continually followed the finsncis policy of
the government before the war But in 1867 he
said Before the war we never knew anything of
the burdens of the United States governme ut, we
only knew its blessings" Now Mr.. Chase cannot
say too much in favor of an riedeemable paper
- currency, and is ceaseess in his demand that it
be made 1.-THE permanent currency of the coun-
try" Eleven wears ago, before there was
any complaint of scarcity of the article
be said that the poor is "rOJbed by a
appreciated paper currency" The ifredeemsnle
paper currency he now advocates he then referred
10 In almost every page OF bis Tract as one of
the chief evils Of the working man, and in his
enumeration of needed reforms in the poor mans
favor, continually insisted upon the necessity of
doing away with the currency.
In the name Of the people be demands a reform
BY which the dollar will cease to be an unknown
and variable quantity, but will be known quaint
~ worth one hundred cents" Aud he states how
this reform mus be brought about when he SAYS,
1--WE are robbed by debased paper currency and
acGat specie payments" Aud because the govern.
ment was not then prepared to resume Specie
payments, he reluctantly confesses that ave
must bear the disgrdes a spell longer Of seeing the
crippled soldier paid bis pension IN debased cur
reney." MIR. Chase has become wonderfully rec
onciled TO this "disgrace" since then! Again.
specie payments as Mr.. Chase then correctly Gun
derstood 1t, means to pay your debts, and the
government, he declared. did not paw its debts
and that the only "pan of resumng specie paw
men's is the old-fashioned one Of paying your
debts, which can only be carried out by work,
thrift and taxes"
Mr.. Chsse's views Of reputation and on ,ho
question OF the payment Of the bonds were slso
very different eleven years ago from what tboU
appear TO be now and the passage is worth ono,
ing as showing what Mr.. Chase then took 10 no
the prevailing sentiment and UNDERSTANDING On
those subjects among the poor men whon 10
claimed 10 represent. lie says: NJ
Since Congress first opened the opes,,o, e
repud lalioD, men In Congress and out OF ConSross
haze adpocdtsd theories s9uintng to,rard y.n,,J;n'
ton, conspicuous among whom is General RAIL-,
HIS theory is to pay the principal of the Five.
Twenty Bonds ID deprecated paper money
according TO the Letter of the law, as he .ars
In advocating this theory he asked Horace C;-eo
ley If the principal Of the Five Twentio. /. nayo
bic IN gold how Is II that these bonds hearing 81;
per cent interest in gold, sell in Lopdon for siv,
cents ou dollar, while at the same time ,he
boods OF other Countries, bearing three or fonr
per cent. interest sell for 100 cents ON a doliar
Horace replies, Because there are TOO man., r.
Bvaters IN the country driring at reDufjgt;oo
Let us carry this inquiry little further Wbo,
Is the snImus OF Gen. Buffers poper money theo.
~! Why does he propose to pay the princnaI of
the fve-I wentes 10 deprecated paper money
sfhen erergbody kn0rs that gold ,rqs ,seantS II;
because the flve-Twenties escaps taxation.
we have nothing TO add to these extracts
they speak for themselves. Taken .Ione tbor ~
hbit degree Of Inconsistency and f-cont,sdic.
ton seldom equaIled even in the nresao,