The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1878-07-14
DECENTRALIZATION.
THE TELLERs OF TIE sOIL-DECAY OF
AMERICAN CHARACTER.
The Grant MOvement-PayIng Debts with
q DEMONSTRATING Prevalence of the
GreenBmCk Movement In New York.

Thinking that 1t would be the proper thing
TO celebrate the glorious Fourth among the
graves Of my sires, as the late A. Ward once
feelingly remarked, left the swelterinR city
Of Washington and HE'D me toward the North
Pole Immediately after mailing my last let
ter touching the annual war between the
whimsical government of Mexico and the
fraudulent government of the United States.
Under present circumstances, think the less
that Is said about the glorious Fourth the
better II we had President who was wholly
free from suspicion as an accessory before or
after the fact Of subornatiOn of perjury and
forgery, and Secretary OF the Treasury
with at least shadow Of presumption to eX-
culpate him from the principalship of that
crime, all might with some decent regard
for appearances, throw up our hats and hur-
rah for the spirit Of '76. pouring the while
copious libations to the memory OF the faith
ers, to whose simple minds Returning Boards
were unknown and who had no use for jerks
families.
There was lack of enthusiasm this
Fourth. True there was about 5he
average prevalence Of the inebl ated
rustic at the way stations through PeInsyl-
vania and Southern New York, whittier our
train sped: the larger towns had the custom
airy brass bands and the usual professions; ;
but for all that the day lacked the healthy,
hearty flavor Of the times before the war
when we had q common country, common
memories and our Presidents were honestly
elected. Possibly such talk may seem to
SAVIOR OF cant, but really 1t is impossible TO
move about among the people-the yeomanry
OF the rural North-withOut discovering that
the electoral count and its attendant scandals
have wrought deep and abiding impression
upon the minds OF men. You know that the
hale good sense Of the
TJLLERS OF THE SOIL
has, in all days and In all lands, been the
mainstay of free institutions. Whether the
''embattled farmers" of Concord Bridge the
sturdy mountaineers who took the shock of
Tarletop at the Cowpens, the frOntiersmen
who charged up the rugged sides Of Kings
Mountain, or the backwoodsmen of Tennessee
and the planters Of the bayOus who lay be-
hind Jackson's cotton bales at Chalmette /;
whether one or all of these, | say, the bone
and sinew Of our system, the architects of our
success and the heroes of our glory as q
nation OF large, have always been the tillers
Of the soil. 1t has been my custom to think
lightly Of
THE DECAY OF THE AMERICAN CHARACTER
In greatagglomeration of population like New
York, Philadelphia, etc, where no end of emor-
alization and social nastiness arises from our
people copying the bad morals of the French
and the bad manners of the British without
acquiring either the grace of the first or the
solidtty Of the last; to think lightly and even
carelessly Of this tendency, because of my
faith In the steadness of the rural popula-
ton to right the balance. But unless the
signs are all deceptive the Northern farmers
and country people have degenerated along
with their brethren of the cities and larger
towns. At all events the ancient simplicity
Of mind ls gone, and with 1t has disappeared
the rigidity of morals and the habit OF homes
ty in the affairs OF life. Years ago
THE TRADITIONAL YANKEE
who came South, and scandalized the COM
munity by his greed aud his dishonesty was
usually the black sheep of some family flock
in New England and the Middle States, who
had left his hearth for the hearth's good, and
whose exit was not regretted. But nowadays
the whole flock will be found changed to the
color of the single prOdigal in days gone by,
and there is no longer any sound-hearted
balance of power In the yeOmanry of the
North to set over against the gangrenOus
vice of its great cities.
The slow, remOrseeSs reaction from
THE FLUSH TIMES OF THE WAR
has gradually ground these people down until
they would have been had the verdctDf Get
tysburg been other than 1t was, and had peace
been dictated by Lee at Jersey City instead of
by Grant at AppOmattOx. Ii this universal
depression Of communities and this settled
melancholy of a whole people were due to
poor crops or any other visitation of nature,
1t would not be strange or startling. But the
crops were never better. The land teens
with plenty and the barns and bins of the
Northern farmers are bursting with fulness.
Prices are low, Of course, but relatively to
the cost Of living they are fair and equitable.
One hundred dollars will move the same vol
ume of general business now that $3.50 would
have moved ten years ago, and as this rule
applies equally to all the concerns of life,
there Is really no ground for complaint on the
part Of any single class at what seems to them
the low price obtainable for the results of their
labor. Under these circumstances 1t Is evil
dent that we must look beyond mere shrink
age of prices for the cause of the mental de-
preston amounting to apathy and the mate
rial prostraton amounting to lethargy, which
But ~ wa '''>-' ''-I' ~ ''ii' y
THE TRUE CAUSE
Is not hard to find. 1t lies in the fact that
ninety-seven out of every hundred people in
the community are heels over head in debt to
the other three; debts contracted when the
money of the country was worth only about
forty cents on the dollar, with labor and every
thing else in proportion; debts that must now
be paid in money worth 100 cents on the dol
lar, with everything else in ratio. That Is to
say, a man living In this community must
now work two days and half to pay the
same debt which one days work would have
paid ten years ago. This state Of things Is no
riddle. 1t Is as plain as stark noon or the nose
on your face that these debts are unpayable,
and their existence entails
SPECIES OF sERFDOM
on the part of the debtors. The mass of the
people here are Just beginning to realize this
fact Their present SerfdOm to the holders
of their Indebtedness has begun to Cypress
them and they commence to see that unless
there is some relief and that very soon, the
titles to their lands mustpas from them, and
the homes they and their ancestors have
reared among these beautiful wales must be-
come the property Of strangers, while they
themselves sink into the business status OF
tenants and to the social scale of peasantry
This condition of things Is gradually
breeding
THE GEksls OF A REVOLUTION.
The moneyed classes of the North, with
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