Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1878-08-14

morality, and affect to dread any contagion from
political corruption"
Dismissing then, as literary quack-
cry the ciyil-service, reform panacea,
and as ignorant SANDER the charges of
political corruption-asserting and be-
lieving that the affairs of the nation
have not only been more honestly, but,
on the whole, far moro ably administer
ed under recent Republican rule than
at any other period -four history, and
that it is vastly superior in both re-
spects, and in almost every respect, to
the government of any nation on the
earth-I come to questions of greater
importance and of more immediate in
terest.
But admitting, for the sake of argu-
mentor conciliation-tha civil-ser-
vice reform is vital issue, does any
sane man believe that it can be accom-
plished under National Democratic
rule? Let the entertaining history of
the Doorkeepers of the House of Rep
resentatives answer for me. Every APP
pointment made by them has been gov
erned by the old maxim of the Dem
ocracy, .sTo the victors belong the
spoils. pass on.
CAPITAL AND LABOR.
Capital and labor, the house Of Have
and the house of Want, present to US
an issue not yet decided.
Would the wealth-holders of the ma
ton be benefited by national Demo-
cratic victory? Would taxation be
less burdensome with the South en-
camped in the White House and in
both Houses of the Congress? ~Would
the national debt be secure under
Southern domination?
1t is time to speak the truth in plain
words, and .''the truth | shall speak,
impugn 1t whose listeth."
1 The South constantly pirates of its
honor The word is its substitute for
the Irishman's coat-tail at Donnybrook
Fair. Whose, treads on it must fight.
But the commercial history of Ameri-
ca shows that no section is so utterly
devoid of commercial honor as the
South has always been in its dealings
with its creditors of the North. 1t is
almost impossible to collect debts there
to. day, even when the debtors are SOL
vent.
What has been the financial record
Of the ex-Rebel States since the close
of the war? | believe that every one
of certainly nearly every one Of
them-as soon as it passed under Dem
ocratic control, has ''scaled' or
graded or compromised or ere
pudiated'' or silently refused to pay its
State and county and municipal debts
The history Of their financial action
has been an unbroken chronicle of bad
faith with their creditors. When these
things are done in all the Southern
States as separate communities, what
can We expect should the South obtain
control Of the finances of the United
States
The northregards the national debt
as solemn covenant with the creditors
of the nation. No property is regard
ed as SO sacred. The shadowy host of
all the patriots who died for their coun-
try encompasses and protects it.
Neither the sgreenback heresy" nor
the ''silver craze, as one class Of our
citizens were fond of calling certain re-
cent political phenomena, owed any es-
sential element of its popularity to
any desire to repudiatc the debt or any
part of the debt 1t was a dispute
only as to the Interpretation of con-
tract. The West is quite as honest as
the East. The ''silver men, were quite
as honest as the "gold men," Neither
East nor West proposed to refuse to
pay every dollar of the debt 1t was
simply with the West resolution to
refuse to pay more than it honestly be-
lieved was honestly due. That was all.
Denunciation does not change the facts
of history, and the West has shown
that denunciation cannot change its
convictions. If this issue, in any
other form, should arise again, it may
be we'll for the Eastern press to re-
member its utter impotency as "thun-
derer," so recently proved, and to ar
que hereafter on the basis that, while |
the West will listen respectfully to rea-
son, it will not consent to take the san
dals from off its feet when it enters the |
Wall Street Gold Exchange.
Does any man, whatever his politics,
believe that the South either does or
can regard the national debt as the
North regards it? To the South the
debt is perpetual Appomattox; gold
en- monument of its crushing defeat; a
cap of Gessler to which it is compelled
to pay daily homage. 1t is not in hu-
man nature to love the hand that
smites, even when one sees that the
blow was deserved-which the South
does not admit and can never see. The
national credit was the spring of all the
Southern woes. 1t armed our soldiers
and disarmed theirs; it pensioned our
soldiers and .disgraced theirs. Will
the South respect it? The Federal
Constitution alone cannot protest it;
for no constitutional guarantee can pre-
vent reputation by indirect methods.
Again, the national debt, although
protected by the agis of the Constitu-
ton, may be repudiated by national
bankruptcy. The Democracy have
shown, by their congressional action,
that they are eager to travel on that
broad road leading to national destruc-
IL |