Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1879-06-25

Gratis will do well to read and carefully con-
slider. 1t weighs the pros and cons, the
pretensions and ambitions of the Nationals,
and proves to them that if they are to wit
ness the triumph of their peculiar financial
policies it must be through the Democratic
party, with the only organization that can
successfully cope with the Republicans.
General Chalmers omits nothing worthy of
consideration at so important juucture as
this Ia in the political affairs of Mississippi,
and writes as She generally speaks-freely,
fairly and frankly.
The Letter.
HERHANDO, Mss. June %, 1879.
Messrs. W. B. MarShsll and A, < PTiddy, Charles
GENTLEMEN-Yourl letter of the thirteenth
instant inviting me to deliver a political ad-
dress at your meeting to be held on the
fifth of July next, has been received, but
regret my inability to accept your invitation.
l have taken a part in almost every po-
iitical canvass in Mississippi since | became
voter, and would be glad to take an active
part in this, which promises to be one OF
much interest and importance, but the con-
dition of my health forbids My system was
so much impregnated with malarial poison
by last summers fever that my physicians
have ordered me to spend this summer IN the
mountains and on the sea coast, for which
shall start as soon as | can arrange some le-
gal business hitherto neglected on account OF
public duties. You ask if | cannot be with
you that will write you lettar and give you
my political views, and you say I'VE are con-
fronted with anew party called Green hackers,
and while they are not very formidable now,
If they can unite the old defunct radicals
with them we may have trouble" have
watched the rise and progress of the new
party in Mississippi with much interest and
some surprise, With most of the principles
enunciated by the Greenback party In Mis-
sissippl, as far as | have seen them, l can
agree, and l think may safely say that nine
teen twentieths of the Democracy of
THE WRIST AND SOUTH
stand on the same platform. l can under
stand why q Greenback party might be
deemed necessity in any State where both
the Democratic and Republican parties are
committed to the gold standard of value and
consequent enhancement IN value of United
States bonds and all securities for debts, but
can see no good excuse for such party in
State ike Ohio or Mississippi, where the
great majority of the Democratic party is
thoroughly committed to the same platform
on which the more sensible class of Green
hackers stand, and where the existence of a
separate JGreenback party can only aid and
assist the Republicans. The persistence in
such q course shows the leaders to be more
anxious for place than the success of princi-
pie, and, in truth, shows them to be willing
to see their principles defeated rather than
see them triumph through the Democratic
organization. But, it is said, the Democratic
party is not united on the currency question,
and hence the necessity for Greenbackers. 1t
is true the Democracy are divided, and so are
the Greenbackers. Some, under Brick Pome-
roy and General Piatt, are running off after
socialism, communism and reputation, and
the fathers of the party have disowned the
bantling recently brought forth in Ohio;
some, under Ben Butler, are fat money men,
and hold to the ridiculous nonsense that the
government may print on anything, this Is
dollar" and, without any statute to define
what is meant by the word dollar, that this
thing, with nothing in the heavens above or
on the earth beneath to measure or define its
value, shall be the measure of value for every
article which labor produces; others, and, If
understand them correctly, the great body
OF the party, under
SAMUEL CAREY AND GENERAL WEAVER,
contend, with General Ewing and the west
| ern Democracy, that dollar shall be four
hundred and twelve and one-haf grains of
silver, or else one-sixteenth of that weight in
gold, and that Rreenback money, which Is
but paper promise to pay as many dollars
as may be named in the bill, shall be issued
| in sufficient quantities to supply the demands
of trade-that the United States bonds shall
be paid as rapidly as possible-and that ma
tiOpal bank notes shall be retired and their
places supplied with paper money issued by
the government direct. With this branch OF
Greenbackers | agree. Believing that paper
money, based on values and measured by
coin, is essential to commerce, l believe
greenbacks to be the best paper money ever
made Greenback money Is a result Of the
war, and one result of the war that am
anxious to see preserved, and yet the Repub-
lcan party, which pirates so much about pre-
serving the results OF tina war, would have
destroyed this result If the Democratic party
had not prevented it. While these vital dit
| ferences of opinion exist among the Green
! back party and while in its infancy IL has
| split In Ohio, the State of It's birth, 1t Ii
rather cool 10 them to ask party as old and
| long-tried as the Democracy to disband be-
| cause some differences Of opinion exist 10 ltS
ranks ON the currency question. Again, 1t Is
said the Democratic party, as party,
| through its organized source Of power, the
| National Democratic convention ut st. Louis,
| declared itself in favor OF what Is called the
| hard money platform, and that the soft
money Democrats obeJed the orders of the
convention and yielded their convictions on
| the currepcy question to the dictates of party
| leaders. This is
| PARTLY TRUE AND PARTLY UNTRUE,
| but il it were wholly true, it does not come
| with very good grace as a ground of obJec-
| ton from the leaders of the Greenback move
ment in Mississippi, every one OF whom were
1 Democratic supporters of the nominees OF
| the St. Louis convention. and bowed with
! equal servllity, If gentlemen so choose TO call
| it., 10 the dictates of that convention. The
| great and absorbing questions with the De-
| mocracy at that time were retrenchm9nt and
reform in the general government and the
restoration of local self-government to the
| States. Upon this we were a unit. We
| were divided on the currency question, and
/ when we selected as our most suitable leader
a har6-money Democrat, every soft-Eloney
| Democrat felt the necessity of so shaping our
| platform on the dividing issue as to represent
| the views of our candidate. The same con-
| diton of affairs still exists in the Democratic
party, and when General Tom Ewing, the
| great leader of soft-money Democrats, was
/ nominated for governor of Ohio, Frank
| Hurd, the embodiment of hard-money in
| that State, not with servilIty, but with manly
devotion to party, and q commendable deter
| minaiion not to contribute anything to he
| publican success, announced his intention to
| support the ticket. The same course will be
pursued in the next national convention.
| The soft-money Democrats will be in the
majority, and will select both
THE PLATFORM AND THE CANDIDATE,
| and all good Democrats will support him in
preference to a Republican without regard
| to the question of currency. 1t is, however,
a great question, and in my judgment the
! vital question now before the people; but it
| Is not so essential that every Democrat
should be driven from the party whose views
/ differ with the majority upon it. If arms or
race are 10 be paraded at the polls to iDfu-
ence elections in the south as they did in
1876, and if deputy marshals and supervis-
ors of elections are to disfranchise natural
/ lied citizens as Davenport did in New York,
| where, according to his boastful letter to the
Encouragement, he, by threats, intimidation
and false imprisonment, took away the
naturalization papers from thirty thousand
| American citizens, if the army IS to be as
sembled at Washington to intimidate con-
gress in counting the electoral vote, and if
| naval vessels are to be used as prison ships
| where a kidnapped President-elect can be
held against writs OF hdbeds corpus, then the
| question Of currency would sink into insig-
| niicance with all save those whose love of
money have destroyed their love of liberty.
| We have other issues besides those of cur
rency, and we cannot afford to drive out
| either
BAYARD OR EWING,
either the gold standard or the silverrstand-
ard Democrats, while they remain true on
other great questions of Democratic policy.
| Tho leaders IF the (ireenback movement in