The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1879-10-30
Tbs Ohio idea

The VALLEY Virgfniah'' does us gross in
instce in saying that we have ever been az
fiicted with. 1.-THE Ohio idea.' That paper
ought to know II it does nos that the Dis
DafcA delivered many of the hardest blows
which greenbackism ever received. We were
Rerer "Greenbackers. We neper endorsed
Athe Ohio idea" And we were so much sur
ptised TO find the Virginian charging lis
with that sin that we at once turned to our
files to see whether it could be possible we
had ever said anything which could pss
bly bear such construction. We found in a
moment the article the Virginian refers to
Lin the Dispatch Of August 10, 1878. The
Virginian will be surprised to learn for we
assume that it spoke what it supposed to be
the truth-that in the very article in which
we commented upon the Thurman platforme
and spoke OF him as the probable nominee
OF the Democrats for President, we took the
utmost pains to represent him as opposed
to fat money, to imitation of the currency,
and to all that is generally understood to be
meant when the words ''the Ohio Idea' are
employed. We were at the time engaged in
bitter warfare upon the heresy Of green
pacSism and SO we tried to make it appear
clearly in our comments upon Mr.. Thur.
mans speech that he was not Greenback
luna.ic. The burden OF our article was the
difference between Thurman and the green
hackers. In the Dispatch of July 10th, only
q few weeks previous, we had made the best
argument We could in favor OF the national.
banking system, and it is not at all likely
that nnder the circumstances we should have
endorsed ''the Ohio idea.'' We were, we re
peat, at that very time waging unrelenting
war upon ''the Ohio idea" The most that
we did say was that we could stand upon the
platform of Mr.. Thurman as explained by
him, he having declared that it meant ian
honest and stable currency We quote Mr..
Thurman:
II have been the advocate of stable curren-
cy, and your platform demands stability.
l have contended that the precious metals
ought not to be demonetized and the platform
asserts the doctrine"
But we were not satisfied to let anybody
suppose that we agreed with the whole Of
MIR. Thurman's platform. Whilst we said
that 1--WE could stand upon that platform
beside the distinguished Senator from Ohio, :"
we said futher in the same article:
s'Let us say that these are exactly the
things which the Dispatch has advocated and
still advocates, acith the exception that ace
haze not favored the substitution Of green
backs for national bank notes. SC, &c,
That one remark contradicts the, VIRGIN
IAN's statement (made undera wrong i'm
pressioD) directly. 1t fully clears us Of the
entirea charge which that journal brings
against us. II we had room for our article,
1t is column and half) and the subject
were before the public just now, we should
be glad to reproduce the whole fit. We ask
the VIRGINIAN to do us justice. OF all hum
bugs, greenbackism is the baldest.- dispatch.
We publish the DispatcA's defence as
presented by itself, to the brief allusion we
made to its endorsement of the ''Ohio idean
in 1878. The SOHO idea'' was Mr.. Thur
mans child ard not Mr.. Ewing's. He
Haunted it In his Hamilton county speech
in 1878, when he sounded the "key-note,"
and briefly stated, was receivability of green.
backs for custom dues opposition to what
he termed ''forced resumption in the
financial policy Of the government as rep
resented in the Resumption Act and in
favor of substitution of greenbacks for
national bank currency. He further charged,
as we'll as we now remember, the prostra-
ton of business, commencing in 1873, and
the loss Of confidence, resulting in the col
lapse OF inflated business enterprises, to the
policy necessary to reach resumption. AS
we stated on the 10th, these views are a
modification of Mr.. Ewin9's extreme green
back notions. Certainly Mr.. Thurman was
very pronounced against the national banks
in bis Hamilton county speech, as he has
been since in his public remarks. These
were the points Mr.. Thurman advanced and
maintained in his Hamilton county speech.
The Dispatch endorsed them at the time, in
the editorial to which we alluded, and which
we regret that it did not republsh, espec-
tally as we write from our remembrance Of
what occurred over year ago.
1t is not our disposition to do the Dispatch
or any one injustice, and hence we should
like to know whether our cotem porary en-
dorses that Hamilton county speech now
more particularly the opposition to the Re,
sumption act, now an execute law, and the
national banks, and whether it fayors Mr..
Thurman for the Democratic nomlnation
for the Presidency