The New York herald., 1879-10-16


Ohio has been for the last twelve years the
hotbed has been blighted and killed by a
severe autumnal frost in the place where it
germinated. In other words, the 'rag
baby" has been strangled in its cradle.
The financial policy which, in the political
parlance of the day, has been called "the
Ohio idea" receives it's fatal death wound
in the place of its birth. as the image of
Dagon, the great god of the Philistines,
tell PROSTATE in his own temple.
The State of Ohio has been the pestilen-
tial breeding ground of financial heresies
ever since questions of debt and currency
rose into prominence after the close of the
civil war. The original and foremost apostle
of the greenback heresy was the amiable
Mr.. Pendleton, who sought and barely
missed a Presidential nomination in 1868
on this "Ohio idea" From that day to this
''the Ohio idea" has been protruded in
national politics, dividing and demoralizing
the democratic party, carrying it away
from it's ancient landmarks, stultifying it's
time-honored principles. and making ita
butt Of scoffing derision not merely to its
political opponents but to all honest
men. They who SOW the wind must
expect to reap the whirlwind, and it
satisfies the public sense of retributive JUS
tice to see the punishment fall on the very
authors of the fault. 1t is like the hanging
of Haman on the gallows which he had
himself erected. The democratic party of
Ohio is ''hoist by it's own petard." and all
citizens who value the reputation OF the
country for integrity and honor will re-
joice that the fatal blow is dealt on the
very spot where its effect will be
most instructive and will prove most
valuable as an admonition and warn
ing. If the democrats of any State could
have profted by the greenback heresy it
should naturally have been the democrats
of Ohio, the inventors and Jealous propa-
gandists Of ''the Ohio idea" Having been
crushed in the citadel OF its strength it will
hereafter disappear from national politics,
in which it has beeh SO long an element Of
danger and confusion. This utter defeat
veriies the lines of the poet:
But Error, wounded, writhes in pain,
And dies among his worshppers
1t is lamentable to behold what wrecks the
ssOhio idea" has made. Poor Senator Thur
man IT, in an evil hour. this truly able
man had not yielded his convictions to no
tions Of transient expediency and tam
pered with an idea Of which no statesman
had more clearly demonstrated the fallacy,
how different would the politically en-
quilted Mr.. Thurman's position be at
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politics but to have his epitaph written.
But if he had possessed the steady
courage to assert his principles without
fiinching he might have been to-day one Of
the first public characters Of the country.
The democratic party as whole has made
mistake not less shortsighted than the great
and fatal mistake OF Senator Thurman. All
its history. all fits traditions, all the great
principles tor which it contended in the
high and palmy days of its strength, all
the political battles which it fought and
won during the fifty or sixty years while
it administered the government and shaped
the policy of the country, gave it advan-
tages for assuming leadership in the restora-
ton of specie payments after the close of
the war. Through all its history up to the
passage of the Legal Tender act it had been
the strenuous and extreme champion of
hard money. It's most popular idol, Presi-
dent Jackson, won The chief triumph
of his administration by his success
full war on the old United States
Bank. Senator Benton. his great defender
in the currency struggles of that period. was
nicknamed ''Old Bullion" Van Buren,,
Calhoun and Silas Wright were the authors
and advocates of a system for divorcing the
government from paper and forbiddlng the
Treasury to receive or pay out any form Of
paper currency in its transactions. Such
was the old democracy. 1t was q hard
money party par excellence After the close
of the war party with this record had
only to stand by its time-honored prin-
ciples in order to reap all the political adj
vantages of return to sound money when
the time should come as it inevitably
would come, for the sound financial sense
of the country to recognize the mischief
and evil of an irredeemable, fuctuating
paper currency. Impatience to ride into
power on transient delusion of the debtor
class tempted the democratic party to fling
away the great advantage of its well known
historical position on questions relating to
money and to follow the "will-o'- -the-wlsp"
of initiation and ropudiation that has led it
into the bog in which the party is founder
ing. How strong, how commanding, how
impregnable might be the position of the
democratic party at present had it stood as
united, indomitable phalanx for hard
money Instead of this it has allowed
the republicans to become the nard
money party and TO occupy the solid
ground which was its own by tradition, by
inheritance, by the fame OF many hard
fought battles and famous victories on the