The daily gazette., 1879-08-21
FIRST EDITlONl
WEN.DEIL PHILLIPS. !
SAVAGE CRITICISM OF sHERAiAN's FL
NANCIAL COURSE.

-.Ns 1t. - ..t4 H.I4.f
From the N. Y. Herald. -,
Wendell Phillips has just written q
letter to Solon Chase explaining his
views on the present financial condition
of the country. It is intended IS a re-
ply to Secretary ShermAn's great speech
in Portland, which has been SO widely
circulated. He arraigns the entire con-
duct of the Republic III leaders for the
past ten years, and especially their ne
|glect Of, the negro in the South. He
thinks that his prophecies in regard to
President Hayes "Southern policy
have been fulfilled and that the, party AZ
now In its decadencn, which he attrib.
utes to the breaking of all its most
sacred promises. "No party in our his
tory" says he, "has ever fallen from
such height or to such depth Of dis
grace"
After reviewing In his own way the
finances Of the Government lsIbse the
war, he continues -
THE NATION BANKRUPT.
What is its result? In 1855 the prop
erty of the nation was estimated at
$25, 900, ,OO0,00 In the opinion of the
best judges the nation is bankrupt to-
day. That is, If called upon to-day
to pay its national, State, city, county,
town and corporation debts, and for that
purpose its property sold at present
values, there would not be realized
from such sale enough to pay those
debts. Ifthe property could be sold at
its real worth, amply would 1t pay our
debts. But, il, sold at the prices TO
which Republican folly has reduced it
we are bankrupt. Prices the
world over were never so low as now.
Yet our producing classes are so unable
Ito buy what they produce, and their
wages are SO low, that we are forced to
export to find a market, and our ex-
ports exceed our imports, a very rare
thing in our history. Were it TO BE- 10
when fair prices ruled in the worlds
markets there would be great reason to
rejoice. But when q nation only, keeps
its spindles moving by selling goods to
foreign nations at cost, or even below
cost, or sends its products abroad be-
cause its people are too poor to buy or
use them-as Ireland has done for CEN
tury-such fact means loss, not pros
perity. 4I. .g..ni.,. 4
For the first time in our history legis-
latures and conventions have spent weeks
lin discussing "Tramps." Somany thou
sands of unemployed men and so many
more on the verge of want that in the
United States the masses are dangerous,
as in Mexico, Italy and Spain!. What
wickedness and folly have called this
element-so disgraceful to the govern
ment that creates-into our streets ?
The administration which takes busy
and prosperous country and turns it into
a land Of bankrupts; its streets full o!
Inen begging in vain for work, 81. driven
at the point of the bayonet, as in Penn
sylvania, to work at starvation wages !;
with 100000 men in America r0tti 6 liz
to criminals; our highways and country
towns, for, the first time in our history,
shrinking from the sight of stranger,
and our courts constituting every stroller
into a rufiian-such an administration
provokes only contempt and indigu alton
when it comes, before the people, and ex-
poets anything but the gravest condem-
We have been ruled by conceited and
shallow demagogues, made willing or "
norant tools by grasping capital, ruled by
Rothchild and Belmont, Gould and the
gold room, cajoling Congress, and using
our funds as speculative kites to serve
their selfish ends; ruled by what Cha
than called the "cannibals OF Wall
street." merciless Shylocks, laughing at
the ease with which they have cheated
our bank presidents and boards of trade;
cody killing the goose that was laying
the golden eggs, and leaving gulied pres
idents and boards astonished at the Jug
glers who left them table of empty
cups, while their own pockets were full
Of gold. .J1aIlA.s. ,,o.
we are not ruined, .sBusiness. is still
alive, and seems reviving."
But my friend, It Is as impossible to ar
swer John Sherman as to find fault with
a weather-cock. That can always claim
that it points the way the wind blows,
and so can he. There Is no doctrine In
finance that he has not denied; no prin-
ciple on either side that he has not scout
ed. His record will be equally good,
whether hard money carries the. day OF
.-.s4.. ~HAvE WE RESUMED ?"
Another bold-taced Munchausenism is
Sherman's assertion that we have re-
sumed. He knows perfectly well that
in this matter the administration has
.skept its promise to the ear and broken
it to the hope" He knows that, in he
sense in which Congress ordered resump-
ton, and hard money men threatened
and expected resumption, and us what
they are fully resolved to finally make
resumption, 1t has never cones aud that
no government would have dared to al
tempt it. The Greenbackers claimet
and proved that at any time during the
last five years Government might have
resumed ii It would let the greenback
live, aud be receivable at the Custom
House. The hard-money men secuted
both conditions, and proudly proclaimed
they would resume on the grave OF the
preenback. When the time came they
Submitted gladly, like coy maidens, only
too Glad to be conquered, to rei.suing
the preenback, and Sherman himself
violates the law enry day in ordering
them to be received for duties. He knows
that hs Is obliged to do this; that with
ont it resumption would be failure.
Ocly by submitting to the superior Wis
dom ofthe.r opponents, and al oy vlo-
latipg their own absurd and wicked leg
islation are they able to-day tO play this
farce off sumption. Hypocrisy has been
we'll defined as the 'shomage Woe pays
to yirtue.n Sothis cunning triclof the
kbankrupt Republicans sis stealing the
I ,s--Ir - ,,.,,nn * earua fha devil in