The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1879-07-31

II
To oblige Blaine, John Sherman di
obeyed the Civil Service order of IL
President and went to Maine, for IL
purpose. one would suppose from Il
? latter portion of his speech. of PEE
: sQadin2, Democrats not to vote th
, Gfeenback ticket. John Sherna
would have, doubtless, been wiser ha
4. he discussed the questions which b
tsays are more important than thoe
to which he did pay attention, fo
John Sherman in Maine, upon the f
nancial questions, is not an effectiv
speaker. In the little space be give
to establishing the proposition touch
ing the recent revival by the Deme
cratic party of the Southern doctrin
of States rights Mr.. Sherman does no
do himself justice. He drops int
falsehood and into various errors
d which he might not haye done had h
taken time to- properly discuss tbee
more important questions. The sre
vivaP Of which he speaks is not re
cent lit is as old as the Constitution
and was distinctly announced at til,
beginning of the century. 1t is not th'
Southern doctrine, but the Uniol
doctrine of States rights. There i
bnt one thing that deserves the dis
tinctive name of the Southern doctrine
Of States rights, and that is the doc
1trine OF secession, which is forever
annlhila!ed. There has been no sre
cent revival Of it, but because it il
forever destroyed it does not follow
as the Sherman creed asserts, that the
right of Stale is destroyed. Sherman
says that the attitude of the Demo.
cratic party to-day ia that of 'nullifica.
tiop,' aud that party did succeed in
practically nnllifying the law which
permitted horde OF Deputy Marahals
to use the Federal Treasury to cor.
rupt outrage, and it snuIiified' the use
of the army at the polls. 1t also null
lificd' by absolute repeal the tcst-o oath
fer jurors, the machinery for packing
jnries by statute. OF course, Sher-
man repeated the lie about the speech
Of Mr.. Blackburn, Of Kentucky, which
that gentleman himself exposed on
the floor of the House, and by the
repetition sought to show that it is the
fixed purpose of the party sto wipe out
every vestige of war legislation He
speaks of the men who participated
in refusing the necessary appropria.
tions for the support OF the Govern
ment,' crime the President alone has
committed, uuless he was aided by his
Cabinet, of which Mr.. Sherman him.
self 10 q member. Perhaps the most
preposterous charges made by the
Secretary against the Democratic par
ty of to-day are those Of revolution
and anarchy sRevolntion and anar-
chy' to attempt to repeal few stat
tes hostile to civil liberty, and to en-
deavor to return to the laws and Gus
toms under which the country pros.
pered nearly three q usrters of a GEN.
tury! Anarchy and revolution to
seek to restore the constitutional
forms of the 0te-6ezlum days when
there was no anarchy and when revo-
luton was unknown! Revolution to
repeal laws that revolutionized our
form of fGovernmentl
From this charge Sherman proceeds
TO his subject--tbe financial issues.
Here he is false in figures and facts and
false in logic. He. first speaks of The
panic OF 1878. He ennmerates its pos
sible causes, naming the waste of the
war, 'over.productIon,' aud irredeem-
able paper money emitting to name
The real causes, chief among which was
he enormous contraction Of the cur
'ency which began eight years before.
He himself admits that his own party |
applied expansion to the disease WHICH
had caused, lssuing $685.
100000 in greenbacks to relieve our
listress.' He mentions the Resump-
ion Act, and quotes from Democrats
prophecies as to the effect OF it; and a
areful examination will show that
learly all of them have been fulfilled.
ie speaks OF the success Of resump
ion,' admitting in passing that he has
My redeemed $7,976, sos Of green
'acks, TO do which he has added more
han one hundred millions of dollars
o the Understanding debt Of the
and is now boarding, locking
%, nearly two hundred and fifty mil
ons of dollars OF various kinds of
honey. He insists that resumption
1as not aided by Congress, as though
he passage of the Silver Bill did not
id it. He pretends to mention the
esults of resumption but he, of ;
purse, omits the real results of It,
Ihich cover years, and whose story is
'ritten in woe. The so-called re- ;
with the contraction that j,
it, has prodaced the most
results Instead of NAM ,
" these. Sherman mentions the abun-
ant crops among the results of re- ,
and specially alludes to the ;
eneral improvement of business
ise mind. lie makes some state !;
ents most nOtoriously false in this
art OF his discourse. He says, for ex-
nple: =
tThe only contraction that has oc- =
lrred since the passage of the Re-
lmption Act haa been by the volun- I
ry withdrawal by National Banks Of il
portion of their circulation when 8
Iey found it could not be profitsbly a
nplOyed in business. Every act done
lder the Resumption Act tended to
crease rather than diminish circula- b
on aud now that all this circulation 4
at par with gold, the coin itself be- i,
'mes an important factor in the vol r
ne of circulation, and swells the
Mount that ie available for the tran.