Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1880-08-26
The Plumed Knights Arguments
Timely. Potent and Absolutely
UnanSwerable.
Excellent Work of the National and
Congressional Republican Com
mittee.
Why Prof. Taylor is for Gen. Gar
feld---A Manly, Courteous and Able
Letter on the Subject.
SENATOR BLAINE TO THE FRONT.


Senator Blaine, in his first speech in the
Maine campaign, depicts in letters of liv-
ing light, the enormOusness of these offens-
es against the good name of the nation,
and against the republican effort to restore
specie resumption. His citations of the
votes Of distinguished democratic leaders
are SO opposite and SO pertinent, and So
undeniable, that he literally presents such
of the United States on the question of
paying the national debt, and a redeem
able currency. that it would seem impos-
sible that any man with patriotic instincts
could sustain the men and the party that
voted for and advocated these atrocious
measures.
As bad as the record of the democratic
party was on the question of the war, it has
been even worse on the question of finance,
because its leaders have acted in opposition
to the teachings of Jefferson, the founder
of their party.
Senator Blaine thus paints the blackness
of the democratic record:
The three great enactments that brought
a sound currency to the people were,-
first, the act to strengthen the public cred
it in 1869; second, the act to provide for
the refunding of the public debt in 1870;
and third, the act for the resumption of
specie payment, passed in 1870. Against
every one of these measures the democrat
ic party offered a stern resistance. | be-
/ lU TO in hot
in neither branch of congress did any one
of these great and essential measures re-
ceive the support of single democratic
vote. Messrs. Thurman and Bayard the
leaders of the democratic party in congress,
united in a vigorous opposition to these
measures. When the act of 1869, declar-
ing that the United States would pay its
obligations in the money of the world, was
pending, Mr.. Thurman and Mr.. Bayard
both voted for proposition to pay off the
public debt at the rate represented by its
coin value at the time the loans were nego-
tiated declaring In the amendment they
supported that this was the just measure of
the obligation of the United States; and
when this amendment was rejected, Mr..
Thurman offered and Mr.. Bayard voted
for an amendment excepting the 5-20
bonds, then more than half the public
debt, from any obligation of coin payment.
Had the policy advocated by Mr.. Thur
man and Mr.. Bayard and the whole demo-
cratic party been sustained, the public
debt would have been paid off at from SO
to IS cents on the dollar, the Nation would
have been dishonored, and its public cred
it forever blasted. The proposition main
tanned by the democratic party at that
time was more sweeping in its terms, and
more disastrous in its certain consequences
than any of the modern greenback her
estes.
The second great measure to which |
have referred was the funding act of July
ii, 1870. That statute, under whose bene-
ficent operation such relief has come to
the taxpayers of the United States, was
opposed at every step by the entire demo-
cratic party in congress-Mr. Thurman
and Mr.. Bayard, as usual, in the lead.
The provision exempting bonds from taxa
ton was absolutely essential to funding
the debt at a low rate of interest. Yet Mr.
Bayard offered and advocated an amend
ment striking out this provision from the
law, al all the democrats in congress
voted with him. Mr. Bayard further ad-
vocated the substitution of the old state
bank system for the national bank system
"a measure fraught with merciless disas-
ter to the whole financial and commercial
community. Happily, the republican
party was able to defeat this destructive
proposition, and the funding act of July
IA, 1870, was placed on the statue-book.
AT the time of its passage seven-eights OF
the public debt was bearing six per cent.
interest, to-day scarcely One-eight of the
debt bears that rate, and next year, if the
republican policy is preserved, all the re-
mainder of the 6s will be funded at per
cent. When the war closed the annual in
terest of the public debt exceeded $3.50, ,00O,-
900; to-day, under the financial policy of
the republican party, the annual interest
is less than SS0,0O0,000 and the principal
of the debt has been reduced more than
$SO0,OOO,0OO. The third and crowning
measure of the republican financial policy
was the act of 1875 for the resumption of
specie payments. passed by the republican
party over the united opposition of the
democrats, not single democratic senator
or representative voting for it, and year
and half after its passage the democratic
party in national convention. by un-
animous vote, demanded the repeal of the
resumption act, and if their be one prom
inent democrat in the United States who
separated himself from his party on
that question his name has escaped my OBJ
servation.
| have not singled out Mr.. Thurman
and Mr.. Bayard in any offensive sense,
| but simply the leaders of the demo-
cratic party, and the record shows that
every step taken for the restoration of
specie payment and the better adjustment
of the national debt has been opposed,
hindered, and obstructed by both these
eminent senator's and by all their follow
ers; nor is it in the light ofto-day any ex-
aggeration to say that if the policy advo-
vated by them had been adopted by them
had been adopted, the finances of the
country would still be in confusion, the ma
tionaI credit would have received fatal
blow, and an effort at steady progress and
orderly development of the great business
and commercial interests of the country
| would have been vain and fruitless. If the
measures | have quoted and the records L
have referred to correctly depict the
course of the democratic party in the past,
what might you expect from it in the
future? And in the light of this expert