The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1881-11-24
Reputation.

We propose to prove that the Repub-
lican party is the party of Reputation.
and chat it has n numerous cases
broken faith with its creditors and with
the people.
If there ever was an act of Green
back Reputation" it was the original
Legal-tender act which made deDts
contracJed ON coin basis PAYABLE in
deprecated paper. This need not have
been an aut o. Reputation if the Grt en-
backs had not been purposely depre
GATED. rs Sherman teStiiies, to float
the bonds Alter some of these notes
ha't been put into circulation in ex
chan G for services and materials fol
Carving on the war they We're pur-
pOse'y deprecated, first, bv inllat ng
thefr volume beyond the needs of the
Government, and. second, by repudiat-
ing their converJibiiity into bonds as
was contracted when the people re-
ceived hem. THIS act OF depreciation
aud reputation was made in the in
tere.t OF Wall street, to enable the
bankers to buy up the Governm ut
notes at smait per cent. on the dollar
so as to convert them andt cir accrued
interest into bonds at maturity.
That over 81 800. 000, 900 of Green
backs and Treasury notes were thus
purposely depreciated fifty per cent
while in the hands of the people, in
order to purchase the Government bond,
at half their face value. there is the
most positive official proof.
The Government, controlled by the
Repub lean party, repudiatCd its con-
tract with its soldiers when it depreci-
or no ry,y h iob baxr
That the bonds were, by the law aU-
thorizing their issue, parable in this
same deprecated currency at the option
of the Government after five years. we
have not only the law in proof, but its
construction by the ablest statesmen and
iurists of the time.
In 1869 the Republican party repudi-
ated the entire legal-tender quality of
the Greenback so far as public debts
were concerned, making all such pay a.
BILE in CON.
In 1Sz0-71 the Republican party not
only repuiiated the act authorizing the
payment of the ). 20 bonds when due
but that fundamental law of the land
which enioins u on each generation. Ito
| transmit to posterity the blessings of
! liberty" The Refunding act was des-
! placing upon them burden that they
could not discharge.
! The Decentralization act of 1873 re-
pudiated the Reputation act of 1869 by
| depriving the Government of the rio hit
to discharge its debts with ''coin,"
which meant gold or silver, or both. at
the option of the Government, and linn
iting legal tender to gold alone IN such
payments.
In 1875 the trade dollar was author
lied to be coined, and was made legal
tender in sums OF s.. but in 1876, alter
among tho people, this legaltendel
Republican Congress and approved by
Republican Pres dent.
Had these acts OF Reputation, like ar
ordinary Bankrupt law, resulted in the
public good and the general welfare, the
ends might have justified the means
But on the contrary their benefit.
Injured to limited few who needed
them not, goodly number of whom
were foreigners and aliens, not ONLY
enemies of labor and of popular Liberty
but o. civilization, while to the grea
mass of our people they wrought ru n
misery, decentralization and desolatiol
without a parallel in the modern history
of this or an other country.
hundreds o. thousands were bv thes,
acts reduced rom aiiuence to poverty
millions were re9hered home ess ant
turned ineo the streets without tn
means o. suhsiStenr e. Crime increased
hundred fold, VIII ch with povert
hand in hand, stalked the streets a
MONDAY. Virtue slept, and religion
, forgot God, and when justice shall hav
balanced her scales, this entire blac
, record will have been repea ed and ex
pungel irom our statute books and, q
far as possible, restitution made
= Chicago Express.