The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1888-08-08

able gigantic usny and legalized robbery TO
suck the blood of every American industry
TOOK Its trst great step when, in authorizing
legal tender currency in 1862, the greenback.
the immortal and glorious greenback, was dis
eriminated against and degraded in the money
markets of the world by being made non-re-
ceivable for duties on imports and for interest
on the bonded debt of the United States In
all the annals of nations no financial measure
was ever more willfully wicked in
conception and design, nor more far-reach-
ing, oppressive and destructive TO the
rights of labor in its results, than this A
national currency, made legal-tender for the
wages of every laboring man, woman and
child, and for the privations, sufferings blood,
pensions. and death of every soldier and sailor
who followed the flag, was refused and dis
honored at the counter of the government
itself, for the very purpose of depreciating and
debaSing its value as circulating medium.
This was done, described at the time, by
Thaddeus Stevens and others, in order to
enable the powerful bullionists, the proprietors
of the gold dens of Wall-st. and elsewhere, to
buy up this deprecated currency at fifty cents
on the dollar and to exchange il at its face
dollar for dolar-fOr government bonds, bear
ing interest in gold, and from the first at par
with gold, and for the several years past from
ten to thirty cents above par. Do you wonder
and inquire for a moment how much this
stupendous plot of financial villainy has cost
the tax-paying labor Of this country in paying
something for absolutely nothing! Ii has been
often demonstrated by the simplest rules OF
arithmetic that the bullion brokers and heavy
capitalists, during the war and during the next
five years after its close, by transmitting de-
preciated currency into bonds worth a hundred
cents and more on the dollar in gold coin,
secured q naked speculation, bonus, for
which they paid not one farthing, OF nearly
one thousand millions of dollars, and took a
lien, mortgage OF every kind, real estate and
chattel, against the industries of the country
for the payment OF this vast and appalling
robbery. You have all read OF what is styled
the contract or cooie system OF labor, by which
corporations and contractors import into this
country the Chinese, and perhaps other inferior
races from Europe and Asia, bound for
number OF years TO remain and work IN semi
state OF bondage. And so have been the Ia
boring people OF the United States put under
bondage contract 10 the greed OF unholy ava
rice,accursed speculation, spoliation, and plum
der. provided with deliberate design by the
criminal legislation of the republican party;
nor has this bondage contract, fastened by cap
ital on American labor, any defined termina-
ton as such contracts with the coolies have.
The American system, whereby organized CAPT.
tai plumbers helpless labor, has no visible end.
IL will extend far into distant generations, and
declare here, in the light of the history of
tons, that no other danger to the existence OF
our free government is so great as this. The
corruPting and enslaving power OF gigantic
wealth in the hands of the privileged and pre-
tentiOus few, who hang and fatten like huge,
hideous parasites on human toll and suffering,
has been in all lands and all ages the poison
Gus bane of liberty, the mighty and malignant
canker preying on the natural rights OF man,
and eating away all the safeguards OF freedom
and equality before the law. Before this
power all past republics have fallen, and the
one we inhabit, this bright star of the western
sky, this last hope of humanity, will follow in
their wake if the conspirators who worship
Plutus, the god of wealth, are to be again en-
trusted with its destiny. The truth is that this
government, under evil policies, has already
travelled fast and far in the wrong direction
its spirit and its original aim ard purpose have
been TO an alarming extent paralyzed and per-
verted