Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1890-07-10
A Precedent Of Folly.

I'll iil ~
The careful student Of the history
OF our country is not surprised ,ol
4 dismayed by any turn or freak Of
public sentiment, because for each Of
them he can find precedent. The
history Of bur people, Ike TIE his
tory of eacli individual, is $alstory Of
blanders, absardities, crimes, some
tunes; Of good intentions defeated
/ by temptations; of honest purpose
i distorted By byy fools or o daemagoguess' s to
base, bad or ridiculous results; Of
acts which, when considered iii the
light of later events and with the
calmness brought by time and lis
tance, appear to be more worthy Of
madmen than of Intelligent civiliza-
ton. ip} tllst35l,{
Yet the people have always cor
rooted their follies and by one means
and another found and used the
right way. Each problem has been
solved right when its solution became
necessary, each difficulty has been
overcome. Peoples, like individuals,
must suffer for their wrongs and
follics, and we have paid heavy penal
ties and will doubtless pay many
more hereafter. History gives us,
however, immovable faith in the
final triumph of common sense and
right feeling in every situation, and
in the continuance of the steady
advance we have luade in all things
that make q people great.
/ Just at this time when the scheme
Of finance, known as the sub-troasury
bill, impracticable, unjust and absurd,
is being endorsed and demanded
from one end Of tho country to the
other, favored by some men who in
the conduct Of their own affairs arc
sagacious and moderate, used by
politicians and aspirants of various
degrees as vehicle on which to ride
into place and enthusiastically sup
ported by ,,nthinking masses, it is
interesting to consider the progress
and results of a somewhat similar
scheme of more than hundred
years ago.
The story is told in McMastcr's
"History of the People of the Uni
ted States"
| 1t was in 1856. The revolutionary
war was not long over and the reac-
tion had come. From one end Of
of the country to the other there
were complaints against taxes, against
the courts, against the lawyers,
Town people and country people
were set bitterly against each other
and the fact that a city favored a
man or measure was accepted as
sufficient reason for violent opposi-
tion by the farmers.
| -, 1eiouc iSiailu CHclc WIS " pOpu-
lar movement for State bank to
issue paper money. Currency was
scarce and vast confusion Of values
and standards made tho difficulty
worse, the Federal government hav-
ing adopted no regular financial sys-
tenn. The Rhode Island Legislature
voted down, by a large majority, the
bill fora bank. Says McMaster:
"a new party was quickly organ
lied, the State actively canvassed,
and in the spring Of 1886 the paper
advocates went to the polls confident
of success. \ Fully onc-half out
of seventy Deputies had lost their
seats and in their seats were mon
devoted to the paper scheme. n
The call for tho land tax was in
stantly Telnittod. A paper bank
of one hundred thousand pounds
was ordered. In the course of the
debate which preceded the passage
of the bill it was noted that the
speakers on the affirmative were in
variably from the country districts
and the dcbaters on the negative as
invariably from the rich scaboard
towns. Newport, Providence, Bris-
tol, Westerly, each sent up men
trained in the great school of COM
merce and trade, familiar with all
questions of finance, and who we'll
knew that Spanish milled dollar
was very different thing from a
promise to pay, some time in the
future, a Spanish milled dollar, and
that no body of deputies in the
world has skill enough in alchemy
to transmute pap er into coin.
"But no argument which they
could advance could turn the votes
of men who had come up for the
express purpose Of aboiishing taxes,