The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1895-04-24
Jeems Strickup, on Natioral Affairs.

Editor The Manning Times:-I read with
much interest the dialogue between Silas
Jones and his son in your paper Now 1
would also like to present q few thoughts
for your rea lers to ponder over:
The question whether one generation of
men has a right to bind another seems
never to have been started. yet it is ques-
ton Of such consequence as not only to
merit decision, but place among the funda-
| mental principles of every government.
That no such obligation can be transmitted
think capable Of proof. set out on this
ground, that earth belongs in usufruct to
the living; that the dead have neither
powers ror rights over it,. No man can by
natural right oblige the lands he occApied
to the payment of debts contracted by him,
for if he could he might eat up the usu-
truct OF the earth for several generations to
come, and then the earth would belong to
the dead. The conclusion, then, is that
neither the representatives, of nation, nor
the whole nation itself assembled, can vol.
idly engage debts beyond what they may
pay in their own time" Jeffersou's works.
vol. 3, page 1O3. In writing to Madison,
same volume, page los, he clio cs long
and interesting letter on this subject in the
following language:
Turn this subject in your mind, nv
dear sir, and particularly that power as to
contracting debts. At first blush 1t may be
laughed at as the dream Of Il theorist, but
examination will prove it to be solid and
salutary. 1t would furnish fine prcnm
bic to our first law for appropriating our
public ue, and it would exclude at the
threshold of our new government the ruin
GUS and contagious errors of this quarter of
the globe, which have armed GeSpots with
means which nature does not sanction for
binding his telow-men.'
Compare these usterances with the act Of
Grover Cleveland hob nobbing with On
English syndicate to bind this nation to
pay debt thirty years hence without war
rant Of law, and a Democratic Congress too
cowardly to Lift hand to prevent it.
Think of it, you old-tiue Democrats, and
then exclaim from the bottom of your
heart, 20, my party, how thou art fallen !"
How much did Grover Cleveland make
in the last bond deal 2 is a question being
opeuly asked all around the country, and
with an emphasis that will admit of no
doubt in the minds OF those asking the
question as to their belief that the Presl-
dent of the United States actually shared |
IN the profits OF the syndicate who took tho |
bonds and i'll a few days reso!d them again
at gain of over eighty millions of dollars.
Whether Grover Cleveland had any share
IN this deal or not may never be known,
but the circumstances attending the nego-
tiations of the sale, the secrecy attending it,
the parties at interest, and the fact that the
small premium obtained is less than NUM-
c:pal bonds often command, together with
their Immediate sale at very much higher
premium. can have no other effect than to
leave the suspicion in the minds of many
people that even Grover Cleveland was un-
able to resist temptation.
1t is not enough to say that partisauis1n
or political prejudices prompts this suspi-
cion. The President of the United States
should be above suspicion. but Grover
Cleveland -untortunately-is not. The
of the man are against him.
Dame Rumor has busted herself more
about this mans private character, his So ,
;ial life, his habits and inner life than any
nan that has ever filled the Presidential {
hair, and if one-half the stories ahoat-told ,
'nb rosa-are true, then is he fully capable ,
't sharing in the profits of that bond deal. }
JEEMs STRIKUM. ,