Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1904-03-17

dDSWcT IoT. rTOiIl IL SpIdH6 many
other heresies that have plagued our
politics. The ablest men in the Re-
publican party were against the green
back when it was created, and it
scarcely had friend in the Demo-
cratic party. 1t was legalized repudi-
alton, and to make the rascality
cumulative it was provided, in defiance
of the Constitution, that it should be
legal tender for debts already in eXis-
tence and created on a specific basis.
And the Supreme Court of the United
States was packed in the interest OF
this revolutionary and disreputab BILE
business 1t was adjudicated that the
government could do miracle-take
worthless piece of paper and make it
into money. for the legal tender clause
gaye the thing all the dignity of coin.
and in law it ceased to be promise
to pay ana was itself payment. Was
it strange that Weaver and Harper
and that layout should deman that the
printing press be set to work to give
every man all the money he thought he
needed when the powers had declared
that printing press money was just the
same as mint money. or a little samer,
for it was easier ard cheaper to make?
Mrs Lincoln could have found a hun
dred men who would have conducted
the War Department as we'll as Edwin
NJ. Stanton or better. The Overwhelm-
ing physica, and numerical superiority
of the loyal States made the work of
the War Department comparatively
easy. Had Mr.. Lincoln chosen that
other war Democrat, Samuel j. Tildsn.
for Secretary of Treasury there would
havo beeII no greenback: the South
would have been overcome a year
ca rlier, and the cost of the war would
have been less than half what it was.
And the strange thing about it is the
blind, stOlid superstition with which
the greenback was, and is, regarded
even by men of sense. There are in
telligent people who really believe that
it was the means of saving the Union.
" hen. in fact, it nearly defeated the
Union cause, and would have defeated
it entirely had not the South set on
foot even n rOttener currency than the
greenback.
But something more unaccountable
than that happened. In 1868 the Demo-
cratic party came out for what was
virtually the free and unlimited print
ing Of greenbacks, and Thad stevens
was for it. too. Here was Dante's
figure that Macualay makes SO happy
use of--the serpent turned to a man.
and the man turned to n serpent.
The Democratic party burglarized the
Republican ark of the covenant, and
stole the most worthless thing it could
find, and a thing that would have ut
terly destroyed the Republican party
had the Democrats left it alone.
The greenback is the mother of all
this agrarian business: it is responsible
for the 16 to l lunacy; it spawned all
this nonsense about governmental
ownership and operation of public
utilities" and other heresies. If the
government can make real money o,rt
of a worthless piece of paper why
should not the government seize and
operate coal mines?
Maine got her dose of greenbacklsm
in 1878. and by November. 1850. she was
thoroughly and completely cured OF IT,
after which the disease ran amuck
against common sense. the mGltlpil-
cation table and common honesty down
South and out West. and the result
was a Republican renaissance that is
vet with us and promises TO remain
some time, not that the people are very
much in love with it, but that there is
nothing else in the political world for
the people to love. Never was there
finer opportunity than came to the
Democracy in 1893. 1t was not only UNI
needed, but spurned.
For this
I'll never follow the paid fortunes more,
Who seeks and will not take when once
it's offered
Shall never find it more
Fortune came with both hands full.
! The President was a Democrat. The
Congress was Democratic in both
branches. The South was solid. The
North was sufficiently Democratic for
all practical purposes. All the party
,ad 10 do was to follow its leader.
L.tead of that it made an adulterous
iial.~n with the Populist layout. IL
remlnes one of the cat that was trans
FORMED ITO a fine lady. AS soon as
she saw mouse she chased IT. Inc
democratic Iarty seems to be CHASING
mice to this tlay.
Eugene Hale is of old English stock
mat was transplanted from Hertford-
shne to Massachusetts in 1885. 1t has
hourhhed in New England ever since
anu performed it's full share in the
making Oh our country what it has be-
come. Sena.,r Hale was born in Maine
IN 1886. and it L. scarce too much to say
that Tor the nunhers born in the old
Pine Tree State thee have been more
Intellectual men than any other State
can show. Young Hale "ent to school
and acquired an acade IL education.
He then studied law ana was admitted
to the bar and began the practice when
twenty years of age. He was success
full from the start. and soon had pros
porous practice. For nine years he
was prosecuting attorney of Hancock
I county. and that gave him an excellent
I opportunity for the study of men,
something he was swift and tliligent to
avail himself of.
In 1867 he was a member of the
' AE~s