Year: 1868

the case for the next few years and l


am in favor of waiting until the people
Of the South, who caused the debt to be


contracted, shall be able and be requir.


ed to pay some part of it themselves. In


less than ten years we shall have in


creased our population ten millions and


more than doubled our taxable property


and can pay with ease tax three times


the aggregate Of the present. Within


five years the Southern States will be


reconstructed and in the enjoyment of


comparative prosperity. Within five


years the increase of population, wealth


and capital will enable the Government


to sell at par bonds bearing a much


and thus consolidate and reduce the


debt.


Should the Government find itself at
any time in possession of coin or cur


rency that can be applied to the reduc-
ton OF the debt, it should of course be
promptly applied; but any attempt to
pay the bonded debt in advance by
heavy taxation will be unnecessary,
unwisc and injurious.


would reduce the rate of taxation to
the lowest point that would defray the
expenses of the Government economi-
cally administered, and pay the interest
and maturing obligations, and leave the
principal of the bonded debt to be dis
charged in other and better times.


Thep again, we have added to our f.
nancial troubles by the policy inaugura
ted by the Secretary of the Treasury 10
the contractionSof the currency, which
has served to restrain CONNIE ercial enter
prise, paralyse trade, and keep the
money market in an unsettled and fever
ish condition. The country is impera-
lively demanding the passage of law
which shall restrain the Secretary from
further contraction.


We want retrenchment, reform in the
expenses of the Government We do
not want that picayune retrenchment
which will confine clerks to starving
salaries and leave the great sources of
expenditures unchecked. The expenses
OF the Government are enormous, and
the time as come when they can and
ought to be greatly diminished. We
have now an army of more than fifty
thousand men, and a navy that is much
larger than the country requires, and the
time is at hand when both can be greatly
reduced and thereby lessen our expenses
many millions Of dollars.


The purchase of Alaska from Russia
can be justified on high political con-
and the future commercial
Importance of owning the northwestern
part of this continent. But it is not
easy to see the necessity for spending
seven and one half millions of dollars
in gold for the purchase OF st. Thomas,
a small West Indian island, which may
be said to be the very birth place Of the
yellow fever. and is frequently made
desolaie by earthquakes and hurricanes.


1t is important that we should fund
our national debt into a uniform bond
bearing lower rate of interest Whether
this can be done now do not know;
hope it can. And it is desirable, if
such shape that it may bear fair share
Of the burdens of taxation like other
but can see no advantage in
having the Government of the United
States pay taxes to the several States
which have first to be collected from the
people.


The principal financial scheme of the
Democratic party is that the Govern
mcnt and the treasury shall be turned
over into the hands of the men who
made the rebellion, and caused the debt
to be contracted, and this, suppose,
upon the principle that the 'hair of the
dog is good for the bite but this am
sure is the last remedy the people intend
to try.
dict of ideas to which ] alluded in the
beginning, the palpable and direct issue
will be presented in the attempt to re-
storo the rebels Internationally to the
full enjoyment of political rights; to
Place in their hands exclusively the gov
ernments of the rebel States; TO give
them the control absolutely of the loyal
men, white and black, living in those
States and the unqualified admission Of
their Senators and Representatives into
Congress. The Democratic party are
not willing that political power in the
rebel States shall be divided between
The loyal and disloyal, but they demand
that it shall be placed exclusively in the
hands of the disloyal, to whose tender
mercies the true and faithful people