Year: 1867

tiated currency, which the preponderating


votes of the Western States viii not be GER


tain 10 favor The war Of finance is the


next war we have to fight and every blow
struck against NV efforts TO uphold a strict


construction Of the laws aud the constitu-
ton is in reality a blow in favor Of repu-
dating the national debt The manufac-


turers and men Of capital in the Eastern
States and the States along the Atlantic
seaboard-a mere strip or fringe on the


broad mantle Of our country, if you win


examine the map-these are in favor of


high protective, and, in fact, prohibltory


tariffs, and also favor a contraction of the


currency. But against both measures the


interests and votes of the great producing


and n0n-manufacluring States Of the West


stand irreYocably arTayed, and glance at


the map and the census statistics of the last


twenty years will tell every one who is


open to conviction how that war must


end.


The history of the gorld gives no ex-


ample of a war debt that has ever been


paid but we have an exceptional couutry,


and present an exceptional case. Our


debt might easily be paid, provided the


brakes against excessive expenditures


could be turned on quickly enough-but


now is the appointed time, and now or


never the work must be commenced. If


that debt is ever to be paid we need econ


omy in every branch of the public service


the reduction, not an increase of salaries


to Congressmen and other officials; the svs-


tematic reduction of our national debt and


not its increase by such mOnstrous bills as


this last demagogue measure for the pre-


tended dequalization of bounties. The Con-


gress, forsooth, is SO patriotic, 50 loyal, that


il can refuse our gallant soldiers nothing;


but Won must have seen how promptly it


rejected the names of nearly every gallant
veteran sent in by me for confirmation to
any civil office-a majority of our ex-
tremely loyal Senators using their guillo-
tine, without remorse, in nearly every in
stance.


"And whittier is all this drifting? To
intelligent men there can be but one an
swer: We resdrifting toward repudiatien,
and the moneyed aristocrscy of the ma
tional debt-the very men whose interests
are most ieopardized-ar so blind that
they are practically helping to accelerate,
not check our course in this downward di-
reetion. We need the industry and enor-
nous possible products of the lately re-
yolted States to help Us in bearing our
heavy burden. We need confidence and
calm-we need internal harmony and
above all, we need a return to the unques-
toned supremacy Of the civil laws and
constitutional restraints if our debt is not
to be repudiated within the next half
score of years.


Financial prosperity was secured up to
within recent period but already the
delicate fabric of public credit-a house Of
cards at best-begins to totter under the
conclusion of the various revolutionary
ideas which have been recently exploited
on the floors of Congress. Who now talks
of the constitution with respect? Who is
not now made,a laughing the papers
and speeches of the violent revolutionary
party, if he shall be so hardy as to claim
that, being again at peace, the sway of civil
over military law should be Immediately
resumed, if we desire to maintain our lib
erties2 The constitution is played ont
we hear on every hand and every effort to
advocate the Just ascendancy of the civil
law only furnishes fresh food for ridicule


"No party as yet, and probably no party
for some years, will openly hoist the banner
of reputation. But a majority of those
who shaped the legislation of this last Con-
gress must know, unless they deceive them
selves, or are too ignorant to appreciate
their own acts that We are drifting in that
direction, and that it is by their votes we
have been swung ont into the downward
stream Doubtless, some of them would
either be- or affect to feel, horrilied if to-
day branded As repudiationists, just as, in
the infancy of the free-soil agitation. il
was considered bitter slander il the free
soiler' should be styled an 'abolitionist.'
There are steps in everything, and the term
ofreproaeh to-day will be worn as afeather
in the cap some years froE now, unless the
true conservative wisdom of the country
can be awakened, and, rapidly, from lis as
dream that our national debt
is a national blessing


And look at the effect of the reconstruc-
tion bill just passed over my unayailing
veto. | mean its peculiar effect as a step
in the direction Of reputation, and not its
general effect as high-handed measure of
Congressional usurpation, striking out of
existence so many States, and establishing
a military despotism over more than one
third of our geographical Union. This bill
suddenly adds four millions of ignorant and
penniless negroes 10 the voting force of the
country-an accession of just so much
strength TO the party whose interest it is,
and must increasingly become, to favor
Reputation as a policy. To secure the
public creditor, our efforts should be-if
that were possible-to restrict rather than
to extend the right of suffrage; the money
rapidly aggregates in a few hands; and
whenever the men who have an interest in
seeing that our national debt is paid shall
have become out of all proportion few,
compared with those who have an interest
in its reputation, the votes of the MANY
viii carry it, ard the debt of three thou
sand millions will be struck out of existence
by ballots, just as rapidly and utterly as
the similar amount invested in Southern
negroes has been abolished during the re-
cent war under showers of bullets. AT
least, this is possible


That we are to have great financial
crash this year l hold TO be inevitable
though deprecating it, and having used
every effort for its avoidance To say that
il can be STAYED of by any legislation, if |
the violated laws of trade and public !
call for it, is to assert that water
can be made TO run up hill, or shall cease to |
seek its own level under the cOmpulsion of
a Congressional enactment. Perhaps for
Sc violent disease, this violent cure NAV
be the only remedy. 1t is like a man sus.
tanning his strength on brandy; 20 long a.
he can increase the dose daily, he may get
along in high good humor, just as We have
been prospering on an irredeemable paper
and fresh issnes of public securi.
ties. But, sooner or later, the day will |
come in which brandy no longer can stimn- !
late, nor can irredeemable promises TO pay
pass current as a circulating medium for |
ever To the man will come a severe 1T |
Of sickness, teaching him that the laws OF |
temperance can only be violated uhder |
fearful penalties; and 10 the nation will |
come a financial crash, teaching it that |
paper is only a representative of value, not |
value itself; ard that The only true securi-
ties for our public credit must be looked |
for in a system Of rigidly exacted obedience
to all constitutional restraints, and thor |
ough system Of economy in all branches Of |
The public service.


For the sights and indignities-the
unconstitutional curtailments and dishon-
nre v7bici the recent Congress has afterapfed !