Year: 1865

have imposed great burden OF DEBT upon
us. The Republican party propose that one
class Of the people shall hold the securities
and dlaw the interest, while another class
pays the interest and the taxes The DEM
ocratic party propose that all men should
be taxed alike on what they have. '''iH;


Let the public burdens fall equally upon
all, and all will be equally interested in
economy in the expenditures of the Gov
ernment. Exempt the creditors from tax
alton on their bondsS, and you Immediately
establish class interested in the contlnn-
ance of permanent public debt, and indif-
ferent how great are the public eXpendi-
lures or how high the taxes, so that their
interests regularly paid in gold. q Senator
Sherman talks to the people in his public
speeches as if the debt were rather a small
affair, which the taxes, If left as they are,
would pay up, principal and interest, in the
life Of the epresent generation, without any
special inconvenience. Doubtless this Is
the way many of the Senator's bondhold-
ing constituents feel about it. But We are
doubtful whether the soldier who has spent
from one to four years in the field at thir-
teen or sixteen dollars a month, who draws
no gold interest, and finds the price OF
every article enhanced and high taxes to
pay on his little property, will view the
matterin the same light. sarg -.


And this brings to mind another argp-
ment gravely advanced, which it seems
hardly possible to meet with anything but
ridicule and contempt. 1t is the argument
of the self-styled patriot. 1--WE, tile loyal
people," says he, Furnished this money to
the Government when it was in sore need.
To make us pay taxes on what we have
thus invested, would be the extreme of in
gratitude, disloyalty' and bad faith" To
hear him talk one might suppose his pnr-
chase of bonds was an act of patriotic self
sacrifice-a loan to the Government with
out interest or security. He does not en-
large upon the fact-the disinterested man
that his patriotic Offering has brought
him from eight to sixteen per cent. per an
mum (according to the value of gold) net
profit on his investment, and enabled him
to hold so much of his property exempt
from taxation by the State. Nor does he
allude to the fact that he bought every hun
dred dollar bond he holds (and on which he
draws interest payable in gOld) at a price
varying from SIS upwards, according to
the value of the paper with which he
bought it as compared with the gold in
which his interest is to be paid.


There is one other aspect of this system
(and the last to which we shall alludeG in
which its evils are not perhaps so palpable,
but in which they are for that very reason
the more dangerous. We allude to its effect
upon the future workings of our Govern
ment. The owners of bonds-thankst to the
legislation of the Republican party-hold
vasttmount of property exempt from tax
alton, and they have great interest in pre-
venting any legislation which may distrub
this exemption. 1t will be sad day tor
the purity of our free institutions when q
gigantic moneyed power becomes enlisted
in the political contests OF the country.
Those who are old enough to remember the
contest between General Jackson and the
Bank of the United States, will remember
with what earnestness the people were
warned-and with what effect too-against
the corrupting influence of such financial
power in the hands of political party.
But the old United States Bank with its few
branches was mere pigmy as an engine of
corruption, compared with this Hydra,
which has sprung up and threatens to fasten
itself upon the country. III we do not wish
to see our elections become mere contests OF
purse and power in place of reason and argu-
ment; if we do not wish to see votes
bought and sOldin open market; if we wish
to preserve the public virtue and che puri-
ty of the ballot-boX, this monstrOus system
must be met at the outset and overthrown.
Once allow the moneyed corporations and
lIC CAPITALISTS WIlO 'IlOiu puih VI
these securities to become firmly establish
ed in their privileges, and they will cling
like the "old man of the sea" round the
necks OF business and laboring-the fight
ing and voting classes of the community.
/ The position of the Democratic party on
this subject is too strong to, be assailed
by argument. 1t is therefore assailed by
vituperation. The threadbare epithets of
'copperhead'' d''and"traitor, ,"with the new cry
OF 'repudiation," are freely distributed in
the hope that they may still, as in the past,
have some efficacy in convincing weak or
narrow minds in tie absence of truth and
reason. But the day for such devices has
about gone by. Men will not allow them
selves to be misled by a catchword, against
the dictates of their reason, butwill act and
vote in accordance with their true inter-
ests and their sense of what is just and
right.