Year: 1869

lG is not diOne upon the question
of universal suffrage that the young
Democracy, headed by such men as
General Rosecrans and John Quincy
Adams, differ with the old party
leaders, the Pendletons, the Brights,
the Biglers, and men of that class.
whose political status is so we'll de-
fined. That would not he so serious
matter, as the question is likely to
be settled before it can breed dis
sension and division.


1t is the more vital question of
finance that divides them, the ques-
ton of all others that defeated Mr..
Pendleton before the Democratic
National Convention in 1868, and
which will sacrifice, him in 1872.
There is no doubt whatever that
General Rosecrans had in view the
Pendletonian theory of paying off
the public debt by an almost un-
limited issue of greenbacks when he
penned the following paragraph of
his letter to the committee appoint
ed to notify him of his nomination
by the Democrats for the Office of
Governor of Ohio: -


"The Democracy should assert,
with renewed vigor and determine
ton, its old declaration in favor of
a specie basis and paper currency
convertible at par into coin at the
will of the holder, and should take
prompt and efficacious measures to
raise our bonds to where the secu.
rity they offer and the interest they
bear ought to place them, so as to
draw greenbacks after them to par,
with the least possible delay This
will relieve all classes, especially
the laboring, and, augmenting the
value of our circulation twenty-five
per cent, give healthy and vigor-
GUS impulse to every department of
business and industry"


That does not sound very much
like the Pendletonian theory of
finance. So impressed is General
Rosecrans with the Importance of
appreeiating the financial credit of
the country, and with it the value
of its obligations, whether in bonds
or currency, that he will not higgle
with holders though they do receive
for them more than they paid, for
lie knows that if they profit by
sound credit and coin values, so
will every working man that re-
oeives dollar for his labor; and he
says with pointed significance


"No local declaration inviting a
popular prejudgment Of any legal
question about the terms of pay
ment of national bonds should i'm
pair the priceless value Of the PUB
lie credit at time when it is impor-
tant to create the speediest means
Of Kidding the country of these
enormous expressions; but every
Democratic platform should tend
to raise higher and higher the pub
lie credit, and to satisfy the people
of Europe that the Democratic is
the last party in the United States
that propose to whine or act reluct-
antly about paying the public debt,
even though present holders should
have bought it below its fair value"


No sharper rebuke has been ad-
ministered to those who are con-
stantly inviting prejudgment, and
agitating schemes that create dis
trust and suspicion and tend to
lower the credit of the Government
by destroying confidence, not in its
ability (for that is past doubt), but
its determination to pay in accor
dance with the spirit and letter of
the contract.


Hardly less emphatic is the Ian
guage of Mr. Adams, the Democrat
ic nominee for Governor of Massa-
chusetts. In discussing the ways
and means by which the laboring
man can be relieved of some por-
ton Of the burden Of taxation, he
says:


"And what can we do for him 2
| Why, do what Andrew Jackson
would have done-give him hard
money and an open market. Take
off your weights from him and let
him alone. What is needed, then,
to restore prosperity to labor and
satisfactory relations to capital.
what is necessary to alleviate the
pressure Of the public burdens and
dispel the odium of the debt, and
what must be had before we can
have real national welfare, is re-
turn to a gold and silver currency,
and reduction of the imposts upon
imports to the lowest point which
our need for a large revenue will
permit. The prosecution of this
demand is not theoretically the pc.
culiar province Of the Democratic
party; it is its traditional and i'm
memorial policy. To it the men
who marched before us have been,
in succeeding lusters, solemnly ded-
icated by the utterances of their
greatest statesmen. The giant forms
of jefferson and Madison, Monroe
and Gallatin, jackson, and Benton,
and Webster, all marshal the way
for us, all in majestic accents cheer
US onward to honesty and prosperi-
ty."


This puts Mr.. Pendleton's scheme
of an irredeemabie currency-for
that would be the practical result
into the category of .anti-Democrat-
ic theories, just as his proposition
to keep in existence political ine-
qualities among citizens of the
United States is anti-Demo cratic.


1t is upon these sharply defined
issues, if they should not be settled
before that time, that the contest in
the Eext Democratic National Con-
vention will take place-Hofman,