Year: 1868

Reputation looms In the future as the
inevitable consequence Of the new turmoils


into which the politicians of both sides srs
plunging the country. Mad with party hates,
the radicals on one side, and the President and
his advisers on the other, take no care for the
necessities Of the nation, heed not the fact
that the people ara depressed with the weight
Of taxes-that the country is staggering under
the evils incident to the actual destruction os
its financial equilibrium. Indifferent to tho
obvious facts Of the nations condition-that
it needs to be set on its feet, and
needs the assistance Of wise laws and mod
crate administration. to enable it to recover
from the tremendous drain made on its vitality
by the war; Indifferent or blind to all that
they should see, the men in high places push
the destructive purposes Of party with such
fury that the financial honor Of the govern
ment must surely 60 down in the struggle.
Suddenly, as the immediate result of tho
struggle for party power, the great doubt OF
the war, the deep problem that was supposed
to be determined and closed forever, is opened
again. That great doubt was, would the
United States 60 through so fearful . strug-
gle and come out safely-c0me out
soon also-a vital, efficient power, pos
sessed Of Q dominant Legitimate govern
ment, acting under the law! Upon that
point rested our credit, and as the result
seemed doubtful for us our bonds went down
as the prospect frightened they went up. But
the war was brought to close. The legiti-
mae government had triumphantly asserted
its power. and was respected and supreme In
the exercise Of all its functions. We had fals-
fed all the examples of history and all the i'll
latured prophecies by going through the great
struggle without political convulsion, and the
vast debt we had incurred to rescue the nation
seemed safe-the pledge Of our honor sure to
be redeemed. But all at once there is an
entire change. We are thrown back from the
fixed point we had reached and float in the
uncertain sea Of revolutionary troubles so
tossed hither and thither that none can say
where we may be beachcd. We are again ID
the category Of nations whose great wars
ended in great internec.ne contests for politi-
cal power; and people must reason to our
future from such examples as that Of France,
id which the series Of changes ran through .
score Of years and upset all law and order.
Who shall say now that the nation's
bonds will ultimately be Of more value
than were those OF France! or that
the United States greenback will not
figure in the same chapter OF monetary history
that recies the story Of the French assignalsf
Our tendency 10 downward in the same drec-
ton. Already party has dared to raise Its
head to put forward . repudiation candidate
for the Presidency and row that the people
can see no prospect that the burden Of taxes
will be relieved, now that there is all appear
ance that our financial condition will 60 from
bad to worse, this repudation party will find
Its hands immensely strengthened in popular
sympathy, and may suddenly discover that it
has grown to be one Of tho great opponents Of
the popular will. And thus it is that impeach-
ment, and the disturbance it involves, means
in the result neither moro nor less than
national bankru ptcy.