Year: 1877

| The three on four letters that have written
at odd spells since leaving Washington have
dealt mainly with social or political topics of
the hour, particularly the latter l aimed to
give you something like sketch OF the senti


fnent and q reflex of the feeling here in the ex


treme North regarding those topics which


are nearest in interest to the readers of the


DEMOCRAT. forgot to add that over all po-


litical feeling and over every impulse. aspira-


tion and sentiment OF whatsoever nature


among these people, hangs the densest pail Of
/ HARD TIMES


that has ever been seen. You have known


what 1T ls to suffer paralysis Of enterprise;


you have seen your fair fields ravaged by war,


and, still worse, laid waste by msgovern-


ment through systems Of robbery that con-
sumed your substance. But you have always


had the satisfaction Of rejecting that your
woes were purely artificial, and that they
would cease as soon as the cause Of them was,
withdrawn. The products OF your soil never
need beg for @ market, and nothing could ever
stand in the way Of your prosperity except
| the causes which impeded it and which are
now withdrawn, Therefore, though doubt
less suffering your share Of the stringency
| which prevails everywhere this dull, dead
summer, you have broad ground for hope
In the future, based upon the wonderful re-
sources OF your soil, the monopoly of your PEE
culiar products and your consequent manda-
tary position in the markets Of the world.
| But the community in which have spent
| the last three weeks has no such hope. The
entire North, from the grain States Of the
Northwest to the dairy regions Of the North
| -fnxun and n1sl sla obov
farmer, artizan and capitalists In the pre-
liminary stages Of bankruptcy. What ID
called


sHRINKAGE OF VALUES


has been going on now steadily and remorse-
| lessy for four years ever since the panic OF
| 1873 3until the pressure has reached the
| crushing point, and the next turn Of the
screw must bring crash.


| We are accustomed to speak Of the North as
rich and the South as poor But assert
| and base my assertion upon incontestible
| facts that the South is to-day richer in oil
the elements OF prosperity and infinitely
| brighter as to future prospects than the
North. The poasted wealth Of the North is,
and has been for some years, largely fac
titious; that is to say, it has existed on pa


per, In every conceivable form Of obligation
stocks, bonds and all manner Of securities.
based upon corporate properties mostly, and


all forming an intricate, interlaced system Of
credits, which must oil collapse upon the
withdrawal Of part.


| Well, this emo nous system of paper credits
has begun to crumble. It Is already at q
stage where the savings banks OF Chicago
and New York dare not publish their true
| condition. ruf,ora cory ~ ho ofa obaaf
and Oldest insurance companies have begun
to call in their resources or amend their secu-
rites, and finally where long list of railroad
bonds, rejected in the bourses of the old world.
are beginning to pile up in our own already
| overburdened money markets Nearly all
the indebtedness Of the North, public
and private, was contracted during
the period Of wild speculation which began
| in the last year OF the war and ended in 1873.
/ have seen several estimates OF the amount
| Of this Indebtedness from various eminent
financiers or financial authorities, but as no
two OF them agree, it Is obvious that there is
no means of determining with anything ap-
preaching exactness the extent to which
THE NORTH is INsoLvENT.
Weneed not waste time In futile inquiries
| about the amount. We know that it is moro
than the assets Of the community which
| owes it, and that Is enough to know.
This debt was contracted when ega,
tender dollar was worth on an average sixty
five cents. And now the creditor Is beginning
to press for payment when the legal tender
dollar Is worth ninety-fve cents, and, what is
worse, the creditor is trying to make the
legal tender dollar worth dollar at the same
time. III you were to see man doing busi-
ness on the plan OF getting his paper dis
counted at IS per cent, undertaking to pay
7per cent interest and 100 per cent principa
on ten years time you. would predict his
downfall, would you not?


Well, the situation OF the North at this mo-
ment is quite similar to what the situation OF
the hypothetical individual would be at the
maturity Of his ruinously discounted paper.
/ well remember


THE BOND MANIA


that went over this part of the country like
an epidemic seven, eight and ten years ago.
I did not realize its full proportions when it
was raging, but now, as look back at that
Stock Exchange where Jim Fisk used to make
and unmake fortunes, and to that Gold Board
out of which men used to come either mill
lionaires or maniacs, it begins to loom up in
history alongside the South Sea Bubble and
the Mississippi Scheme of the last century.


We have been wont to speak of the South
ern State and municipal debts as the carpet
baggers' legacy Of ruin. But II you viii take
any reliable report of


THE FINANCIAL CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY
and perform very simple computation, you
will find that the State and municipal debts OF
the State of New York alone exceed the aggre-
gate State debts of the entire eleven States
which made up the Confederacy. OF course
there are municipal debts in these Southern
States sufficient to make up a much larger
aggregate than that Of New York, but it is
well known that the municipalities of the
South are proportionately much less bur-
dened with debt than the States; while in
New York the reverse is true. i have before
me statement of the aggregate State, coun