Year: 1879

puDllc dUn1nlStTd StTdIlOu.-CNtCOyO ItUtSS


lind. Dem.)


Challenging Comparison.


Mr.. George II. Pendleton. of Ohio,
now on the stump in that State for the
election of the Observation-Disclosures


ticket. is the only orator or leader on
that side, of whom we have lately heard,
who is willing to talk about what ne
calls the record of his party, and chal-
lenge the Republicans TO a comparison.
He is discussing before the voters of
Ohio the financial question. That has
been his best hold ever since he pro-
mulgated the idea that the National
debt should be paid in greenbacks, and
undertook thereon to be the President
ial candidate of his party. The chief
feature of his present policy is opposi-
ton to the National banks. He admits
that in point of stability of value, ia
cility of circulation and safety of the
note-holder, the National bank curren-
cy is the best bank currency we ever


had" But he objects to its perpetua-
ton and would gradually abolish :


because it is expensive; because its or y
advantage to the people is its use es
currency; and because the banks are


liable to become " great political ma
chine, the ally and support and money
lender and master of the party which


sustains it,


Passing from this point he arraigns


the Republican party for the financial


measures adopted during and after the


war. He says they unnecessarily
abandoned specie payments and most


unwisely degraded the grecnback cur
rency. They enhanced the burden of


the public Indebtedness by making a


home debt foreign debt; by making a


paper debt coin debt; by extending


the time of its payment; by making a
coin debt a gold debt; by contracting


and boarding and selling bonds; and
all this they did without other apparent
reason than the demands and the profit
of the holders of bonds" Since Mr..
Pendleton, later on in the same speech,
challenges on behalf of the Democratic
party a CO nparison of records, it is well
enough, perhaps, to remind him that
each party has record little further
back than that he cites; that the action
of the Democratic party had already
degraded the National credit, and
driven the Government to the adoption
of financial policy which necessarily
involved the suspension of specie pay
ments; that the making a home debt
foreign debit was equally necessary
to raise the money to put down tue
Democratic rebellion, and that it W. ;
only effected by the wise administ


ton of Republicans, which raised


credit of the country so that it could
borrow in foreign markets; that what
he calls " making paper debt a coin
debit was simply what any honest
debtor does who proposes to pay his
outstanding obligations in cash, and
not in lying promises; and that all TIE
subsequent steps foc which he arraignI
Republican policy were necessary ia
order to fulfill the contracts which the
United States Government had entered
into with its creditors in order TO pro-
cure the means to save its own life and
put down the rebellion of Mr.. Pendle-
toms Democratic associates. If records
are to be compared, let US have them
in full.


MIR. Pendleton says, further on: "The
Democrats steadily opposed this poll
cy." Indeed they did. They opposed
the financial policy, and the war poll
cy as well. He says "they opposed
the suspension of specie payments"
So they did; and the suspension of the
writ of habeas corpus, and of every
thing else that their own rebellion made
necessary, except the prosecution of
the war; that they clamored to have
suspended at all times, in season and
out, from the time of the opening gun
on Sumter till the surrender at Appo-
mattox. "They opposed" he says,
"the debasement of the greenback,
They opposed the coin interest, coiu
customs and the repeal of the act pro-
viding for the convertibility of green
backs into bonds. When greenbacks
were engrafted upon our system, DEM
ocrats favored every measure which
would increase their value. They IA
vored paying them for the five-twentJ
bonds and receiving them for customs.
They favored paying the debt, and no.
extending it. They favored paying the
debt, and not funding it. They op-
posed making a paper debt coin debt;
making a coin debt gold debt. They
labored for the reconciliation of silver.
They opposed boarding; opposed con-
traction; opposed increasing the debt.
They have favored every measure tend
ing to tighten the heavy burden of
the taxpayers, and opposed every
Scneme 10 augment Gne ul1nculty OF
paying the public debt" All true
enough, except that they ever favored
paying the debt in any honest sense of
the term. The payment they favored
was no payment at all, but the issue of
more notes. the redemption of an in
terest-bearing bond with non-interest-
bearing and irredeemable promise.
They favored every trick of repudia-
ton, and opposed every step toward
honest payment. This was the way
they proposed to "lighten the heavy
burden Of taxpayers" and do away
with "the difficulty of paying the pub
lie debt" And it is a consistent re-
cord. Mr.. Pendleton is quite right
about it. Only he might have made a
much briefer and more forcible state
ment in comparing the records of the
two parties, if he had said simply:
"The Republican party put down a
Democratic rebellion. and incurred a
great debt in consequence. The Demo-
cratic party consistently opposed every
step taken in prosecuting the war. aud
failing in that, every step toward pay