Year: 1867

Ous Congress first setting an example
against rctrenchment by voting to them
selves an increase of salaries. Every
where, and in an ever-increasing ratio,
the motto seems to be: Always spend
land never spare;;' fresh issue from the
ipaper-mill over yonder (slightly point
ing his pencil to the Treasury Depart
ment) being the panacea prescribed for
every evil of our present situation.


"Every effort to increase our annual
taxation is resisted, for increased taxes
might help to awaken the people from
their false dream of prosperity under
the sway of revolutionary and Radical
ideas; but no addition to the national
debt can be proposed, no further infa-
ton of our inflated currency, which the
preponderating votes iof the Western
states will not be certain to favor. The
war of finance is the next war we have
to fight; and every blow struck against
my efforts to uphold strict construc-
tion of the laws and the Constitution is
i in reality blow in favor of repudiating
the national debt. The manufacturers
and men of capital in the Eastern
States and the Sta tes along the Atlantic
seaboard-a mere strip of fringe on the
broad mantle of our country, if you
will examine the map-these are in
favor of high protective, and, in fact,
prohibitOry tariffs, and also favor con-
traction of the currency. But against
both measures the interests and votes
of the great producing and non-manu-
featuring States of the West stand ire
vocably arrayed, and a glance ut the
map and the census statistics of the
last twenty years will tell every one
who is open to conviction how that war
must end.


"The history of the world gives no
example of a war debt that has ever
been paid; but we have an exceptional
country, and present an exceptional
case. Our debt might easily be paid,
provided the brakes against excessive
expenditures could be turned on quickly
enough-but now is the appointed time,
and now or never the work must be
commenced. If that debt is ever to be
paid we need economy in every branch
of the publicI service--the reduction,
not an increase Of salaries to Congress
men and other officials; the systematic
reduction of our national debt; and not
its increase by such monstrous bills as
this last demagogue measure for the
pretended equalization OF bountleS
The Congress, forsooth, is so patriotic,
so loyal, that is 'can refuse our gallant
soldiers nothing;' but you must have
seen how promptly it rejected the names
of nearly every gallant veteran sent IN
by me for confirmation to any civil Of
fice-a majority of our extremely loyal
Senator'S using their guillotine, with
out remorse, in nearly every instance.


"And whittier is all this driftingi To
| intelligent men there can be but one an
swer: We are drifting towards repudia-
ton, and the moneyed aristocracy ofthe
national debt-the very men whose in
terests are most jeopardized-are so
blind that they are practically helping
| to accelerate, not check our course in
this downward direction. We need the
industry and enormous possible pro-
ducts of the lately revolted States to
help us in bearing our heavy burden.
We need confidence and calm-we need
internal harmony; and above all, we
need return to the unqucstiOned su-
premacy of the civil laws and constitu-
tional restraints, if our debt is not to bo
repudiated within the next half score of
years.


Financial prosperity was secured up
to within recent period; but already
the delicate fabric of public credit--a
house of cards Mt best-begins to tOtter
under the conclusion of the various rev.
olutionary ideas which have been recent
lv exploited on the floors of Congress
Who now talks of the Constitution with
respecti Who is not now made laugh
| nC-stock in the papers and speeches Of
the violent revolutionary party, If he
shall be so hardy as to claim that, being
again at peace, the sway of civil over
military law should be Immediately re-
sumed, if we desire to maintain our lib
crtiesi The Constitution is played out,
we hear on every hand and every eff
fort to advocate the just ascandancy of
the civil law only furnishes fresh food
| for ridicule.


"No party rs yet, and possibly no par
ty for some years, will openly hoist the
banner of repudiation. But majority
of those who shaped the legislation of
this last Congress must know, unless
they deceive themselves, or are too ignO-
rant to appreciate their own acts, that
we are drifting in that direction, and
that it is by their votes we have been
swung out into the downward stream.
Doubtless, some of them would either
be, or affect to feel, Mortified if to-day
branded as repudiationists, just as, i'll
the infancy of the free soil agitation, it
was considered q bitter slander If the


freesoiler should be styled an 'aboli-
tionist.' There are steps in everything,
and the term of reproach to-day will be
worn as feather in the cap some years
from now, unless the true conservative
wisdom of the country can be awaken
ed, and, rapidly, from its asphyxiating
dream that our national debt is ma
tional blessing


"And look Mt the effect of the recon-
struction bill just passed over my un-
availing veto. / mean its peculiar ef-
feet as step in the direction Of repu-
diatiou, and not its general effect rs
high-handed measure of Congressional
usurpation, striking out of existence so
many States, and establishing military
despo tism over more than one-third Of
our geographical Union. This bill sud-
denly adds four millions of ignorant and
penniless negroes to the voting force Of
the country-an accession of just 30
much strength to the party who's" int1f
est 1t IS, and must increasingly become,
to favor relation as policy. To Sc
cure the public creditor, our efforts
should be-if that were possible-to re-
strict rather than to extend the right Of
suffrage; for money rapidly aggregates
in a few hands; and whenever the men
who have an interest in seeing that our
national debt is paid shall have become
out of all proportion few, compared
with those who have an interest in its
reputation, the votes of the many will
carry it, and the debt of three thousand
millions will be struck out of existence
by ballots, just as rapidly and utterly
as the similar amount invested In
Southern negroes has been abolished
during the recent war under showers of
bullets. At least, this is possible.


"That we are to have a grand finan-
cial crash this year hold to be inevi-
table-though deprecating it, and hay
ing used every effort to its avoidance.
To say that it can be STAYED off by any
Hesitation, if the violated laws of trade