Year: 1878

very complimentary letter. lou


request my "views upon the politi-


cal issues which will be under con.


sideration in the approaching State


canvass, and especially what l think


the Democracy should do about the


State debt and State finances in


these hard times. 1 reply at my


earliest convenience.


THE GENERAL DISTRESS.


Upon all sides we hear the cry of


distress. 1t is not confined to our


own State. Wherever in this Union


the actual needs of life are obtained


by labor; wherever our fellow-citi-


zens eat bread in the sweat Of the


face, the same narrowing cry OF want
goes up from the people. 1t is not
confined to any one vocation. All


who labor are weary and heavy laden,


whether in the field, in the shop, in


the mine, at the forge, behind the
counter, at the desk or in the Office.
toilers by day or toilers at night, ev-
cry trade and every profession, all


feel the severest privations of the
present, and look with intensest anx-
iety to the future. The mutterings
of discomfort and of suffering are
heard in the land. The voice of
wailing is being maddened into the
cry for bread. The petition for work
is being turned into the demand for
| food, and raiment, and shelter. Ev-
cry debtor fears irretrieYable ruin.
Aud all this in our boasted Repub-
lie; "the land of the free and the
home of the brave" where you have
but to tickle the soil with the plow
and it laughs with the harvest, where
every mineral may be abundantly
found, where manufactures and COM
merce have unlimited range, where
the air is pure and the waters are
limpid, where health is the general
rule. and disease the rare exception.
Why, in such country, should there
be such distress? distress whose
voice is too deep, too loud, too uni
versal to be other than sincere-as
genuine as it is agonizing. 1t is the
duty, the high, bounden duty Of eve-
ry citizen, and especially of every
one who takes any part in public af.
fairs, to endeavor to learn the cause
and provide the remedy for this
alarming paralysis of all our indus
tries, and this pauperizing stagna-
ton in all our business. | am glad
to see that these matters are begin
ming to be discussed in our State
preliminary to the political canvass
which we are to have this fall. So
far, we have had but two views pre-
sented, and with due Difference to
both, neither, in my humble judg-
ment, come up to the elevated stand
ard of broad craftsmanship. One
Informs you only that the faith and
credit of the State must be preserv-
ed, that the public debt must be paid
or honorably compromised. The
sole cry Of the other is that the high
tax party must be put down, that
the State tax must be lowered, or, at
any rate, must not be increased.
Thus, in every county, and from ev.
cry stump, you hear nothing but high
tax and low tax, State debt and
State taxation, compromise at so
cents, 40 cents, 33B cents, or total
reputation.


Thus are the people of Tennessee,
who look to their public speakers and
writer's for information upon matters
of public concern being taught that
the cause of all our woes, of all our
hardships, of all our poverty, of all
our distress. is to be found in these
subjects which are occupying exclu-
sively the time and the attention of
our local politicians. Permit me to
say. that we are taking too narrow
ana contracted view of the Difficult
ties which surround US. We see as
through glass darkly. We prefer to
grope in the dark rather than walk
in the sunlight. do not hesitate to
assert that If every dollar OF the
State debt was paid off to-day, it
would not give bread to the starving;
it would not give employment to the
idle; it would not give prosperity to
the people and the State. On the
contrary. 1 do not hesitate to assert |
that il the Sta'e tax was reduced to
nothing, that would not give bread
to the starving nor employment to
the idle, nor plenty and prosperity
to the people of the State. Have
we not tried it? Have net our State
taxes for the past two years been as
low as the lowest have asked that
they should be? Is it not fact that
more than a majority of the citizens
of the State are not required by law
10 pay any tax for State purposes?
And yet when have we ever had
harder times? When have there
Deen more men seeking employment2
When have there been more men
With families dependent upon them