Year: 1872

! CONGRESSMAN VOORHEES, has revived
! the greenback issue raised a few years
| ago by Mr.. Pendleton, and endorsed by


the Democracy. The proposition which
| he made in the House last Monday is
/ based upon the bond plank in the Demo-


cratic platform of 1863. It does not vary
from it in any respect. The copy is ex-


act. He proposes, in plain English, that


the Government shall redeem the 5-20s in
greenbacks. Stripped of all verbiage,


that is the whole of his bill.


There is nothing in the proposition
| itself to make it worthy of note. The pros


and cons of the subject have all been dis
cussed so thoroughly that every man ca
pable of forming an opinion upOnit made
up his mind long ago. To repeat the OBJ
iections to it, would be waste of time.
The bill is worthy of note only for the re-
ception it has met from the Democracy.
While it was a live issue the party, with
very rare anu uniInpUI ttrIIV S=so-P+io->y,
supported the greenback theory most
heartily. Now the tables are turned.
There is hardly newspaper of any note
in the party which approves Mr.. Noor-
hees' course He is one the most
popular men in the party, but as
resurrectionist he has no following. The
journals which were a few years ago, fill





the five-twenties in gold, are now in arms
against the ghost of Pendletonism. Mac
beth was not more frightened at the Ban
que apparition. The Times so far forgets
itself rs to quote against the Hoosier
statesman the arguments used by the Re-
pubicans few years ago in battling the
Greenbacks." That paper, which then
whanged away and against ''bloated bond
holders now acuses Voorhees, of saying
in effect to this class, " We promised to
redeem these bonds in coin, and on the
strength of that promise you have paid
some ten per cent. more for them than
you otherwise would have done. Now
we propose to repudiate that promise, and
force you to take ten per cent. less than
we agreed to give you, and two per cent.
than we encouraged you to pay for them"
The quondam organ of reputation re-
buking rs sharply as it once sustained, is
the difference between q live body and Il
ghastly skeleton.


It is safe to conclude that whatever else
the National Democratic platform of 1879
may contain, it will not repeat the third
plank in the platform of 1868. The Re-
publican party won a decisive victory on
the greenback issue. The Democracy
has had enough of openly espousing the
cause of national dishonesty. 1t mistook
the temper OF tne people. hoSueS are III
the minority, and for this reason the
Times concludes that eff any political
party goes before the people on that
[greenback issue, at this late day, it will
gain nothing and lose a great deal by the
operation This is so plain that our
f1eighbor wonders what VOORHEES, expected
to accomplish by the introduction of his
bill. Whatever he expected to do, he has
certainly afforded the organs of his party
an excellent opportunity to stultify their
own record, and most fully have they inn
proved it, none more completely than the
Times:


There is now nothing left of Democracy
but few scattered fragments and an
empty name Examine the platform of
1868 in the light of subsequent events,
and not a single principle remains. Every
one has been cast aside as dead weight.
If the party could only get rid of the odor
of treason, despotism and reputation, it
might construct an entirely new creed,
and upon it go before the people next fall
with some prospect of success. But
reputation once ruined is gone forever
The Democracy may cry out against re-
pudiation now but those outcres, instead
of blotting out the past will only serve to
quicken remembrance of il.-ChScag0
Journal, Feb. 21.