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oL , dA TED APRIL to, 1870.
^jTES 1
FOl
fOB THE TRI-WEEKLY.
:11
advance, the price of
tlic
n i„1 strictly in . . -
y conri. r will 're 52 50 a year, and
;;^livc moro ' one eopy wiU b0 fur
M. DWINELL, PROPRIETOR.
“W IS DOM; JUSTICE- AND MODERATION.”
i —4.'
TWO DOLLARS PER ANNUM.
VOLUME XXXII.
ROME, GEORGIA, WEDNESDAY ■ MORNING, NOVEMBER 28, 1877.
; . . * ; /' .5 . .. I; 15/ * • : *
\KW SERIES--N0. 13
IVE
SS
if bis rpee
-ELTON’S SPEECH.
,;jsii to-day the speech of our
te representative in Congress
question of resumption of
cjnents by the Federal Gov-
' j[r, Felton is a man of ur.-
ability and power as a.speak-
\ ■" , the end he aims at, that is,
J.W*of the present resumption
re? hM rily concur with him. While
Vi, we must be allowed to enter
to the tone and character of
, Mr. Felton has waited
it i, weii known that the anti-re-
uvo a eoiisiderable mnjor-
iS^eofwhieiilieisamem-
: r , r <l r.iwaoiusi-- 1 :h' - House for an
, '"a-illi a speech fill of the tropes
/’faur/ of rhetoric, and breathing
• 3< fc‘ive ocainsl men of all political
w ho happen to disagree with
lip n a mere business matter, to
ff t |. f , easiest and most convenient
!,v of honestly paying a debt. In his
„f the iiuestion of the rela-
of capital and labor he is singu-
Llv unfortunate, and leaves himself
! j=8 a common phrase, on the fence,
p-eoiieuing paragraphs of his speech
«ebrimful of platitudes and truisms,
"hesays, for instance: ‘’The forma
. f' c j a ^ e = is to be deprecated;”
.j'" fcor r.n right to make war upon
capital, because capital is as necessary
"reductive industry as labor:" “It
ram'and criminal for productive
fjorjn eonspirt- against corporations,
„: a5t bonaiholders, against capital.
equally wrong and criminal for
(Jjol to combine and conspire against
1 • Having said so much, and
3r h mori > of similar import, the
announces that he “is not sur-
gsol that men who are dependent
1. )n t j lt .j r ii- for bread,” etc., etc.,
Should occasionally take counsel of
aeirpassions, and, in a word, resist the
trol of capital. Now, we ask, where
a-,, t,, p! Mr. Felton ? Does he
riml upon the broad generalities that
to furor the right of capital to
1 labor, or shall we place him as
a apologist for strikers? We regret,
hr the sake of the cause Mr. Felton was
advocating, that he has laid himself
open to the charge of demagogism,
which the enemies of the measure will
■•'tret,i hurl at him.
A few years ago the financial meas-
sre; that are now pnpularnearly all over
•ie Union bad but few advocates in the
krh.but time and the “sober, second
fey's" have wrought a wonderful
!l»ge in the popular mind ; and with
fe-.fetnge the Democratic party is
yotvinjin gib, so that very soon
it will levolve upon that party to shape
sit measures of economy and reform.
Its Tth lie people are looking to the
Democratic party for relief, and as a
wseqaence expect much of the wis
dom and state smanship of the South.
Then, when it is known that there are
w's, have always been active Dem-
in the North, who are hard-
iwntn, what is the use in,or what
.''•’icm Ii» accomplished by antagon-
g:-’them upon a simple question of
-gi fe.ncy ? The same desirable re-
'!•':s sun-to come whether Mr. Fel-
"'■ggiks or holds his peace.
• ■ reported from Constantinople,
I ” t'Jtiiority to which good informa-
•aec'-ssiiue, that His Majesty the
| "tw mil his Ministers are of opinion
■ time for endeavoring to put
I i-bi to the war has arrived,” says
•'few York Herald. His Majesty
■hesultan dues not want to inflict any
r mis ry on the Russian Empire,
| y ,r - ave any more inflicted on his own.
-fh! not be easy for people generally
White the Sultan’s benevolent
'•’v;toward the Russian Empire from
'Wmple te overthrow of Moukhtar
h: Asia, the critical position of
army in Bulgaria, and the
-Ktsii success of the Montenegrins in
“"toil* Antivari. Either of these
| flcl: - might incline a rational Govern
'd peace, but the three to-
-’ ■at will leave Turkey, if not in a
-’’t-Hkss, at least in a te r ribly crip-
Condition, and that naturally in-
-p r = the Sultan to reflect upon the
"■'’"ts ami horrors of war. England
M a,, e invited to assist in the efforts
; Si; !t> peace, and will, doubtless,
-“•! tan.e-tly. now that the fortune of
' ; against the Moslem. But we
■ 11 peace will he made just yet,
" “ issia has gained success enough
v '"tag" her to insist upon her
"■"S terms, and Turkey has not ful-
■ ’-Merieneed calamities enough tc
' ' ' her to accept them.
■ o t ms to he no prospect of a
.-^promise between the warring Van-
“ The contest promises to be a
, “ r, J scandalous one. The spectacle
refusing to divide any portion
. ^-‘tty-five millions of dollars with
■ r titers and sisters is about as
.j ami edifying as the other
. -safe of said brothers and sisters
out ihe skeletons from the
closet, because their father left
a ° r: ‘. v one fortune apiece.
dltt.-siaiis have captured Kart
I,';’ carried it by storm Saturday night,
-r f’cclve hours of hard fighting, the
'Urrendered the city Sunday morn-
It j 7‘ 'C-A ease in the Senate, on the 22,
w '“ a o to contested seats in that body,
’■ 1 atterson a .id Conover voted with
: “cwocrats.
(v-™™ ^ e, lrci has given to the Messrs.
Tuihv'’ <J " Philadelphia, a contract for
' " " railroad 1-S0 miles long.
Borne and the Surrounding
Country.
To the Editor of The Courier:
Rome may be proud of its future
prospects as a commercial and manu
facturing city. It cannot be otherwise,
surrounded as it is by so large an area
of country noted for the fertility of its
lands, besides rich in mineral wealth.
Some seven or eight cbuuties, perhaps
more, do their trading with Rome.
There is no inland town or city in
Georgia that has so rich a country in
material wealth to support it as Rome
has. Its agricultural products are va
ried, comprising cotton, the cereals, and
the grasses. Its mineral wealth is in
iron, coal, slate and lime. Railroad
facilities are already established with
all parts of • the country, and three
steamboats navigating the Coosa and
(fetanaula rivers, which extendthrough
as fine and fertile a firming country as
can be found elsewhere. These are
advantages that must build up Rome,
and in time make it a large commer
cial city. It is already manufacturing
largely of iron-ware, also of flour, and
several other factories in the wood line.
As yet there has been no efforts made
for a cotton factory; but the t : me is not
far distant when that enterprise will be
undertaken, if not in Rome, it will be
on some of the fine water powers con
venient te Rome, fi'r immediately’ at
Rome water power is lacking for large
manufacturing purposes; should a cot
ton factory be built there they must de
pend cn steam. Fourteen miles south
of Rome, on Big Cedar creek, in two
miles of the beautiful village of Cave
Spring, is that splendid water power,
known as the John Baker mill proper
ty, through which the Selma, Rome and
Dalton railroad passes. A more eligi
ble site cannot be selected for a cotton
factory, being in the midst of a fine
farming country, water power in abun
dance, and a railroad at hand for ship
ping conveniences. One of these days
a cotton factory will be bnilt on that
site, as it affords superior advantages
hard to find elsewhere. And as regards
this whole up country contiguous to
Rome, as a farming country, it cannot
be surpassed. The error now existing
with the farmers is in planting too
largely of cotton. If farming was
more diversified it could be made one
of the most self-sustaining and prosper
ous countries south of the Ohio river.
But, uuforrunately, grain, grasses,
fruits, and stock are too much neg
lected for cotton. Let us argue once
more this subject with the farmers. All
HMistt iL-t fanning, lu lie success
ful, must be self-sustaining. To make
it so, the farmer must raise all his food
supplies at home for his household and
farm use; if not, himself and his farm
will be the sufferers. Making so much
cotton and so little provisions benefits
Rome, the railroads and the steam
boats; each have two licks at the farm
ers; first, in handling the cotton, and
next in having to sell you your bread
and meat, and the railroads and steam
boats are paid freight for the same.
Your cotton money is thus paid out in
exchange for food supplies, leaving you
but little, if any; whilst if you raised
your own food supplies what cotton
you made, if but little, would be yours,
and the money it brought would go in
your own pockets.
Another great error is in buying so
largely of commercial fertilizers. Cot
ton is also the result of such. It is re
ported that 2,000 bales of cotton has
already been delivered in Rome this
season to pay 7 for commercial fertilizers,
that is one hundred thousand dollars
expended fer bought manures. But
some will contend that commercial fer
tilizers pay; if so, the S100,000 has been
well invested, so far as there are profits
derived from the money 7 paid for it.
But as a general thing we contend it
don’t pay: in the first place it is too
expensive, and in the next, there is
t that difference in the Crops where
used and where not used, that is where
.lie lands are equal in their natural
fertility, to pay the cost of these fertil
izers. And, again, it has been the cause
of increasing the production of cotton
at the sacrifice of food supplying crops
Taking all in all, it don’t pay, and the.
farmer that diversifies his crops, makes
his own food supplies, rotate? his crops,
and plows under cloveT, peas and weeds,
and raises his own stock, will make
more money and own a more produc
tive farm than any 7 man that plants
mo3t cotton and purchases fertilizers.
Try it, who will, and the self-sustaining
farmer is the man that will come out
best. D.
The Springfield Republican of the
15th instant editorially says:
There seems no reason to doubt that
Mr. Blaine is in a very critical condi
tion. He has grown worse since he
went to his Augusta home a fortnight
ago, has been confined to his bed, de
nied to callers and finally attacked
with dysentery, which left him so weak
a few nights ago that it was feared he
was going to die. The last two years
have proved a terrible strain on both his
mind and body, and there are abundant
signs, how 7 ever completely he may seem
to recover from his present attack, the
days of his old activity are over, or if
they are resumed, are liable to be end
ed very suddenly and finally.
Some miscreants, who, it is supnosed,
wished to rob the pay train of the Wil
mington, Columbia and Augusta Rail
road, placed obstructions on the track,
Friday night, and succeeded in throwing
off the night freight train and killing a
fireman named Ira Wood. Mr. H. Cal-
vo, the engineer, was slightly .injured.
No material damage was done to the
train.—Columbia Phasnii.
SPEECH
of Hon- William H. Felton,
In the House of Representatives,
November 11,18TT.
The House having under considera
tion the bill (H. R. No. 805) to repeal
the third section of the act entitled “An
act for the resumption of specie pay
ments”—
Mr. Felton said:
Mr. Speaker—I have but few finan
cial figures. Indeed, I only profess to
be able to see and appreciate results,
effects. A6 in nature there are effects
that are apparent to the most casual
observer, while all the secret springs
which produced these effects may not
be known. In disease the physician
has little to do with names—with the
technical descriptions that fill up his
bookB as so much waste lumber. He
sees before him only symptoms, and
his duty is to battle with those symp
toms by all the -appliances within his
reach. In the financial policy of this
country I see and appreciate results,
the effects, the symptoms—all indica
tive of a fatal termination, and de
manding the most prompt and efficient
remedies. Class legislation is destruc
tive to civil liberty. It engenders re
sistance, it estranges the class antag
onized from the Government, for men
cease to respect the laws which oppress
them. The Government which enacts
and euforces discriminating measures
must soon expect to find among its cit
izens one class who are its hereditary
friends, and another class who are its
hereditary enemies. This friendship
and this enmity must continue until
one becomes the only pillar upon which
the Government rests, or until the other
culminates in rebellion or slavery.
Every monarchy in Europe and in
Asia, whether limited by constitutional
law or having no limitations thrown
around the will of the ruler, hod its
origin in personal and class preferences
and is maintained by legal favoritism.
Divide into classes and then sustain
the favored class by every act of the
Government is the maxim of despotic
rulers. They have in general so insid
iously accomplished their purpose that
the enslaved class did not suspect en
croachments upon their political, so
cial, and industrial rights until they
were powerless for averting the evil.
In this republican Government we
have always resisted the formation of
“classes.” “Equality before the law”
has been the recognized position of
every American citizen. We have ap-
pliea this principle not only to men,
but theoretically we have applied it to
occupations and pursuits in life.
An open path, unhedged by law, has
been supposed to open invitingly be
fore every occupation, every species of
labor; and the man who had no en
dowment but his capacity for work—
who was willing to work—who remem
bered that all legitimate wealth was
the resultant of work, has been taught
by the theory o.f our Govern- -.—.t
undents lostermg care the highest re
wards were attainable. Instead of seek
ing his impoverishment and degrada
tion, the law was ever supposed to be
on his side, kindly in sympathy with
his necessities, and disposed to stimu
late rather than retard his efforts in bet
tering his condition.
The good report of our Government
in this particular lias gone throughout
the world. The thousands of emi
grants who have built up the West,
and who are an important factor in the
future of our country, have been at
tracted here by our supposed equal
laws, unhedged paths of industry, our
respect for labor, and the absence of all
class distinctions.
I repeat this has been the theory of
our Government, and whenever the
people become convinced of a departure
or a proposed departure from this prin
ciple of “equal and exact justice to all
men,” they will resist it by all the
means at their command.
The people are not yet prepared'to
surrender their rights into the hands of
the few. They are not willing that
monopolists, corporationists, national
bondholders, and the money-changers
of this country shall become the un
challenged lords of the country, hold
ing the soil and its productions, the
manufacturing and mining interests, as
tributaries to their wealth.
The formation of classes is to be de
precated. Even the organization of
parties in the interest of special indus
tries is to be censured and condemned.
Labor or working-men’s parties are all
wrong, because they are based upon
one idea, upon personal advancement,
individual gain, to the exclusion of, or
even iD opposition to, other interests
and occupations entitled to Government
sympathy and protection equally with
themselves.
LaboHaas no right to make war upon
capital, because capital is as necessary
to productive industry as labor. Labor
strikes and combinations on the part ef
employes against capital are unwise
and destructive to the interests of capi
tal and labor. When these combina
tions resort to violence they are crimin
al, and are deserving the condemnation
of every good citizen, though we are
not surprised that men who are de
pendent upon their labor for bread,
whose families have no security against
starvation but their daily wages, who
have not always the safeguards of in
telligence and virtue thrown around
them, should occasionally take counsel
of their passions and foolishly and
criminally resist the colossal combina
tion which has for the last few years
waged an exterminating war upon the
labor of this country.
It is wrong and criminal for produc
tive labor to conspire against corpora
tions, against bondholders, against cap
ital. It is equally wrong and criminal
for capital to combine and to conspire
against labor, and by its superior pow
er make labor a mere serf to minister
to its exorbitant demands; to seek by
unhallowed and fraudulent combina
tions to rob'agricultural, manufactur
ing, mining, and all the wealth-making
industries of their legitimate rewards./
I submit that the financial legisla
tion of this country since 1870 has been
the result of a deliberate conspiracy on
the part of the creditor class to rob, de
fraud, and impoverish the debtor class,
I submit that the act forcing resump
tion of specie payments in 1879, by
contracting the circulation of legal ten
der notes, and the act of 1873, demon
etizing the silver dollar, were as unjnst
and wicked as the labor strikes which
have recently startled and alarmed all
good citizens.
The only difference was, the last was
illegal and violent; the other sought jjp-
cover the outrage they perpetrated by
the forms and sanctions of law.
The only difference was, one was
speedily and justly suppressed; the oth
er, panoplied in gold and protected by
political influence, smiles in its bloated
security upon the wrecks of fortune—
the blasted hopes and the suffering' just when our industries most needed
poverty it has created.
The act demonetizing silver, in my
opinion, was the most deliberate and
inexcusable fraud upon labor known
in the legislative history of the world;
The scheme for demonetizing one of
the metals throughout the Westerri
world originated soon after the discov
ery of gold in California and Australia.
It was supposed that the production of
gold -would be enormous, and the Gov
ernments of the world were invoked to
prevent the anticipated decline in thtj,
value of gold by its demonetization:
have followed their lead but for the re-j
sistance of France. It was changed Taj
1865 into a movement for the docc v
the stimulant should be applied. The
physician who suspends his remedies
just as the paroxysm passes off, either
ignorantly or criminally, delivers up
his patient to death. When the nation
al life demanded a continuance of the
Etimulant- which had borne it through
the crisis, just as the wild delirium of
war was about to subside into reason,
help—just then all encouragements
were withdrawn and financial ruin
ensued.
Like the poor maniac we read of,
who was wild with rage, the evil Spirit
was rebuked and its departure left him
as “one dead but fortunately there
was “power and goodness” at hand.
He was commanded to nries, and he
spraDg into life, health and happiness.
Alas! alas! when our industries were
left as “one dead” there was no states
manship with capacity to say, “Arise.”
There they lay in their helpless ex-
Germany and Austria did in 1857 dev .haustion, and their dying condition
monetize gold, and other nations would, was seized upon by interested parties
to rob and despoil them
Sir, it seems to me we should learn
'something from history, for history is
tization of silver. This moveiswkins^ Philosophy teaching by example,
likewise resisted by France. -JauSSB In England, it is said, the years from
may remark that France has a ,.v?l797 to 1815 were the most prosperous,
times managed her finances with an
ability unequaled among the nations- known. Agriculture, commerce, and
of Europe. Her war with Germany
increased her debt §2,000,000,000, be
sides the loss of two of her finest prov
inces. She appeared to be wrecked.
Germany, her conqueror, looked on ex-
ultingly; believed she was crippled for
a half centery; but France has taught
her that well-managed finances are
more powerful than well-managed
armies. To-day, while Germany, crazy
about a single metallic standard and
the resumption of specie payments, sits
shivering on the verge of national bank
ruptcy, France, with every dollar of
her war fine canceled, with all her in
dustries prosperous, is now, seven years
after her crushing defeat, the superior
of her conqueror.
The French Government made paper
money a legal-tender for all debts, pub
lic and private—honored its own mon
ey. The banking establishments of
the country loaned to the people mon
ey in sufficient quantity to carry on
their industries, and the people were so
prosperous that they in turn tendered to
their Government the loan of four times
the amount of money necessary to pay
their war debt.
Such is France, that resisted the one-
metallic-standard folly; such is the
nation that inflates rather than con
tracts her currency, that never worrits
about resumption, and at the same
time has in the vaults of her banks
more gold and sr»ver than there is in
the combined banks of England and
Germany.
Germany and the United States de
monetized silver in 1873, both Govern
ments being influenced by one motive,
namely: to protect and enrich the cred
itor class and those having fixed in
comes against a fall in the value of
money.
-rms ia lire bturti tn i :ns nne-meiamc-
standard movement. They feared a
decline in the purchasing value of sil
ver. They knew if they could shelve
one of our metallic standards it would
quadruple the value of the remaining
standard. *
Enjoying “fixed incomes,” which are
never affected in volume by the uncer
tainties of trade, by fickle and unrelia
ble seasons, by sickness and the amount
of work performed, they knew they
would thereby quadruple their wealth;
that it was the certain means of making
the rich richer and the poor poorer; it
would send down the wages of labor
and the prices of commodities.
So then, silver, the money of the
Constitution, the coin which had been a
legal-tender for all due?, public and
private, from the origin of the Govern
ment, was deliberately set aside, re
tired from circulation, practically driv
en out of the country. The chances
for resumption lessened; indeed, m -de
impossible; debts contracted when gold
and silver were both legal tenders, now
to be paid only in gold; all for what?
To benefit that “small part of capital
which has ceased to labor and is at rest,
in the form of fixed and permanent in
vestments.”
But, sir, this “money power” was not
content with the demonetization of sil
ver.
This did not contract the currency
sufficiently. This did not shrink val
ues ia proportion to their greed. This
'id not quite transfer all the property
of the country into their hands. This
did not quite make New York and
commercial New England the owners
in fee simple of the cotton-fields of the
South and the grain-fields of the West
Ever on the alert, in 1875 they devise
and consummate the grandest scheme
of contraction known to the history of
Governments, at a time when the pub
lic and private indebtedness of this
country was apalling; for there was the-
national debt, upon which the Govern
ment has paid interest, alone, since the
war, amounting to 81,422,057,577; there
was the railroad debt, amounting, at
the time this iniquitous law was en
acted, to about, 85,000,000,000, upon
which the labor of the country was pay
ing interest; to which must be added
the State and municipal indebtedness
of the country, swelling the eDtire in
debtedness of the country to about S10.-
000,000,000, upon which labor is pay
ing interest. Then, there is the pri
vate indebtedness of the country, abso
lutely incalulable.
Tnen, there was the southern section
of our conntry laid waste by war, with
her former immense wealth—about §7,-
000,000,000—blotted out; her fields un
cultivated; her once happy homes,
many of them, in ashes; her farmers
without implements of husbandry,
without stock, and without credit; all
her enterprises prostrate—widowhood
and orphanage throughout the land.
Just at this time the Government re
solves to contract the currency, bring
ing every commodity and every species
of labor down to a gold basis, and un
questionably reducing the debtor class
to penury and want.
It has been said that the issuing of
our greenback currency was a war ne
cessity. It was intended to sustain the
country during the exhausting strug
gle in which it was engaged. It was
successful in doing this; and I submit
that a currency which was essential du
ring that period of waste and destruc
tion—the stimulant that preserved the
vital forces of the nation daring the
war—is more necessary at the close
than it was during the excitement of
that struggle; that, so long as the se
quences ot that war continued, so long
industriously and commercially, ever
manufactures had greatly augmented.
The landed proprietors were in afflu
ence. Wealth to’ an unheard-of extent
had been created among the farmers.
Exports, imports, and tonnage had
more than doubled since the war be-
gan.
These eighteen years of prosperity
were years of suspension of specie pay
ments by the Bank of England. There
was no abatement in this prosperity
until the moneyed nobility, led on by
Sir Robert Peel, began to clamor for
resumption. Then all this prosperity
of labor, this universal and unheard-of
prosperity, ceased.
As socn as contraction commenced
prices fell to a ruinous extent. Wages
fell with the prices of commodities, and
It is said that before the close of the year
1816 panic, bankruptcy, riot, bloodshed,
and starvation spread through the land,
i. The 1st of May,1823,had been fixed upon
by law whpn the baDks should resume,and
they contracted their circulation rapidly
io meet the gold and silver standards
of value. The result was that from 1815
tp 1S23 more than four-fifths of the land-
owners of England lost their estates.
The number of land-owners was reduced
from one hundred and sixty thousand
o thirty thousand, and, in the language
>f Wendell Phillips, “bankruptcy, the
rery history of which makes the blood
t 'ld to-day, blighted the empire.”
W b J l 1 this suffering ? Why all these
ibara? -Why all this desolation ? It was
brought about by men who had deter
mined to drive paper moaey from eircu-
ration, had determined to bring down
f rices and wages, and had especially de
termined to bring all the real estate of
J tie kingdom within their possession,
ihey triumphed. To-day the immense
tftaJSpgiisgh Jorda and™the
vassalage or the English peasantry are
attributable to the villainies of England’s
resumption laws. In every panic with
which England has been afflicted—in the
one just referred to, and also in 1836 and
1839, in 1847 and of 1857, and especial
ly in 1866, relief was only obtained by
the repeal of the resumption laws and by
inflating the paper currency of the conn-
try.
What a striking contrast between
England at the close of her Napoleonic
war and France at the close of her war
with Germany. The latter power,
instead of contracting her currency ex
pands it; makes her notes a legal tender,
pays her debts, sends thrift and prosperi
ty through all her provinces, abolishes
the empire, and establishes a Republican
form of government. The finances are
managed in the interest of the people
and not in the interest of an aristocracy,
and the result is, monarchy gives place
to a government by the people and for
the people.
While the difference between England
and France is striking, the resemblance
between the financial policy of this Gov
ernment and that of England is also im
pressive. During our late civil war the
people of the North aud Wes 7 were never
more prosperous in all of their industrial
pursuits. Every department of industry
was stimulated to the utmost capacity ;
farmers and manufacturers, merchants
and bankers, all were richly rewarded
for their labor and investment?. In
1865, at the close of the war, this pros
perity was still in existence.
This prosperity extended in part to the
devastated South and enabled her for a
brief period to restore her waste places
and gather supplies to feed her houseless
population. The circulation of money
among the people at this time amounted
to 858 per capita. The facts assure us
that if this volume of currency had been
continued until this time the burdens of
taxation would have been well-nigh re
moved, the debts of tho nation, of States,
of corporations, and especially of indi
viduals, would have been well-nigh can
celed, “tramps'' would never have been
heard of, riot3 would never have dis
graced Pennsylvania and other northern
States, all sectional strife and class su
premacy would long since have been sub
merged under a tide of unrivaled public
and private prosperity.
Alas! as in England, so in this coun
try, during the war the commercial cen
ters, notably New York and New Eng
land, from their superior advantages,
gathered in the “bonds" of the Govern
ment: the crystallized tears, blood, losses,
and poverty of the nation—these expo
nent’s of a nation’s travail.
Every dollar that the speculators and
bankers of New York and Boston could
accumulate in this time of prosperity, aDd
which was not expended in hiring sub
stitutes to take their places in the field,
where brave men were battling for the
Union, every dollar that the carap-fol
lowers and bomb-proof office-holders
could command, wa3 invested in Govern
ment securities at about fifty cents on the
dollar.
Europe with its unemployed capital
bought up the bonds—men who had no
sympathy with the labor aud strnggle3 of
this country, antiquated Shylocks, who
stood sharpening their knives and solilo
quizing with themselves:
I’ll have the heart aa forfeit of the bond. I’ll
cut near the heart.
“I’ll have my bond. I will not hear thee
speak.
I’ll have my bond; and therefore speak no
more. .
I’fl sot be made a soft and dal 1-eyed fool,
To shake the head, relent, and sigh, and
yield
To Christian intercessors. Follow not
I’ll have no speaking; I'll have my bond!”
At the close of the war, these Ameri
can and European Shylocks, as they did
in England, became clamorous for con
traction! They cared nothing for specie
payments. This was a mere pretense to
accomplish their ultimatum, contraction.
. Specie was a mere “decoy” to lead the
unsuspecting, productive classes into their
meshes. Their capital was fixed, and
they desired to convert it into products of
labor, and they must first shrink the value
of those products to bankrupt rates.
They have triumphed! The agitation
of the question sent labor down, sent real
estate down. Then, through their influ
ence, came the demonetization of silver;
then the' resumption law; each with a
view to contraction ; and as the coils of
the anaconda tightened a wail went up
throughout the land—a wail rivaling the
wail that went np throughout England,
and which is described as making the
“blood run cold.”
The failures in business have been in
numerable; ths loss from shrinkage in
values has been incalculable; the suffer
ing from reduced wages has been appall
ing.
Homes, comforts, and even the nec
essities of life, have passed forever from
once happy families. Hard and grind
ing poverty is pressing our citizens in
every section of the country; in every
avenue of trade and production. Rail
roads and banks are being would up by
receivers; savings institutions ate dis
appearing; furnaces and factories are
suspended; mining property is a burden
to the owners; merchants are being
driven, by the thousand, into voluntary
or involuntary bankruptcy; employes
are standing “all the day idle,” because
no man is able to hire them. The far
mers—the strength of the country, the
primary source of all wealth—have
been reduced to the greatest straits.
The farmers of the South are not reali
zing from the sales of their cotton the
co3t of production In many of the
States after paying for labor and fertil
izers and other expenses, they find
themselves inextricably in debt. Geor
gia, the leading southern State in all
the elements of agricultural and manu
facturing weath, and whose citizens, in
every industry and enterprise, are with
out a superior, decreased in taxable
property last year S15,902,134. Ten
nessee decreased over 831,000,000; and
these are the most prosperous in their
materiel industries of all the Southern
States Texas alone excepted. It is much
worse among the productive classes in
the West and in the North. The shrink
age there has been greater and the suf
fering more intense. For while the
South is not accumulating, and cannot
until contraction is arrested or until it
touches its lowest depths, yet there is
no one starving there as in the North.
There are no riots there; there are no
striki s tlier™; every man, white or black,
can, if he will, have “food and raiment;”
but there is financial distress there, and
as in tin- North and West, this distress
must continue while contraction of the
currency continues. Why all this dis
tress ? Why all this forced proverty ?
Simply to enrich the fete.
It is said-by the friends of resump-
*itwri*hpt the-panic, of 1873 came barore
the resumption act passed, but uiese
special pleaders must remember that
during the Forty-first Congress, in
March, 1S69, an act was passed in these
words: “And the United States also
solemnly pledges its faith to make pro
visions at the earliest practicable period
for the resumption of the United States
notes in coin,” and aiso all other obliga
tions of the United States except where
it is expressly provided to be paid in
lawfuly^money or other currency.
Here was an assurance of soeedy re
sumption which distroyed confidence
in the paper money of the country, and
the contraction which had been going
on sinc3 1S69, now went on more rapid
ly until ail confidence was lost in the
panic of 1873. Here was a pepudiation
by the Government of its own lawful
money; and can we be surprised that
all men discredited that money ?
Confidence! We hear continually
about the restoration of confidence.
Confidence in a ship while the scuttlers
are at work to send it to the bottom 1
Confidence in a promise to pay.” while
the sappers and miners are removing
the foundations of value upon which
that promise is made!
The following extract from the report
of the “silver commission” should be
remembered:
It is maintained by many that exist
ing evils are the tesults of a loss and
lack of confidence and that the sufficient
remedy would be found in its restoration
On all occasions they portray in glow
ing phrase the .abounding prosperity
which would follow if moneyed anb
other capitalists would freely exhibit
confidence by inaugurating industrial
and commercial enterprises. But it is
to be observed that they content them
selves with recommending confidence
to othera while they are careful not to
make a practical exhibition of any on
their own part. They seem to be un
consciously influenced by the view,
that while they might profit by the con
fidence of others confidence on their
own part might involve them in losses.
The real mischief is not the lack of
confidence, but the lack of any legiti
mate grounds for confidence; and there
neither will be nor ought to be any revi
val or extension of confidence so long
as the volume of money continues to
shrink and prices continue to fall.
The gentleman from New York [Mr.
Chittenden] on yesterday from his perch
[Mr. Chittenden stood at the Clerk’s
desk while speaking] announced to the
country that loafers, gamblers, and bank
rupts, the worst elements of society,
favored the repeal of the resumption
law.
Is the gentleman already designating
the classes cf society which favor or
oppose this repeal, putting the rich on
one side and the poor on the other side ?
I know not whether these characters
advocate or oppose repeal. One thing
I do know, every millionarie, evrey man
who owns two or three hundred thou
sand dollars in Government securities
is opposed to repeal and advocates a
system of hard and grinding poverty
for the debtor.
I suppose the gentleman means by
“bankrupt” a man who is nnahle to pay
his debts, which inability has bees
brought about by this system of contrac
tion which he advocates. Still the ruin
ous work of contraction goes on and mil
lions of “greenbacks” are being retired
and destroyed by the Government month
ly'and the national banks are likewise re
tiring their circulation by millions, in pre
paration for the proposed day of resump
tion. Still the ruinous work must go on
nntill 1879; and false comforters assure
us that ‘Tight it ahead,” that the margin
between greenbacks aud gold iu very
small, that the chasm is almost filled up,
and that all these things will “right
themselves.”
.Yes! I know these things will right
themselves.
Look at that storm-driven ocean.
Darkness and hurricane are upon the
deep. Signal-guns of distress are heard
through the gloom. Ships ai% going
down by the hundred, and thousands of
precious lives are being ingnlfed.
In the midst of this ruin^there stand
the “wreckers” [pointing to Mr. Chitten
den, who was standing near] awaiting
their prey and comforting themselves
with the words: “these thirgs will right
themselves.”
Yes, sir; I know that the morning son
will rise brightly upon a calm sea.
Every wave shall have subsided. The
fragments shall have floated off to some
neighboring shore and the dead will have
been forgotten. Things have righted
themselves on that sea.
Watteraon’s Flan.
Mr. Henry Watterson, editof of the
Louisville Courier-Journal, was the re
cipient of a dinner at the Lotos Clab in
New York on Saturday evening. In
response to the toast in his honor, Mr.
Watterson made a highly characteristic
little speech, from which we make an
extract:
“To allay needless excitement I wish
to say in the beginning of the few re
marks which I propose to make on this
occasion—and I take leave to add that,
having been preprred by a friend, who
has spared neither pains nor expense,
they should commend themselves and
need no prefatory eulogy from me—I
wish to say at the outset that if any
one has come here with the expectation
of receiving instruction on financial
topics I am not responsible for his
coming, and shall decline to hold my
self answerable for his disappointment
It is not my purpose to speak of re
sumption or the remonetization of sil
ver. In my part of the country we
have an impression that the Govern
ment should give us what money we
want and ask no questions. Daring
the flush times of ’37 an old North
Georgia farmer went down to Angnsta,
entered the State Bank and said to the
cashier: “Bob, we must have more cir
culatin’medium—bound to have 7 it—
can’t get on without it” “Well,” said
the cashier, “how are you going to get
it?” “Why, stomp it.” “Suppose we
stomp it, as you say, how are we to re
deem it?” “Why, Bob, that’s what I’m
coming to. You see, in North Georgy
we are agin redemption.” It seems to
me that the Btory illustrates the finan
cial situation in Washington at least,
and, promising that, if the Government
can stand it we can, I turn at once to a
question upon which I would dwell for
a moment and to .which I would call
your serious attention. * *
Shall Ingersoll go to Berlin ?
TTCtJJk. OUU
nm
The minniui eveut
the jok9 of the present national admin
istration is the appointment by Presi
dent Hayes of Colonel Ingersoll as
Minister to Germany, the birth-place
of modem infidelity. Col. Ingersoll
has been filling the land with blatant
infidelity, and has re cently been mak
ing an assault in behalf of the memory
of Tom Paine and against the Rev. Dr.
Prime, the nestor of religious journal
ism, and on the stage of onr own Acad
emy of Music took the liberty of giving
the opinion that God was a great ghost;
and in addition to his book derisive of
Chr3tianity, has been delivering his
lecture entitled “An honest God the
Noblest work of Man.” President Hayes
is a Methodist, and cf course accepts jin
their heartiest meanings the troths of
Christianity, and now he sends Inger
soll to Germany, ths nest of modern
skepticism—a nomination so fit to be
made that it has kept me smiling all
the week. I do not know any other
land to which Ingersoll could be sent
appropriately unless to the Fejee Islands
or the Kingdom of Dahoney. [Laught
er.] We hope he will accept the nomi
nation, a3 our own country can stand
it, and Germany will feel no shock.
O! shades of Richter and Schiller and
Strauss come out and meet him on the
gangway—the steamer before he touches
the wharf. Let him be sworn in,not on the
Bible ho, does not believe a word of it
—but on the back of a brand new copy
of ‘‘Faust” or some German fairy tale.
We are disposed to think that the Pres
ident intended the nomination as a long
stroke of humor, at any rate so we ac
cept it
The Marietta, Ga., Journal says: We
learn from Mr. Pitts that Mr. Cicero
Emory eloped with Miss Julia Shad-
ner, his wife’s youngest sister, last Sun
day evening, taking the 4 o’clock at this
place, going toward Chattanooga. The
writer was at the train and noticed that
the couple were apparently uneasy, but
thought nothing of the matter after
they boarded the train. They both live
some eight miles above Marietta, and
were of respectable families. Emory
left a young and handsome wife and a
prattling child behind. Miss Shadner
was about sixteen years old, and had
been living with her sister, Mrs. Emory,
and her husband for some time, and it
seems Emory became enamored of the
“sweet sixteen,” which being mutually
shared by her, they departed to a land
of strangers to enjoy there what blind
love prompted.
Sixty-six female convicts sailed down
the Hudson a few days ago. The World
says: “Half the women, at least, smoked.
Five minutes after the boat started
twenty clay pipes were out, and the
smoke rolled in clouds between the neigh
borly decks. The younger ones liked a
cigar, and managed to get it frequently ;
but as there were not enongh for all, one
cigar was made to do for two or three, a
smoker stopping kindly midway and
handing it over. There was one young
girl who got three cigars, perhaps because
she was pretty.”
The sheriff of Philadelphia on Mon
day sold under the hammer the largest
nnmherof properties of unfortunate debt
ors ever pnt np at one sale in that city.
Th« sale comprised four hundred and
thirty-nine pieces of real estate, com-’
prising over fifteen hundred different
properties. Of these about seventy-five
were sales made on foreclosed mort-
[es of building associations. Many
nahle dwellings were sold.
Swinging is said by the doctors to be
good exercise for health, but many a poor
wretch has come to his death by it to
CONTRACT RATES OF ADVERTISING.
One square one month * -1 0®
One square three months - — 8
One square six months —.. 12 00
One square twelve months. 20 00
One-fonrth column one month .rr-—™ — 10 00
One-fourth column three months ............ 2D CD
One-fonrth column six months 30 00
One-fourth column twelve montlw— GO 00
One-half column one month 20 00
One-half column three months 32 00
One-half column six months.- 60 00
One-half column twelve months^ —-- 1W 00
One column one month— 30 00
One column three months— 00 00
One column six months 101 00
One column twelvemonths.......-..! — 160 00
_ foregoing rates are for either Weekly or
Tri-Weekly. When published in both papers, 50
per cent, additional upon table rates.
Suicide.
A Farce Jn two Seines.
From the Eoroi* (Har.) Sentinel, Nor 4.
There are various ways of getting ont
of this troublesome w rid, and some of
those who shuffle off the mortal coil,
with a view of making their exit from
this sphere the work of their own hands,
adopt novel expedients. Take the care
of the San Francisco washerwoman, fur
instance, who, while reflecting on the ilia
that she bore in this world aud the griev
ous burdens of the daily straggle for ex
istence, stuck .her head in the suds and
held it there until she was defunct pars
ing over the border damp and soapy. A
Eureka woman, who had brooded over
her toils and tribulations until she was in
that nnhappy state of mind when suicide
seemed to offer her the only relief, made a
miserable fiasco, and now lives to still
endure, notwithstanding her attempt v
at self-murder. Her husband would stay
ont at night, play pedro, and other
wise conduct himself in a very undntifnl
manner, and, to cap the climax of his
cruelties, refused to purchase her one of
those sweet hats jnsl imported by Meyers
& Franklin. W hen he left the residence
to go down town to see a man she deter
mined on death, and took for that pur
pose a bottle of corrosive sublimate from
the closet, where the family drags were
kept Composing herself carefully on
the bed, and as gracefully" as if she had
been a California actress, she-drained at
one gulp a huge goblet foil, dropped the
glass to the floor, folded her hands on her
breast and calmly awaited death. She
had anticipated the most excruciating
pain, as the terrible corrosive substance
should act on her inwards, and marvelled
greatly to find instead a sensation of de
licious bliss stealing over her whole sys
tem. Her spirit was wonderfully exalt’
ed, her vision rose and roamed at will
through all the gladsome memories of
her happy past. “I had not dreamed,”
she said, speaking with difficulty, for her
voice was failing fast and her ntterances
clogged. “I had hot dreamed that death
was so easy. I would have done it often
had I known this. O, death! where is
thy sting? O, grave! where is thy vic
tory?
At this juncture her husband entered.
“What in dentation are you doing
Molly ? What makes your face so red!”
“Goo’ by, John; goin’ die. Taken
croshive subl’ate. Forgive yer ever’-
thing.”
“Corrosive 1 Why,
that’s ten-dollar brandy that I brought
down to Clark & Botto’s. I pnt that
label on it so that yon wouldn’t drop on
the contents.”
The New Coachman.
The boy shonld have known better at
his age than to let ont family secrets, but
he felt grateful to the other boy for the
use of bis stilts, and he softly remarked:
“Father wasn’t home all last night, and
he hasn’t come home yet”
“Gone off?— queried the owner of the
JtiHj- ■ : -
pect, and ma says she ain’t going to ran
after him if he don’t come home for a
month.
“Did they have a foss?”
“Kinder. You see we had to let the
coachman go, ’cause its hard times. Yes
terday afternoon ma wanted pa to black
up and drive her ont in style. He kick
ed at first, bnt when she got mad he caved
in and fixed so yon couldn’t toll him
from a regular darkey. When he drove
aronnd ma called him Peter, and ordered
him to back np and go ahead and haw
and gee around, and he got op on his
ear and drove back to the barn. Them
duds came ofFn him like lightning, and
he was so mad that he didn’t stay long
enough to wash the black off his ears.”
“And what did your mother say ?”
asked the other.
“Nothing. She looked a little sad
aronnd the month, but she’ll fetch him to
it if it takes all winter. He might as
well come home and begin to learn how
to burn corkDetroit Free. Press.
London, Nov. 21.—The Times’ Erz-
eroum correspondent, in a letter dated
October 25th, says: “If winter breaks
upon us shortly, and Kara bolds out we
may keep Erzeroum; but if the weath
er continues fine and Kars falls, this
place cannot repel the Russians.
The Manchester Guardian’s Pera cor
respondent telegraphs as follows : We
have just heard of the capture of Kars.
The fall of Erzeronm is expected to fol
low. The Porte now appears desirous
of entertaining peace propasals. Server
Pasha, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and
Mahmoud Damad, are said to be more
favorable to peace.
A special to the Standard from Ver-
dan Kaleh contains the following: Seven
teen thousand men from the army will
be detached to assist at the siege of
Plevna.
Mr. W. H. Harris, of Tilton, was kill
ed by the shifting engine of the E. T. V.
& G. R. R. on the track of the S. R. &
D. R. R , on last Thursday morning.
The engine was minus a head-light. st>H
it it thought the unfortunate mm, di.l «->t
hear tkerumbleof its wheels, < r imagined
it was nn Ihe W.& A. R. R- track, which
was parallel with it. Pool- man 1 be was
taken without a moment’s wa tiing. Let
os hope that he is in a better world.—
Dalton Citizen.
A
ed
be
lives,
dred
place,
of the
nate
two
the
diate
at
feared
terrible mining accident is report-
i Scranton, Pa, by which, it is to
ed, several persons will lose their
At the depth of several bun-
feet a fire damp explosion took
i, which shattered a large portion
te mine, burying many unfortu-
» men under the ruins. There were
hundred persons in the works at
‘-‘me, and their escape from imme-
death was almost miraculous.
A band of robbers, lying in wait in
Nevada for a stage in which a -large
amonnt of treasure was to be shipped,
were informed of the departure of the
vehicle from Enreka by a confederate’s
signal fire on the top of a mountain near
ly thirty miles distant. This fire excited
suspicion, and a guard was sent to protect
the stage. A desperate encounter was
the result, and the robbers were all killed
captured.
The editor of a SL Louis paper re
cently insisted that poets must be brief.
The next day he received the following,
entitled: “The ballad of the merchant:”
“Trust-
Bust!’
People who affect a shortness of sight
most think it the height of good fortune
be bora blind.
