Democratic Sentinel, Volume 1, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 September 1877 — Page 1

jgtmocraiii A DEMOCRATIC NEWSPAPER PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY, BX •FAMES W. McEWEN. TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION. One copy one year $1.60 Ono copy six months. I.os One copy three months .M Advertising rates on application.

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

THE WAS IN THE EAST A London dispatch says: “From accounts reaching here it would seem that the Russians have fared better in recent engagements than has been supposed. The battle at Pelisat has resulted in the defeat of Osman Pasha, with a oss of 2,500 in killed and wounded, while the Russians only lost 500. The fighting was for the possession of a formidable redoubt held by the Russians. The Turks fought with the most desperate valor, and were mowed down by hundreds by the galling firfe of the Russians, and were finally compelled to retire, leaving the coveted posiion in the hands of the enemy.” Buieiman Pasha has abandoned the attempt on the Russian position in Schipka pass. It is stated that Grand Buko Michael, Com-mander-in-Cliief of the Russian army in Asia Minor, has assumed command of Gen. Melikoff’s army in person, that officer having been moved for exceeding his orders. Advices from Asia Minor report that the Turks have evacuated and the Russians reoccupied the Black sea port of Sookgoom-Kale ; that the Abschasian coast is now clear of Turks, and that the insurrection in the interior luh been suppressed. The report of the capture of Lovatz by the Russians is confirmed. The loss of this important strategic position will be severely felt by the Turks, as it is believed that its capture and occupation by the Russians will bar the ■way to a junction of the forces of Osman and Huieiman Pashas. It is re]>orted that the Turks have nearly completed the isolation of the Russian corps in Hchipka pass, having obtained command of the Gabrova road, north of the Balkans. The Russians meanwhile are improving the roads and building bridges in the pass, confident that it will not be long before an army will come to their relief, and the road into Roumelix will be wanted. The Turks claim to have defeated the Twelfth Russian, corps on the river Lorn, after a severe engagement. They place the Russian loss at 3,000 killed and wounded, and the Turkish loss at 900.' The Emir of Bokhara, considering that Russia, by attacking Turkey, threatens the whole Mohammedan world, has placed his army on a war footing. Russia has advised him to disarm. In the event of his refusal, Russia will attack Bokhara, and hopes to defeat the Emir in a few weeks. The Turkish army at Bagdad, 35,000 strong, is to bo sent to reinforce the Bulgarian army. A dispatch from Sistova, dated Sunday night, Sept. 9, says: “This morning the attack on all sides of Plevna was commenced and was continued throughout the day. By 6 o’clock in the evening the town of Plevna was in the hands of the Russians, and the Turks were in full retreat in great disorder. The losses are enormous, but details are not yet received.” In Asia Minor, the hostile Generals continue to watch one another from their intrenchrnonts, but neither cares to make a move which would give the enemy advantage ground. Nicsics has at last been captured by the Montenegrins. The garrison, w'hich was originally 400 strong, lost 200 during the siege in killed and prisoners.

GENERAL FOREIGN NEWS. A cable dispatch announces the death of Louis Adolph Thiers, the celebrated French statesman, in the 80th year of his age. The death of Thiers has created a profound impression throughout all Europe, and more esjiecially in France, where it is regarded as a national calamity. Manifestions of public grief arc noticeable to an extent which recalls the state of feeling in the United States produced by the intelligence of the sudden takingoff of President Lincoln in 1865. The Republicans are dismayed, at the sudden loss of the man upon whom they had centered their hopes and desires as the successor of MacMahon, while the Conservatives regard the circumstance as certain to operate in their favor at the ensuing elections. The London Times strongly urges that England should offer mediation between Russia and Turkey, with the conciurence of the other neutral powers. From the City t>f Mexico comes a report that cx-President Lordo, of Mexico, is to be tried for high crimes against the constitution, committed during his administration, and that Gen. Escobedo will soon be tried for treason. There are three counts in the indictment against Gambctta, the French statesman, which charge offenses against the person of the President and against the republic. There are Hix counts for public insults to Ministers. The Government will not permit the trial to be reported. It is said that the Pope, who is improving in health, has definitely resolved to restore the Roriian hierarchy in Scotland. Cardinal Manning will shortly go to Rome on a confidential mission in that connection. A band of Montenegrin soldiers recently surrounded a village near Pressika, intending to get cattle and com, During the night a fresh band arrived, whom the first supposed to be Turks. A fierce combat followed, in which 800 were killed and a number wounded. The mistake was not discovered till morning. Another terrible famine has broken out in Asia, and is desolating the little kingdom of Corea, on the eastern frontier of China, and the natives are rapidly dying of starvation. Like the Indian famine, it has arisen from the failure of the crops last season, owing to the want of rain,, and from the consumption of all reserve supplies. To add to their miseries, the plague has broken out among the people. It is reported that the Cabinets of London, Berlin, and Vienna have agreed that the time has not yet arrived for an attempt to settle the Eastern question by negotiation. The neutral powers believe that * definitive settlement, promising permanent peace, cannot be obtained until Turkey is subjugated or Russia becomes thoroughly exhausted by the protracted struggle, and is ready to seek some other means of adjustment than the arbitrament of force to which she has appealed.

DOMESTIC INTELLIGENCE. Llust. A lite in New York last week destroyed J. P. Hale s piano factory and about eighty other buildings, mostly factories and tenementhouses. The flames spread so rapidly that the occupants barely escaped with their lives. Two or three persons are missing, and it is feared they perished. estimated at $350 New York city has had a genuine case of yellow fever. Frank Leslie, the well-known New York publisher, has made an assignment for the benefit of his creditors, who represent $330,000 of his indebtedness. His assets are his various publications, the material used therefor, and his property near Saratoga. Mr. Leslie’s financial complications were superinduced by realestate transactions. West A building on Longworth street, Cincinnati, eil the other day, with ft tremendous crash,

The Democratic Sentinel.

JAS. W. McEWEN, Editor.

VOLUME I.

burying a number of people in the ruins. One woman was killed, three men fatally injured, and some half a dozen other persons badly hurt. - \ The obseouies of Brigham Young, at Salt Lake City, were remarkably common-place, considering the eminence of the man in the community where he lived and died. The body was inclosed in a plain redwood coffin, and was borne to the grave by the employes of the late President The cortege was preceded by a band and followed by the family, the different orders of the priesthood and the adherents, all on foot Prof. Watson, of the Michigan University, has discovered another asteroid. It is described as “a planet of the eleventh magnitude ; its nght ascension is twenty-three hours and ten minutes, and its declination zero degrees, forty-five minutes. Daily motion, retrograde fifty-five seconds of time in right ascension, and south one minute of arc in declination.” Private Dalzell’s reunion of ex-Federal and ex-Confcderate soldiers at Marietta, 0., was attended by several thousand volunteer soldiers of both sides hi the late war, and everything passed off satisfactorily to the participants in the gathering. Chief Joseph’s band are still roaming about Montana, confiscating stock and occasionally capturing a scalp. At last accounts they were in the vicinity of the Yellowstone, having burned the bridge across that stream. Gen. Howard’s command was far in the rear, with every prospect of the relative positions being maintained. Advices from Camp Robinson report that Shedding Bear’s band, who have been robbing and murdering in the Black Hills, have surrendered and promised to be good Indians hereafter. That irrational savage, Crazy Horse, has been acting in a manner calculated to justify his name. He was arrested at Spotted Tail agency and taken to Camp Robinson, Neb., for safety. While the officers were trying to disarm him in the guard-house Mr. Horse stabbed Little Big Man in the side. Horse was also stabbed, and the Indians are all torn up by the encounter. The noted Sioux chief Crazy Horse, who was stabbed by Chief Little Big Man, at Camp Robinson, Neb., has since died of his wounds. A Denver dispatch says the United States Marshal seized GO,OOO railroad ties, cut from Government timber, and on the cars, hear Boulder. Wontli. Four murderers confined in the jail at Newcastle, Ky., were taken out the other night and hung by a mob. The armj worm is devastating the cotton in Tennessee and Arkansas. Many fields in the vicinity look as if fire had swept through them. , '

'POLITICAL. POINTS. Thojßreenbackers of Massachusetts assembled in convention at Boston last week and nominated Wendell Phillips for Governor. The platform denounces class legislation, land grants and subsidies, protests against the further issue of gold bonds for sale in foreign markets, and demands the remonetization of silver. The Republican State Convention of Pennsylvania met at Harrisburg on the sth of September and nominated the following ticket: Supreme Judge, J. P. Sterrett, by acclamation; State Treasurer, William B. Hart, by acclamation; Auditor General, J. A. M. Passmore. The Committee on Resolutions reported the following, which were adopted : Resolved, That, while wc recognize and respect the difference of opinion existing among us as to the course pursued by President Hayes toward the South, we are heartily in accord in honoring the patriotic motives which have guided him. and in hoping that the results of this policy will be peace, good-will, and complete recognition of the equal rights of all men in every section of the country, and to the efforts of his administration to carry into effect the principles of the platform upon which he was elected we pledge our hearty and cordial support. Resolved, That the Electoral Commission having been created at the urgent solicitation of the Democratic party, and after the oft-repeated declarations of its leaders in both houses of Congress that no faction could cavil at its decisions, we witness with profound astonishment the assaults of that party upon the august tribunal of its own creation, because its decisions disappointed their expectation of official patronage, which assaults, so far as they seek to impair the confidence of the people in the just title of the President to his high office, are equally childish and foolish, but may become extremely mischievous in assisting to diminish the popular respect for the decisions of lawful tribunals. The third resolution calls upon the members of the State and National Legislatures to assist the return of prosperity to the country by adopting such measures as will conduce to that end. The fourth and fifth resolutions oppose any grant of more than 160 acres of land to any one person, and also oppose the reissue of patents by act of Congress. The sixth resolution is as follows : Resolved, That the long and successful 'existence under the laws of Congress of the double-coin standard warrants us in demanding an cariy repeal of the legislation which demonetized silvc’r and established an almost exclusive gold standard ; and we, therefore, favor a return to the free use and unrestricted coinage es the dollar of 1798, and its restoration to the position it held as legal tender during eighty years of our national existence, thus preserving the equality of the commercial value of the silver dollar with the gold dollar, keeping both in circulation. The seventh resolution indorses the administration of Gov. Hartranft.

8. We are in favor of the law, and against lawlessness and anarchy, with all their attendant horrors and crimes. Equal rights in making laws impose equal duties in obeying them when made, and we tender our hearty thanks to Gov. Hartranft and the officers and soldiers of his command for the prompt, and we hope effectual, suppression of the lawless disturbances which recently occurred in this State. 9. That we hold in equal respect the rights of capital to control its investments and of labor to determine the value of its services ; that we deprecate any assertion by violence of the rights of cither, and we assert it as the duty of all citizens to hold their respective rights within the just limitations of the law, and that any attempt to coerce either by unlawful means should be promptly repressed by such lawful authorities as the exigency demands. The remaining resolutions, except the eleventh, which favors a protective tariff, relate entirely to State affairs. Senator Dawes, of Massachusetts, avows his approval of the President’s Southern policy, but does not like his civil-service order. Thomas C. Anderson has been appointed Deputy Collector of Customs at the port of New Orleans. It is positively asserted in New York political circles that Senator Conkling will pronounce against the administration in the State Convention at Rochester. In a letter to the Newark Advertiser over his own signature, Justice Bradley denies the charges of the New York Sun. He says he did not read or express an opinion on the Florida case other than the one made public, and says he decided the electoral vote honestly and free tfrom political or other extraneous considerations. In regard, to the California election a San Francisco dispatch says: “The Democrats

RENSSELAER, JASPER COUNTY, INDIANA, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1877.

have elected ten Senators and fifty-seven Assemblymen. The Republicans elect ten Senators and twenty-three Assemblymen. Including hold-overs, the Democrats will have thirty eight majority on joint ballot.” WASHINGTON NOTES. A Washington dispatch announces the appointment of Mr. William Henry Smith, at present General Agent of the Western Associated Press, as Collector of Customs at Chicago, vice J. Russell Jones, suspended. The resignation of the latter was not forthcoming at the request of President Hayes, and hence the suspension and appointment as stated. The New York Republican Association, at Washington, has disbanded in consequence of the President's civil-service order. Hon. J. B. McCormick, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, has resigned. Solicitor of the Treasury Rayner pleaded guilty in the Police Court to an assault upon the managing editor of the National liepublican, and was fined S2O. The President has decided to appoint a new Commissioner of Indian Affairs.

MISCELLANEOUS GLEANINGS. A man named Wickliffe writes to the Louisville Courier-Journal that Osman Pasha, the hero of Plevna, is not Marshal Bazainc, but that he is Col. R. Clay Crawford, a native of Hawkins county, Tenn. He was Colonel of an artillery regiment in the rebellion; afterward served under Juarez in Mexico; then lived in retirement at a country seat near Philadelphia; became weary of idleness and went to Egypt, and was transferred from the service of the Khedive 1 o that of the Sultan. The story is circumstantially told, the narrator claiming to have been in correspondence with Osman for several years. In disposing of his property, Brigham Young endeavored to make an equitable division between his seventeen wives, sixteen sons and twenty-eight daughters. The estate is valued at $2,000,000, and the will divides it so that all th u legatees will have, with such other property as he has from time to time conveyed them, an equal proportion of the old man’s goods. Gold continues to tumble. Tiro price fell last week, in the New York market, to the lowest since the war. Senator Morton’s physician thinks his patient will be able to take his seat in the Senate at the regular session of Congress. The annual meeting of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee has just been held at St. Paul, Minn. The attendance numbered about seventy-five, mostly from Illinois, Indiana, lowa, Wisconsin, and Missouri.’ Gen. Sherman was elected President for the ensuing year. Friday, Sept. 7, was a big day for Marietta, Ohio, and a big day for Private Dalzell. President Hayes, Postmaster General Key and Attorney General Devens arrived in the morning and took part in the grand reunion of exsoldiers and ex-sailors. An immense concourse, estimated at 20,000, welcomed the party at the train and escorted them through the streets of the city to the residence of Gen. T. C. 11. Smith, where the President remained a guest. In the afternoon there was speech-making and a general love-feast. The President, in his speech, avoided any discussion of political topics, his whole effort being in defense of his Southern policy. As usual, he introduced Judge Key, who spoke of the North and South to-day, contrasting it with the position before the war. Gen. Devens followed in a speech of half an hour. ,r he Presidential party left in the evening for Fremont, w’herc they were accorded a cordial reception. The Turkish Minister to the United States furnishes the following : “In view of the various accounts circulating about the origin of Osman Pasha, the Turkish Legation has the honor to inform, the press that the Marshal of that name was born in Asia Minor, of Mussulman parents.”

FRESH PARAGRAPHS.

The Queen of Madagascar, Africa, has issued a decree emancipating' all the slaves on the island, and giving them the use of public lands in order to enable them to take care of themselves. The long-current story that President Grant offered the Chief Justiceship to Senator Howe, of Wisconsin, is confirmed by the ex-President, the only reason for his non-acceptance being that the then-Democratic Legislature would choofce a Democrat to succeed him. The London Times has a long article correcting the impression that Russia is on the verge of bankruptcy. The writer claims that the debt of Russia is in no way unmang cable, and that her resources are such as will enable her to carry on a second and third campaign without exhaustion. A correspondent of the Louisville Courier-Journal writes to that paper to say that R. Clay Crawford cannot be Osman Pasha, because Crawford was mortally wounded while leading a Cuban attack on the Spaniards in Cuba, and died on the field. And then he thinks Crawford was not of the sort of which great soldiers are made. The Cuba business gets on in neither direction. More troops from Spain, another change in the Captain Generalship, Jovellar going home in September, and the revolutionists as troublesome as ever. It does seem as if it was about time for Spain to do one thing or the other, crush the rebellion, compromise with it, or abandon the island. R. J. Gatling writes to the New York Evening Post that recent improvements in his gun have brought it to such a stage of perfection that it can fire 1,000 shots per minute, and one man can feed and fixe 600 shots per minute. In an official trial 64,000 rounds were fired from a single gun in rapid succession, and without stopping to clean the barrels. It has been decided by the Washington authorities to invite Sitting Bull to return, give up his arms and horses, and go upon a reservation, where he will be supported by the United States. Should he decline this liberal offer, it is proposed, if possible, to enter into an agreement with the Canadian Government whereby the intractable savage may be turned over, with his gun, tomahawk, scalp-locks and all his other paraphernalia to his Cousin John. The death of Thiers has caused extraordinary excitement, not only in France, but throughout Europe. A cable dispatch says that Berlin newspapers are unanimous in their eulogies, and they merely give expression to the conviction of universal Germany that he was one of the main guarantees of European peace. It is well known that Bismarck distrusts the Bonapartist and Orleanist parties, fearing the military passions of the former and the clerical inclinations of the latter, but he has little confidence in the Republican party, now that the moderating influence of Thiers is removed.

“A Firm Adherence to Correct Principles.”

THE IOWA CAMPAIGN.

Speech of the Hon. John P. Irish at Council Bluffs. The Crimes of the Republican Party Vividly Portrayed. Fellow-Citizens : As the country plodded through a long-drawn Settlement of the questions out of which grew the war and which grew out of the war, it yearly became plainer that the old strings had been harped until they were out of tune. The sympathies and impulses of the North, so often melted to tears by the slavery question, strung to a high key for so long, had lost their tone, and the whispers of love and mercy drawn from them by the real and fancied wrongs of slavery had changed to a coarse twang of vengeance and vulgar revenge.

The neo is of the national soul had long been the text of the agitator and the theme of the philanthropist, but, as a settlement of sentimental political questions was reached, the wants of the national body were asserted. Debt was upon us, carrying an interest charge annually upon the labor of the land double the volume of the entire national debt in 1860. The management and payment of this debt became in the eye of the publicist and statesman at once the leading question in American politics, for in its management and a proper system of revenue lay every economic interest of the whole country. As a few wise men were seeking to put these practical questions forward, there arose another school of politicians headed by Jay Cooke and commissioned to teach the 'people that a national debt is a national blessing, and from this germ grew financial fungi of all sorts, until it is no wonder that the ideas of good and sensible men have grown into antagonism to the • sound principles of political economy—the laws of finance and commerce. I think the great need of the day is a frequent recurrence to fundamental principles ; a constant teaching of the truth in respect to money and its relations to the welfare and happiness of civilized people. The Republican party has taken good care not so to teach. It has kept the public mind busy with other things. The negro vote and voter, negro equality, the rebel debt and claims, the bloody shirt, each has had its brief day on the stage to tickle the popular fancy or fan the popular temper into a roaring rage, while the prosperity of the country was being sapped, and wo seemed content to remain a nation producing more of gold and silver than any other on the planet, and yet do all our great trade in a fluctuating, uncertain paper currency. From this condition of inattention to our material interests we were aroused for a time by the panic of 1873, which ruined thousands where every avenue w r as gorged with credit currency, and left colossal enterprises like the North Pacific road in sprawling ruin. Again Republican politicians drew off public attention by the old war cries, and carried the party through the last Prcsidcntal election to a fraudulent seizure of the Presidency lost by it at the polls, and was in the act of further diverting public attention by pointing with pride to Gen. Grant snoring under a silk quilt at Windsor Castle, the elated recipient of the first British honors bestowed upon an American General since Benedict Arnold’s day, when with a soundin crash came the August strikes which clouded seven States with anarchy for a week, and so jarred the whole country as to set every man looking for the cause and cure of an evil which could no longer be ignored. With the national finances, the labor and trade questions, the lowa Democracy has dealt in its platform, and lam here to construe that platform and defend it within the limits of its own language and give each part an interpretation consistent with the whole.

The Democratic party of lowa declares for a revenue tariff only. This declaration is consistent with the delivery against subsidies, since a protective tariff—the Republican plan—is but a tax levied on the people, not to support the Government, but to fatten the manufacturers. It is a tax on the many for the benefit of the few, and is the basest form of subsidy because of its indirection. It is robbery of the people m such a way that they note the theft only in then- poverty and nakedness, and cannot readily fix the responsibility for the crime. American manufacturers fattened by this tax levied upon other industries are to-day exposing their wares in England, paying freight and selling them to Englishmen for less than they sell the same goods here at home, within sight of the factory smoke. We read of this driving Englishmen out of English markets, and are expected to go into patriotic ecstacies over it, and forget that if our manufacturers do this at a profit they are able to sell at the same ates at home, less the freight across the Atlantic, plus the carriage to whatever American market they choose to sell in. I believe John Randolph defined protection to mean paying a New Englander $2 for what we can buy of an Old Englander for sl. This may now’bo paraphrased into asking $2 at home for what wo sell at a profit abroad for sl. We next pass on to our children the warning that came to us from our fathers, and declare further supremacy of the civil over the military power. It needs no argument. The Republican party ruled the South through eleven years of peace by the army. For eleven years the Democrats protested against this abuse, and last year carried the country upon that protest by a majority so emphatic that an acting President, who usurped without shame an office that belonged to another, and struck down without pity or remorse the foul instruments of his fraudulent elevation, dared not disobey the majesty of a white majority of 1,000,000 votes; and so we find Mr. Hayes subordinating the military to the civil power, and returning the army to its proper functions. We declare for separation of church and state; a principle so salutary that the times in which we live are satirized in the apparent necessity for its reiteration. We affirm the equal rights of all citizens before the law, under whihh principle the Democratic party took shape under Jefferson’s master hand. The Federalists denied the equality of foreignborn citizens, no matter what their character, culture, or patriotic services were, and the political heirs of the Federalists, the Republicans of to-day, put foreign-born citizens under the same ban by excluding in at least one Republican State in the Union the vote of a foreigner unless he has a property qualification not exacted of a native. So, again, the Republicans compel us to nail to our mast this trite declaration, which we will repeat so long as they are anywhere in power and continue to persecute and oppress men for their birth or religion.

Opposition to subsidies is another Democratic principle, foully violated by the Republican party and in need of agitation now because it is understood that Mr. Hayes rode to office in Tom Scott’s car, on the back of a grand gift enterprise which reached from the corpse of the North Pacific to the cradle of its South Pacific twin, showering offices, jobs, and juicy things between, and /caching into a slimy oblivion to materialize the ghost of dead Whiggery. We declare Republican class legislation to be responsible for the pauperism of labor. It is true. Every striker struck because for seventeen years there had been a Republican party in this country. Wherever a mob roared, its noise was notice to the world of the presence of the pest of Republican partyism here. Every incendiary who did arson was the embodied consequence of a Republican party. Every murderer who shed blood was a red-handed witness that the Republican party had been in power in this land. Every rioter who groans from a jail is in prison for the*crimes of this party. Every murderer who will swing from a scaffold dangles there to expiate crimes done by the Republican party. There is no evasion of this. If there are bread riots in Manchester, Paris, or Brussels, we charge them upon maladministration of the Government, and by this judgment we must be judged ourselves or no longer assume to sit in the judgment seat. To the vicious laws which bear this bad responsibility reference is already made. The tariff and subsidy legislation have, in part, done the work.

The demonetizing of silver was accomplished by peculiarly Republican methods, in the dark and secretly, so that even those who voted for it were unaware of the effect of the bill. It is no wonder the people should reject scientific discussion of the propriety of a measure passed in that way. and should indignantly demand the reinstatement of silver as a legal-tender coin before examining into the merits of the

single or double standard. The reinstatement I favor jn the conviction that scientific conclusions will be reached that will condemn the employment of any unstable standard of value, and that the Democratic party will bring legislation upon the subject out of the dark corner into which Republicanism has crowded it If it prove that the double standard will not work, that the silver will float the gold out of the country and leave ns to bear the load of cast-off silver from Germany and the other singlestandard countries, an intelligent adjustment will soon relieve us of the evils which would follow. Upon the general matter of currency and resumption the Democrats of lowa declare: “We favor the retention of a greenback currency and declare against any further contraction, and we favor the substitution of greenbacks for national-bank bills.” The legal-tender law, under which the greenbacks were issued, fixes their volume at $■'400,000,000. This law was denounced as unconstitutional by the Democracy of this country when it was passed, and a Republican Supreme Court has since decided that iti time of peace it would have been unconstitutional, but was all right in war. That law nearly doubled the cost of the war. Greenbacks fell as low as 35 cents on the dollar, so that the Government paid nearly $3 for every dollar’s worth of material it used. They rallied a little, but averaged so low that it is fair to say they doubled the cost to the people of a war of which they rank among the most troublesome relics. The Government should have issued treasury notes, and, promptly enforcing its taxing power, should have maintained a credit that would have floated its bonds, by their sale raising means far more cheaply than by the costly and unconstitutional experiment of a forced loan, for the greenback issue was a forced loan m all its characteristics. As we told the truth in declaring the issue unconstitutional, and as the Republicans only justify it as a war measure, it is plain that there can be no further issue of greenbacks unless we go to war for the authority. There can be no objection, to the retention of the greenbacks as a permanent paper currency, in preference to the national-bank notes, which have not the legal-tender quality, so I take our declaration to mean that, as the national-bank charters expire—and we cannot disturb them short of their expiration—these institutions should not be re-chartered, and, as their circulation shrinks with each dying charter, the greenbacks are to take its place. The resuit will be a constant appreciation of the purchasing power of the greenback and a constant approach of that currency to par in gold ; so that if no other causes operated we would reach specie payments over the dead vaults of national banks, which I am sure the people of this country will never consent to rechartering, as banks of issue. I have never seen a more intelligent and compact plan for bringing greenbacks to par than is proposed by this plank in our platform, and I commend it to the attention and examination of financiers East and West. I discuss under this head the general question of resumption. Let us remember that the bank note and bank check—considering for the purpose of this examination the greenback to be a bank note since it„performs the same office—are substantially the same thing in the sense that neither is in itself value, but each implies the presence somewhere of value upon which it is an order for payment. If no deposit lie behind the bank check it is worthless. If no deposit or power or disposition to pay in value lie behind the greenback it is worthless. Rcsunq>tion then means that the Government shall have the ability to pay its checks, notes, greenbacks, on demand in value ; that is to say in gold. When that time comes private debtors will have a place at which to buy the gold called for by individual contracts, and the difference between gold and paper will be a thin margin of one-fourth of 1 per cent., with a possibility that occasionally the paper may command a premium over the metal, because of convenience of carnage and certainty of reconversion at par. I may be asked why repeal the resumption date, January, 1879, if it is desirable to resume at all ? The Democratic party demands a repeal of the date, because the Democratic party has common sense on its side and is guided by the example of nations that have trodden hard the path we are now in. England experimented with her finances during a long grapple with the first Napoleon, and at the close of her complications on the continent was financially prostrate ; with specie payment to all appearance hopelessly suspended. During nearly a quarter of a century the British Parliament attempted to resume by fixing dates at which to resume eleven different times, and at last, after ten repeals, resumption occm-red in advance of the farthest date fixed. You may query why the date should hinder. It is because resumption is in the nature of payment of a debt. No debt is ever easy to pay when the debtor is in poverty and distress, groaning under the pinch of hard times. Payment is voluntary and easy when times are good and prosperity is the rule. Resumption is an event which excites apprehension, it is waited for with an expectation of great change in all com* mercial and financial relations. It is getting down to hard-pan. If a date is fixed people wait rather than work. It will not do to make this investment or start that enterprise, for there is no telling what effect resumption will have upon it, so we wait and wait, a nation of Micawbers ; business is paralyzed and times grow hard. Men think it is a lack of currency, and clamor for more. If the cry is heeded and iniiation occurs resumption is postponed. If the paralysis continue and resumption is attempted at the date, without the degree of prosperity and confidence to warrant it, death follows paralysis and ruin whelms the country. As soon as the Resumption act of 1875’ passed times began tightening. Enterprise ceased. Real estate cannot be sold. Manufactures are idle. Railroad building stopped, and we all sat down to wait. In 1876 the Democratic party, desiring resumption, demanded the repeal op the date as a hindrance thereto. The Democratic House repealed the date. Men began to venture upon business operations. The Russo-Turkish war gave us dominion of the grain market of the world. Crops at home arc good. Republican. Senators, like Allison, of lowa, are joining the Democrats in the cry for repeal, and greenbacks, feeling the impulse of this new-born prosperity, have crept up to 97. lam not sure but we will resume before 1879. If I knew the Senate would join the Democratic House in the repeal I would confidently predict resumption before that time, as the natural result of a prosperity which grows up to the volume of currency, using all the circulating medium, and demanding an invariable standard of value, into which the paper currency is convertible at par, and by which the products of the country are measured. Above all, we want an end to tinkering. No business can'grow, based upon flic fluctuations of an irredeemable paper currency, or the play of shifting Congressional policies. The business men of the country want stability. John Sherman is no guarantee of stability, nor is Morton, nor Hayes, nor Stanley Matthews. They shift with the tide. The Democrats offer then - past financial record as proof that stability may be expected under their domination. Our party first forced the payment of the poor man’s wages and the rich man’s profits in the same kind of money—gold: and under that policy our growth was the world's eighth wonder. Here was the world’s labor market. There were no tramps, no bread riots, no war for wages degenerating into a base assault upon property and a bloody attack upon fife. To take the country far from the evils of a mixed and currency, from trade destroyed and labor turned beggar, out of the treacherous quicksands of Republican financial folly to the solid ground of safety and confidence, where waving fields and rattling mills on either hand lift high the yellow banners and sing the glad song of plenty and prosperity, is our mission and purpose.

A Tramp Reanion.

Two dozen tramps encamped near Womelsdorf, Pa,, the other evening, to fare sumptuously on fried fish, green corn, bread, speck, and coffee. Among them were a blacksmith, a printer, a sil-ver-plater, a carpenter, a baker, a tailor, a silk-weaver, a shoemaker, and a “retired merchant,” who had a boy of 11 with him. The war ruined his business at Atlanta, his wife died, and he took to drinking Without money or friends, he is traveling to this city, where he says he has a wealthy brother. Several of the men were married, but had left their families in care of friends and some in the poor-houses of the places where they came from. Six months ago none of the party knew each other, but now thev all appear to be well acquainted and a happy band. For amusement they have composed several songs, which they sing very well.— New York World. If you have failed at everything else, go to Turkey and be a Pasha,

LABOR AND FINANCE.

Views of an Extensive Iron-Manufacturing Firm—Our Swindling Financial System the Cause of the Hard Times—Government Non-Interest-Hearing Paper Money an Industrial Necessity. The following letter of Reis, Brown A Berger, the great iron manufacturers of New Castle, Pa., in answer to a request of the Chief of the Bureau of Industrial Statistics at Harrisburg to give their opinions as to the causes of the stagnation of business, should be read by every workingman. It shows very clearly that our dishonest money system is the great cause of the poverty and degrsd’tiou resulting from the depression of trade • W. Hays Grier, Esq., Chief ci . uwiii of Industrial Statistics, Harrisburg, 1 a. Deau Sir : In your circular you request our “ ideas of the cause” of the present condition of trade, and then say, “Do not hesitate to express your opinions.” With this desire for our “ ideas” let us bo frank and say that the policy of the Government in trying to reach specie payments by contracving the lawful money of the country is the primary cause of the universal prostration which marks every branch of the productive industry of the country. Ten years ago every department of our productive power was fully employed and adding millions to the wealth of the nation. &It is a fact that the Government undertook to reach specie payments by contracting the currency ; and it is just as much a fact that from the time the contraction of the currency commenced the productive industries of the country have been declining. Here wo have the cause and the effect—the one so closely foPowing the other that the most stupid ought to sec the policy that is destroying our industries. The paper currency of the country is the means by which the consumer reaches the producer. And trade has always kept pace with the volume of this currci cy. When the rency was expanded business was expanded ; when the currency was contracted business contracted.

But the effect of the currency upon the productive industries of the country appears in the following table, showing the volume of paper currency for each year named and the total consumption of domestic iron and foreign iron and steel and the manufacture thereof in the United States : Year. Currency. Consumption. 1830 $61,325,898 $11,155,171 1837 149,185,890 23,298,530 1840 106,988,572 16,057,984 1841 107,290,214 16,554,148 1842 83,734,011 12,541,532 1843 58,763,608 10,217,865 1844 75,107,646 17,644,410 1848 128,506,091 35,802,467 1849 114,743,415 29,933,473 1854 204,689,207 58,895,419 1855 186,952,223 61,378,035 That which is true of iron and iron mauufacturcs is true of all our productive industries. Just as the Government provides the means by which exchanges are made, the demand for the productions of labor increases or decreases. Here is the power that stimulates the productive wealth of the nation. The people will consume all they are able to produce if the Government will only permit them to reach each other through their own natural channels. In connection with the foregoing table let the following figures be studied. This statement shows the volume of currency, including coin, number of hands, and wages paid for labor employed in the workshops of the United States for the years 1850, 1860 and 1870 : Hands Year. Currency. Employed. Wanes. 1850 ....$350,000,000 957,059 $239,933,473 1860 .... 425,000,000 1,311,256 378,878,966 1870 .... 800,000,000, paper. 2,055,996 775,584,343 These figures show that our productive power keeps pace with the increase of the currency, and bears no relation to the increase of population. Then take the product of the manufactures for each of the above years, and we see the enormous increase of our national wealth by promoting our industrial power. Production for 1850. $1,019,106,616; 1860, $1,885,861,070; 1870, $4,232,325,442. The primary lesson, however, to bo gathered from the foregoing figures teaches the advantages of a purely national currency. The wealth of a nation consists solely in its productive power. Build up the productive interests and the evidences of the wealth thus created can everywhere be seen in the building of roads, ships and telegraphs ; in the opening of mines, building of factories, and improvement of machinery ; in the clearing of hmd, building of houses, and education of the people. On the other hand, destroy the productive industries of the country (as we have been doing in trying to reach specie payments by contraction of the currency), and the ruinous effects can just as plainly be seen in the idleness, misery and crime which multiplies with every step we take in this mistaken policy. For several years this war upon the productive industries has been crowding our highways with tramps, our almshouses with paupers, and our prisons with criminals.

That paper currency is a necessity incident to the wants of trade is apparent to every business man. But must a paper currency be made to fluctuate with every change of the wind ? Is it possible that whenever we reach a condition of industrial prosperity we must, from necessity, have a panic, followed by the wholesale ruin of producers ? When we look into the nature of banks of issue, we see at once the danger of bank currency. In the first place, we provide that nothing but coin shall be lawful money. Then we authorize a few private adventurers to issue their own promises to pay for the purpose of providing the means of commercial exchange. These promises to pay are three, four or five times the paying power of the banks in coin. Business men are compelled to procure this currency, and just as these notes increase in circulation the business of the country increases. But the notes must be paid, and there are but two ways to pay—cither in coin or in satisfaction of loans; and the volume of t/iis currency is liable to bo contracted at any time to the limit of the paying power or specie basis. When contracted, the business of the country goes under just as certainly as the fact that $i will not pay $3 of debt. These banks of issue, however, contain a more pernicious power than that of contraction or expansion. That is, their power to absorb the productive capital of the country. Take, for illustration, our national banking system. Any man or company of men holding national bonds may get the power to issue bank notes to the extent of 1)0 per cent, of the actual value of the bonds. These bonds are an actual investment in themselves, and one of the best investments, as seen in their market value. Yet any man, by becoming the holder of these bonds and depositing them with the Comptroller of the Currency, may get authority to issue bank notes, and all the law requires of him is that he keep a lawful-money reserve of 25 per cent, and 10 per cent, at Washington with which to redeem his notes. Here, then, is his entire cash capital. Suppose he gets authority to issue SIOO,OOO. He is required by law to have of lawful money 35 per cent., or •135,000, which is the whole of the cash capital involved in the issue of the SIOO,OOO in currency. The manufacturer must have currency with which to carry on his business, and from necessity must go to the bank for it, and the bank loans the SIOO,OOO of its own promise to pay at 6 per cent., which is nearly 18 per cent. upon its entire cash capital. In five years (close banking) the bank will have doubled its cash capital, and in less than twelve years, by a careful manipulation of its discounts, will have absorbed the SIOO,OOO originally issued, and still hold the borrowers’ paper to the extent of every dollar of currency in circulation. Thus, this svstem of providing currency for the people is consuming the productive capital of the country, and thereby destroying our productive and commercial power. At 10 per cent, discount <the rate at which most of the banks put out their circulation) they will have doubled their cash capital in three years, and in less than eight will have absorbed every dollar of their issues, and still leave the country in debt to the banks for every dollar of currency in circulation. A more ingenious system to absorb the productive wealth of the people could hardly be devised. It requires no argument to convince the manufacturer that he cannot long survive with such a power preying upon his vitals. And here we have an explanation of the cause of lhe abundance of* currency in the hands of the banks. The borrower, after returning to the bank in the shape of discounts all the currency originally issued, is yet in debt for all he borrowed. He cannot double his loan every time the currency is absorbed or re-

$1.50 uer Annum.

NUMBER 31.

turned to the bank in payment of discounts, and therefore must contract or suspend his business. In the meantime the currency remains without a market. To show the full force of this absorbing power, look at the overwhelming indebtedness of the country to the national banks. The report of the Comptroller of the Currency shows their loans or discounts to be nearly $950,000,000. Almost double the entire volume of currency in circulation. But how is the currency to be relieved? This question most interests every business man. There was no greater delusion than that specie payments can in any way relieve the manufacturing interests throughout the country. The manufacturer, to piosper, must have a paper currency adequate to the consuming power of the people. The history of the legaltender currency proves beyond controversy that it was in every way the best currency the country ever had. With it the productive power was develoi>ed as it never had been before. There are many reasons for this. In the first place, there is no antagonism between the power that issues the logal-tonder currency and the people. Banks of issue from the nature of the relation they sustain to the producer antagonize the productive power just as the wolf antagonizes the lamb. In the second place, there should be no two kinds of money. Every dollar in currency should be lawfid money, and a legal tender in the payment of all debts and receivable for taxes. Then the borrower and lender could be on even footing. 6 In the third place, with a legal-tender currency issued by the Government, the people are not exposed to the fluctuations incident to bank issues, which are but an expansion of credit upon a specie basis. Nothing can be more uncertain than the volume of this credit or its value. The bank may issue its notes to-day, and by so doing put every man to work and every wheel in motion. To-morrow a whisper of suspicion may send every dollar of those notes home for payment, thus withdrawing and contracting the currency and causing a suspension of business with-the correlative consequences, bankruptcy and rum. Until our representatives learn the purpose and nature of currency and the wants of American industry, this depressed condition of the people must continue. Let the Government provide a paper currency adequate to the industrial Wants of the country, making this currency lawful money for all purposes. Then we will have prosperity. Pursue the present policy but a few years longer, and wo will not only bo a nation of bankrupts and paupers, but will be a nation of repudiators. Respectfully yours, Reis, Brown & Beroeb, Iron manufacturers. New Castle, Pa.

THE BANK RESERVES.

Secretary Sherman’s Statements at Mansfield Called in (juestion—Facts Hurled at Him. J. W. Schuckors, the friend and biographer of Chief Justice Chase, writes the following to the New York Herald : In his speech at Mansfield, Mr. John Sherman made certain statements, the intent of which was to create a belief in the public mind that there is a vast accumulation of unloaned and unloanable paper money at this time lying idle and unemployed in the vaults, and at the command of the national banks. “There are now deposited with the treasury,” says Mr. John Sherman, “by private corporations, banks, and individuals, $57,000,000, of which there were deposited by the national banks at the date of their last statement, made June 22, $44,500,000; and they—the national banks—have,in the cash reserves held by them, $42,500,000 more than the amount required by law, thus clearly showing,” said Mr. John Sherman, “ that there is no want of currency when demanded for the requirements of business.” . There is no mistaking Mr. Sherman’s designs in making these statements. He intended to create a belief that the national banks have in their vaults and at their command $87,000,000 of surplus unemployed money, which they are ready to loan upon adequate securities, but for which there is no demand ; $44,500,000 lying idle and unemployed in the custody of the Federal treasury, and $42,500,000 lying idle and unemployed in their own vaults. Now what are the actual facts? An examination of the condition of the national banks on the 22d of June last, as a;>pears from the Comptroller’s statement, shows that they held at the close of business on that day certificates of deposit with the Federal treasury amounting to $44,410,000. If these certificates of deposit represented idle, unemployed, and surplus funds, they assuredly would not appear among the “ lawful-money reserves” of the banks. But they do so appear, and without their appearance there the returns made by the banks on the 22d of June last would show them to be short of the reserves required by law to an amount aggregating nearly $25,000,000. It happens, moreover, that these certificates of deposit form, as we see, not only an integral part of the lawfulmoney reserves of the national banks, but are used for clearing-house purposes also, and in this respect perform a most important office. It is very doubtful, indeed, whether the $44,500,000 of United States notes, as represented by these certificates—which Mr. John Sherman seeks to make us believe are idle and sin plus funds—do not perform functions more extensive and important than those performed by any other equal sums either in or out of the custody of the banks. Undoubtedly the existence of these certificates does not warrant the belief Mr. John Sherman seeks to establish. Mr. John Sherman alleged, also, in his speech at Mansfield, that the national banks held in their “cash reserve,” on the 22d of June last, $42,500,000 “more than the amount required by law.” It would be interesting to have Mr. John Sherman point out where this $42,500,000 excess of “cash reserve” is found. The cash reserve is made up of four items—specie, legaltender notes, United States certificates of deposit, and the 5 per cent, redemption fund. On the 22d of June last the national banks held, according to the statement of the Comptroller, of specie, $21,340, 111; of legal tenders, $78,004,386; of United States certificates of deposit, $44,410,000; and of 5 per cent, redemption fund, $14,612,241 —total “cash reserves” of the national banks, $158,366,830. The statement of the Comptroller does not show the amount of cash reserves the banks ought to have held on the 22d of June last, but assuming $140,000,000 to be a correct estimate (the amount at the date of the last preceding statement of the Comptroller, April 14, 1877, was $144,700,000), and we find the amount of “cash reserve” in excess of the amount required by law to be slightly over $18,000,000, or wide of Mr. Sherman s report nearly $25,000,0001 Clearly, Mr. Sherman’s “cash reserve in excess of the amount required by law” exists somewhere else than in the banks I

One of the methods by which the inflationists are confronted with large accumulations of “ surplus paper money ” in the national banks is as follows: The banks are divided into three classes—“country” banks, “city” banks, and “New York City” banks. Under the National Bank acts the “country” banks may deposit a certain per cent, of their reserves with the “city” banks (located in Albany, Baltimore. Boston, Charleston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Detroit, Louisville, Milwaukee, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Richmond, St. Louis, San Francisco and Washington), and in turn the “ city ” banks may deposit a certain per cent, of their reserves with the “New York city” banks. But while it is quite true that these deposits of the “country” banks with the “city” banks, and with the “Now York” banks, are technically “lawful-money lescrvcs,” it is perfectly well known that the “city” banks and the “New York ” banks loan those deposits just as they loan the deposits of their private customers. But it is only by counting these purely technical reserves as real potential reserves that the banks are made to appear stuffed with money for which they can find no employment.

An example will illustrate : On the 14th of April last 1,839 “country” bankshad on deposit with 185 “ city" banks $56,000,000, besides $48,000,000 in their own vaults, and 185 “city” banks had on deposit with 47 “New York” banks $29,000,000, besides $42,300,000 in then’ own vaults ; the reserves of the ‘ • New York” banks being at the same moment $54,900,000. Putting these several sums together and the apparent reserve would be $230,400,000. But the real reserve held by the banks on the 14th of April last at once available for the redemption of their liabilities was as follows : 1,839 country bankss 48,039,000 185 city banks 42,327,000 47 New York banks 54,911,000 2 San Francisco banks 927,000 T0ta15146,204,000 or less than one million and a half in excess of

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the actual cash reserve required by law, which was on the 14th of April last $144,700,000. - Mr. Sherman cannot take refuge behind technical reserves, because there is no question about such reserves. The issue is, whether ornot, in seeking to create a public belief that there is a large surplus of money lying idle and unemployed in the oanks or at their command, ho is borne out by the facts. The foregoing analysis proves beyond doubt that he is not borne out by the facts, but that he has availed himself of his great office to mislead the people. The truth is that the national banks have no more “cash reserves,” or any other kind of reserves, than are necessary to the safe administration of their current business. There is no plethora of money either in or out of the banks ; certainly not in New York, at any rate, if it be trud— as a contemporary of the Herald stated on the morning of the Bth hist.—that the national banks of that city were employing stock-exchange brokers to borrow money for them. The credit of the national banks is strained at this very hour; and their condition, no loss than that of the country at large, witnesses the urgent necessity of a prompt expansion of the currency.

FRIGHTFUL CARNAGE.

n Eye-Witness’ Account of the Capture of Loftcha by the Russians—The Turkish Dead Piled Five Feet Deep. A correspondent with the Russian army at Loftcha, describing the late battle there, says: Mount Rous was within easy cannon-shot of the position attacked. The attacking force was compelled to cross a plain half a mile wide before reaching the base of the hill on which the redoubt was constructed, under the musketry fire of the Turkish infantry securely ensconced behind their parapets. Along the road and on the left bank of the Osma were several low ridges of earth high enough to cover a man in a creeping posture, and these places of refuge were resting-places in the deadly race for the bluff. A cemetery through which the Russians also had to pass had a number of tall flagstones standing upright, and these were taken advantage of by the advancing soldiers. At 2:30 o’clock the order to attack was given, and the men rushed across the valley amid a perfect hail-storm of bullets. In a few minutes the ground was dotted with dead and wounded Russians, and the survivors were resting under the little ridges of the road and the Osina. The men advanced in open order at a rush, and the Turks kept up a steady stream of fire. There was not the slightest break in the rain of bullets, yet it was wonderful to see how small a proportion of them took effect. Sometimes a single soldier would run across the whole space between the river and bluff. I could see where every bullet hit around him by the dust which it threw up, and yet he generally got across unhurt. There were minutes when no Russian was under fire, and yet the Turks never stopped. It appears that they were lying down in the trenches, firing over the parapets without looking. The Russians declare they never saw even a head above the bank. Another attacking column is now seen advancing up the river Osma from our extreme right. They are scattered in open order, and steal along unobserved by the Turks to reinforce the party under the northern end of the bluff. All this time the Turks keep up an incessant rifle fire, but the guns on the hills at the back of the redoubt only fire occasionally, as our troops cannot be seen from that position.

The Russian artillery thunders away very rapidly, and two batteries are now advanced down the road nearly to the edge of the city. The Russians gathered undpr the bluff now make a rush forward and secure possession of some Turkish trenches in front of the eastern face of the redoubt, within 100 yards of the ditch. r x " It is now 4p. m., and the decisive moment approaches. The men along the Loftcha front of the work open fire and draw the bulk of the Turkish fire in their direction, when suddenly about fifty Russians make a rush upon the eastern face of the redoubt and approach within fifty yards of the ditch. They were compelled to retire by the tremendous Turkish fire. After twenty minutes of desultory fire the attack is made up the slope facing the eastern side of the redoubt. The Russians rush up in open order, keeping a steady stream of reinforcements following the advance. A perfect deluge of shells is poured upon the redoubt from our batteries as the men run up the slope, while the Turkish infantry fire is incessant, and if it were well directed every Russian would have been shot down. As it is, many fell. Our artillery ceased firing as our men leaped into the ditches and clamber up the parapet, while another column rushes along the Loftcha face of the redoubt to clear the advance trenches. The Turks in the trenches fiy to the westward, firing as they go, and falling under the Russian fire. In the redoubt the garrison rush to the gorge in the western face of the work. There is a traverse covering this gorge, and the Turks are jammed between the traverse and western parapets. In a few seconds the firing ceases, the day was ours, and the Turks were in full retreat to the westward, where no force had been sent to cut off their flight. Immediately after the redoubt was taken the correspondent entered it. The roads adjacent tolhe plain were thickly dotted with dead and wounded. He says: Up the slope where the Russians had charged the redoubt I was surprised to find so few dead, the Turkish fire having principally gone too high. Inside of the redoubt were the corpses of Turks and Russians thickly strewing the ground, but at the western end, where the Turks had been jammed in in their efforts to escape, a space of fifty feet by twenty was covered with Turkish dead and wounded to the depth of five feet. The living and dead were lying on each other in a dense mass, steaming with heat and blood. Around this Moslem pile was a fringe of dead Russians, showing that there had been a fearful struggle on this fatal space. The Russian soldiers were standing upon this mass of humanity. I watched them, working manfully to separate the living from the dead. In half an hour they had made scarcely any impression upon that fearful pile. The road was strewn with Turks, with here and there a Russian. Some of the Turks had been shot first, and then repeatedly bayoneted.

Senator Edmunds Interviewed.

“Do you, Mr. Edmunds, expect that there will be trouble in the party when Congress assembles ?” “ Yes ; but not from this order of the President’s, or even from his so-called Southern policy. The difficulty will be about weightier subjects. The remonetizing of silver, resumption, the tariff, are questions which will cause discussion. I think the President will allow us the liberty of expressing opinions which he seems desirous the office-holders should not have.”