Democratic Sentinel, Volume 1, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 February 1878 — A POSSIBILITY. [ARTICLE]

A POSSIBILITY.

"Will It Not Bo Well for Haye* to Consider? The man who has becu made a beggar by forced inflation of his debls is not so much to blame if he advocates repudiation as the man who insists that the inflated debt shall be paid us if that were its true value. The silver bill will contract the debt to some extent and may save us from repudialion, but if the silver Jill is defeated it would not after all be surprising if repudiation became a popular doct fine. The western representatives in Congress have done well in presenting this alternative plainly, and the eastern members should beed the warning. General Clark of Missouri, in an int’rssting and exhaustive speech 00 the silver question delivered shortly before the Christmas adjournment, spoke of the danger of trifling with a desperate people in such an emerges*’ cy in words so eloquent and. so true that they wilt bear reproduction bow. In a short time a vote u ill be had oq the silver bill, and this passage which forms the brilliant-peroration of Gen.

Chirk’s speech is better worth reading than it was a month ago; “The crumbling wrecks of financial disaster ar»- strewn around us in wild confusion: manufactories haveeiosed, and the novel sight of a pauper population in aland of abundance clam orons for work and for food Is to be seen surrounding this very capital, sounding the cry of a great national distress and piteously begging forrelief. The palsying hand of deprecia lion has laid its withering and blighting touch on every species of property except gold. l abor goes unrewarded while gold is everywhere dominant and pay* its dividend*. Houses are tenantless, mortgaged lands are remorsely sold under the hammer of the auction er, the silence of sleep is in our work shops; agriculture still moves, but with the feeble and totteiing steps of despair; women and children are crying with pa’lid face and sunken eyes to the laboring man for bread, and he, poor man. frenzied by their distreas, rises in the majesty of wronged manhood to demand redress. while the capitalist, trembling for hit- hoards, is clamoring for an increase of the army to protect his wealth. “Are these mere ghostly shadows that prophesy coming events? Are there no handwritit gs on the wall warning the country of a dread future near at hand—a future of violence, spoliation and blood? God forbid fliat I should be an alarmist, but the statesman who takes no heed of the smothered passion in the hearts of t le destitute and unemployed people, Wlll'-rn BUICiJr Will Uino/jVLn, „ volcano if this state of things continues. has read the histories of the o f Iler. people with the same impulsesand passions as ourselves, to very little purpose. Do we wish to relearn the terrible lesson of blood, that Ihe demon of revolt once born in a laud only ne ‘ds the helping bund of opposition to waken it into that ireud and frightful manhood which laughs nt crime and no law but that of lust, rapine and plunder?”