Rensselaer Union, Volume 6, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 January 1874 — The Opposition War-Cry. [ARTICLE]

The Opposition War-Cry.

A year and a half ago the so-called “independent” press of the country clamored furiously for the election of Horace Greeley and B. Gratz Brown to the Presidency and Vice-Presidency. President Grant was bitterly assailed, and every prominent member of the Republican party connected with the Government was maligned and traduced without stint. The people coolly considered the situation, made up their minds that the attacks upon the President, the Republican party, and its prominent members were slanderous and false, and repudiated, by overwhelming majorities, the party, its candidates, and its “independent” press. The crusade was at an end; nobody had been hurt, except the men and newspapers engaged in the enterprise, but they were biuised and broken. The humiliation of disaster was the greater, in l proportion a« the movement had been hatched, nursed, and prosecuted in a * spirit of unparalleled audacity, and the mortification of defeat was the more intense in proportion 'as the heralding of the new party had been loud mouthed and impudently aggressive. The tragic death of the distinguished man who had been made the standard-bearer of a movement already defunct, added a shade of remorse to the accumulated misfortunes of the ..plotting political knaves, whose discomfiture was as complete as that of the Confederates when Lee surrendered his sword to Grant. It is necessary to recall these striking features of the defeat of Liberalism, in order to appreciate the more recent past, and to comprehend the present political situation. Individual leaders of the opposition of 187:3, whose terms of office expired, were promptly “relegated” to private life. Few dared to become candidates tor re election, and those who had the temerity to offer themselves to the popular suffrage were mercilessly slaughtered. But the “independent” press could neither voluntarily retire from public notice, nor offer itself as a sacrifice to the popular disgust. The newspaper must discuss public questions the day after, as well as the day before, election. Hence the independent press, having lost the confidence of the people, was compelled .to submit to the general judgment or antagonize it. For a time it maintained an attitude of stolid indifference, contenting itself with sneers and sarcasm ; but as the shame and humiliation of defeat wore away, it made choice and hoisted the black flag. It poured its vials of wrath upon all existing things; first upon the National Administration as the object of its most supreme hate; and, secondly, upon the people, because’ against its slandering protest, they had recently given to the Republican party an emphatic indorsement. In the panic, the independent press, now become Satanic, beheld a source of coveted revenge. Hence it hastened to assume that the country had long been on the verge of ruin, and with ill-concealed malice, declared that universal bankruptcy must quickly ensue. It quarreled with, ana denounced, the Pres»4deat and Secretaiy of the Treasury at the Dtee suggestion of the reissue of the f 41,006,000 reserve. It charged to the currency the financial revulsion and consequent disturbance to business, and heaped contumely upon the Republican party as the author of the national banking system. When It became apparent that Uie panic would nqt upomplish all the disaster bad predicted, specie resumj>.|

"tion was demanded as the only cure for ills that had already well nigh disappeared. Those who objected were assailed with sneers, as “inflationists, speculators, ignoramuses, and debtors.” The crusade ! for specie resumption has been as bitter, as wild and reckless, and as void of common sense and common prudence as was the heartless, malevolent, and. unreasoning contest in favor of the fraud named “Liberalism.” The currency of the country has been pronounced an “engraved lie,” and greenbacks sneered at as “dig- ; honored promises to pay.” With $2,000,000,000 American debts held in Europe,! upon which interest must be paid in gold, 1 the independent presp noisily demands ; “specie resumption.” Possessing a cur- j rency commanding the ut most confidence, ! of which it is not possible for the holder j to lose one per cent., the independent! press cries,- “Down with National Bank j nqtes; down with Greenbacks; let us have j goldl” Demonstrated arhuadred times that resumption is practically impossible, and that to attempt it is only to fail and involvethe whole country in financial ruin, still the independent press cries: “The way to resume is to resume.” Does anybody tail to perceive that these frantic appeals are neither the mouthings of ignorance nor the ravings of insanity ? They are rather expressions of the insensate rage of baffled politicians. The independent press pronounced the Administration imbecile, but the people reinstated it in power. The independent press pronoucea the Republican party corrupt and decaying, but the people sustained it. The independent press declared the panic the sure forerunner oFuniversal bankruptcy, but it has already past away, and business assumes all the appearance and signs of prosperity. llow long can the independent press continue to stand while its political and economic prophecies come tumbling about its ears, branded “false, fraudulent, uncurrent ?” It is because of this sickening, humiliating series of failures that the independent press cries out lustily, “specie resumption!” It desires to score a lailure for the Republican party, and, in the urgency of its distress, it is willing to east into the scale the commercial integrity, the industrial enterprises, every material interest of the country, if it Can for once make the great political party of the nation kick the beam. Hence it cries: “Up with gold; down with paper!” The incoherent demands of the specie rgsumptionists are as -violent and ill considtred as was the first wijd shout for the election of Greeley and Brown to the highest offices in the nation. The people were taken by surprise and hesitated, but in that moment of hesitation Liberalism was doomed, and henceforth regarded as a calamity. So in the case of the cry for specie lesumption. It was so violent, and so aggressive in the outset., that there was danger that the people w’ould be taken by storm and permit themselves to be committed to an egregious blunder. But it is too late. The storm has passed and reason has resumed its sway. Not one in ten of the forty millions of our people believe it possible now to successfully resume specie payments; not one in five would specie payments to-day if it were possible. Specie resumption may then be dropped as a subject of discussion, to be replaced by the real question whether the currency we have is of sbfficient volume to meet the wants bf business. The verdict of the country has been recorded in a thousand-, ways in favor of the character of our present currency, and there is a strong and increasing demand that its volume be enlarged. Let Congress discard the very idea of specie resumption, and address itself to the practical business of so amending the currency act as to put it within the power of the people to regulate their money affairs with a freedom equal to that which they enjoy in all other commercial concerns. The people have imperiously cried halt! to the folly of specie resumptionists, and it will not be long before the demand for more currency will be equally imperative.— Chicago In-ter-Ocean.