sian aristocracy could enforce the Russian debt. It requires the whole force of the monarchy, aristocracy, and monopoly of Great Britain, who own the labor and production of the country in advance of their creation, to make the British debt available for oppression. In America, the question is exceedingly simple, the repudiation of this debt, or the abandonment of the republican system of government.

The military despotism in the South, is the first step in advancing crime to overthrow liberty:-a necessary plan to carry out the funding system, to collect such a debt, and prepare the people of the North to submit to military espionage and force as the accompaniment of their revenue system.

The Congress has reduced the American people to a choice among three methods of extrication :

The first, the British funding system fastened upon us.

The second, the French paper system of paying with greenbacks, and the hypothecation of the greenbacks, for the public lands, so as to leave no public debt.

The third is outright repudiation. The first must be destroyed at all hazards. The second may be done or pave the way for the third. The people must be free from the task-masters of capital.

BOOK FIFTH.

CRIMES OF THE TARIFF.

CHAPTER I.

UNHEALTHY CONDITION OF THE PUBLIC MIND IN REGARD TO PUBLIC ASSISTANCE.

THE UNHEALTHY CONDITION OF THE PUBLIC MIND, AND THE BUSINESS OF THE COUNTRY, IS THE HARBINGER OF GENERAL BANKRUPTCY.

The unsettled, discontented, and feverish state of the public mind, is a clear index of our approaching ruin.

The people of the country are complaining, pleading, and regretting, in singular confusion. In appeals to Congress for redress, assistance, and prohibition, as the case may be, agriculture, commerce, and manufactures, send up their committees to besiege Congress, call upon the President, and ask relief at the hands of the Government.

Soldiers are praying for more bounty, widows ask an increase of pension, free negroes demand more rations, ministers are seeking new chaplaincies, members of Congress increase their own salaries, and connive at the creation of large standing armies, to enlarge the extent and diversity of their patronage. These new requirements of the functions of government, make new demands upon the public treasury. Heavier taxation, and more extensive resources, must be exhausted, to meet the increasing depletion.

But you have scarcely caught a passing glimpse of these multitudes, seeking relief from the treasury, these mendicants upon government folly, and crazy, popular liberality, until your attention is attracted to other committees, deputed from every other conceivable interest, demanding exemption from taxation of

every kind. What is scarcely less remarkable than incongruous, these two classes are met and jostled, by a third, and quite as numerous a class, demanding protection for everything they create or do. All of these gentlemen maintain their claims, by arguments both new and old, extreme and absurd, conclusive and ad captandum, the very challenge of which, would invite violence from their hands.

This motley mob of instructors in political economy, are more than outdone by the philosophers who propose the introduction of new systems of moral and political truth for the government of the world.

The humble minister of the meek and lowly Son of Man, arrayed in the latest and most fashionable style of the elite, with diamond rings, and French broadcloth coat, and silk velvet vest, imperial and moustache highly perfumed with musk, comes to exemplify his peaceful mission, by a demand, in the name of Heaven, of a revival of war, as the only means of propitiating the good will, and securing the favor, of the Prince of Peace; and persistently demand violence as the only efficient means of showing the merciful character of their divine mission. Their cry for blood is to exemplify their devotion to the great Master who never resented an injury; and their vengeful addresses are given in proof of their forgiving spirit.

The New England Puritan, with his whining cant and nasal twang, next approaches upon his philanthropic mission of levying an impost duty, of an hundred per cent. upon the original cost of the cloth of the poor man's wardrobe. He comes in this political tableaux, as the friend of our common race, and piteously pleads for the amelioration of the wrongs of mankind, which, he is religiously persuaded, will be best subserved by paying three prices, and a reasonable profit, for his goods and

wares.

Next approaches the friend of universal suffrage, who proposes to extend the rights of self-government, by disfranchising all of the civilized elements of society, and enfranchising barbarians, as the most ready means of paying the public debt, in this most striking, common-sense way; by levying taxes, without the consent of the people who shall pay them, and depriving the owners of property of the power of resisting their collection.

This insanity which pervades society, in regard to the public debt, is precisely that which seizes every insolvent debtor. Ambitious to be rich, and careful to conceal his misfortune, he resorts to every possible scheme, and embraces every subterfuge which offers relief; but with that fatuity which involved him, he will pursue his shadows until they disappear in the setting sun of his gloomy life. Governments are multitudes of men who have combined their powers, and wealth, and folly, and insanity,—different from individuals only in their magnitude.

The great financial calamity of the United States is, that we are in debt, without adequate means of payment. Every other obstacle, in the way of our progress, power, and glory, is magnified by this cardinal evil.

Every subterfuge of speculation, every refuge of lies, has been exhausted to make our poverty seem wealth, and our blanched cheek of shame wear the face of honor. The last miserable shift of these commercial simpletons, is to pay the debt by a constitutional amendment, embracing the views of the gentlemen above alluded to; then to secure the payment, more completely, by passing laws, from time to time, that the public debt never shall be repudiated.

There is nothing more ridiculous than an attempt to enact laws which may never be repealed. Such attempts always cast a just suspicion upon the law itself, which claims immunity from examination. Such laws inevitably lead to oppression, which will seek freedom in revolution. A government which enforces only such laws as may serve the purpose of tyrants, and obliviates such as are necessary to preserve liberty, is unspeakeably worse than simple arbitrary power, and will command no more respect than that which is extorted by force. Of this character, are all laws which repudiate one class of debts outright, and make obligatory forever another class, based upon the same general principles, when the justice and obligation of each arc in the nature of things subject to the judgment of each successive generation.

Forever, at the most moderate calculation, is a long time hence, and must see many changes in its checquered course. Wise men are content to legislate for to-day, whilst the prudent as wisely care for the morrow. God alone is the lawgiver of eternity.

THE UNCERTAIN CHARACTER OF THIS DEBT.

This great debt is a purely human affair, not invested with a single attribute of Divinity, and must be subjected to all of the examinations, criticisms, disputations, and legal ordeals peculiar to all other mere indebtedness, and it must not be forgotten that it is not a part of the history of the world, that mankind grow impatient for opportunities to pay public debts. Senator Sumner once declared that his "people were clamoring for heavier taxation," and were indignant because they were not permitted to contribute more freely of their money to the support of the Government. I confess frankly that I never knew

just such a case.

The railroad system of the country has given a wide scope to the passion for indebtedness, peculiar to the American people, and illustrates their anxieties to meet claims incurred by stockgambling. The multiplicity of claims and law-suits consequent, are a striking commentary upon the desire of the people to pay public debts without cavil. There is scarcely an instance of railroad obligations having been met without contest and resistance. The simple history of these contests makes a large acquisition to the legal literature of the country, and nothing but the living, active power, and permeating identity, of railroads with the necessary business of the country, enables them to secure the recognition of debts fairly contracted with communities and States. The voluntary subscriptions to great public enterprises are rarely realized to the amount of fifty per cent.

The debt of the United States, whether in bonds as the foundation of a hateful aristocracy, or in banks, the engine of perpetual illegitimate speculation, will ultimately be contested before the highest tribunals known to the contests of time—the frail, fickle, treacherous court of popular will-yet only less potent than the decrees of the HIGH CHANCERY ABOVE.

When the issues in the debt are fully made out, every step of the dangerous road through which we have passed, will be examined with a care which shall make men dizzy in contemplation of the chasms beneath, and the fearful, crumbling precipices