John Sherman's Claims

The barden of John Sherman's speeches in Maine was that "I have resumed specie payments for the United States." Occasionally he relapsed a little and becamemagnanimous enough to admitthat there was "a party of the seoond part" to the affair; then liis voice sinking to its devoutest tones would intímate in circumlocutory [Mirase that "I and Divine Providence achieved resumption." lt is to be hoped that Providence appreciates the distinguished honor and is pleased with the compliment. Mr. Sherman is too modest by half. He should liave stuck to the flrst person singular. No one wonld have disputed liis claim. For did not Mr. Sherman Cl'eale Ulo valloy oL tlin Missiseippi and the whole fertile West, whose immense yields of corn and wlieat and cattle have paid a portion of our foreign indebtedness and turned the balance of trade in our favor 't Did not Mr. Sherman stock the Pacific Slope of the continent with inexhaustible deposits of gold and silver, breaking the corner in pncious metáis European capitalists had formed against us? Did not .Tohn Sherman invent the ingenuity and skill and enterprise of Ameiican mechanies and manufacturera whlch enable them to compete succeasf ully with those of England even in English markets ? Was it not Mr. Sherman who kindly consented to give us abundant harvests, whüe Europe and Asia were suffenng from drought, and frost, and nood, and famine? Of course it was not the industry and thrift and irrepressible force of tifty millions of people in the richest county on the globe that made resumption possible, but the wonderful finaneial genius of a very astute and lucky Secretary of the Treasury. And he should have all the credit he deserves. Sometimes Mr. Sherman vanes his method of putting his little claim by admitting the Republican party to a share in the credit. Then it is "the Republican party, of which I am the acknowledged manager and head, has effected resumption." True resumption has been effected under a Republicau regime. But the debt was contracted under a Republican regime Republicans have admitted that of the $5,500,000,000 spent by the Federal Government in the nine years between 1861 and 1870 at least $2.500,000,000 was stolen or thrown away by the dis honesty, the incapacity, and the reek less extravagance of public officials the great majority of whom were Republicans. For the enormous inflation of the currency which at one time was so depreciated that it required two dollars and eighty-five cents in legal tender papei to buy one in gold, the Republican party is solely responsible It was the culpable mismanagement o the nationai finances, and the wicket demonetization of silver, and the reek less extravagance fostered by the Re publican policy and Government, whicl produced the unprecedented panic o 1873, which prostrated even industry and business of the country and made thousands of our business men bank rupt. And not until within three years, since Democrats obtained con trol of the House of Representatives and reduced the expenses some forty millions in a single year, has conft dence begun to return and business to revive and times to itnprove. John Sherman insults the average in. telligence of the American people when he claims that resumption wa brought abouc solely by himself, witl such seconding as the Republican par ty has given him. The process toward resumption, begun by Secretary McCul loch, was peremptorily arrested by Grant, and in 1873 Richardson illegall; flung $46,000,000 of greenbacks bacl into circulation af ter they had been taken up by the Treasury. In 187 the Republicans pushed the date o resumption forward till 187U, aud sole ly on a compromise with a popular demand they could not evade. But re sumption beeame possible (1) by the industry, the enterprise, the magnifi cent productivity of the country ; anc (2) by the utter prostration of business after and in consequence of the panic Capitalists bought Government bonds because no other investments paid oi were safe. People would not have locked their money in four per cents had they been able to realize ten or fourteen per cent. from it in business and commerce. Resumption was buil on the ruins of trade. There are tei men in this city who lost ten millions by the shrinkage in real estáte. The records of bankruptcy indícate what the Republican policy of linance has cost, but do not show a thousandtl part of the losses and sufferings whicl have resulted from it. And in the face of these patent and known facts John Sherman Claim fco have effected io 9nnpHo, ana bases his ambition for the Presidency on that claim! lt would be interesting to know ex actly how the accounts of the nation stand. Mr. Sherman occasionally dis charges a quantity of finaneial statis tics at the public, in forms suited to his own convenience and calculated to further his designs. All his reports are like novéis with a purpose, anc equally suspicious. The fiction in the one case is ''founded on facts;" but facts bear an inappreciable relation to the novel superstructure based on them. The figures may represent the facts, or they nwy not. According to Mr. Sherman's statements in Maine the present interest-bearing debt is $1,797,643,700, while in 1865 it was $2,385,520,294. But he neglected to state that in 1873 the debt was reportedas $1,710,483,950, more than $87,000,000 less tlum it is to. Who has added these eighlyseven millions to the public buiden in six years ? Between 1865 and 1873 the interest on the nationai debt was reduced $52,928,293, but since 1873, with all the refunding at lower rates, the reduction in interest amounta to only apaltry $14,000,000! So mucli for John Sherman's wonderful financiering! His jugglery with favorite banks and his shrewd operations witli syndicates, of which somuch has been said, may have enriched his friends and added to his own ampie fortune, but have done precious little to lighten the burdens of the country. It cannot be forgotten in this connection that in 1873 the interest on the whole nationai debt could have been paid by sixty million days' labor of the average workingman; now, after six years of John Sherman liepublicanism, it would realize that amount. Yet, in the face of these facts, John Sherman delares that the only issue the Republicans have of any account to-day is "financel" It ia only necessary to examine his claim to see that ït is