Public Ledger

Mobile Tribune on Imperialism.

We give an extract from a most ably edited journal, the Mobile Tribune, in reply to the Meridian Gazette:

If imperialism be attained, the debt to the bondholders will be perpetuated. We would like to see the debt wiped out with a stroke of the pen, but if it turns out that it must be paid under an Empire, we shall take comfort from the fact that the taxes we then pay will go into the treasury and not into the pockets of "rings" of official thieves.

But we do not believe that the Northern people can save themselves even in the best of imperialism without having a free fight on their way over the side of the sinking ship, and we for one shall call the day blessed on which it takes place.

As a paroled prisoner, addressing an audience composed mainly of paroled prisoners, such, briefly, is our interpretation of recent events. They are not our creation nor that of our people, and therefore it is hardly fair to expect us to be either "able or willing" to point out the remedy for the evils they have hatched.

If our view and interpretation of events be even in a measure correct, this practical lesson may be drawn from them by the Southern people; Cease to believe that you will ever regain your lost liberties by a restoration of the republic in its former integrity. Cease to disturb yourselves concerning what is known as "national policy," by whatever party it may be represented, for it is a thing entirely beyond your control or influence. Let your whole thoughts and energies be given to the development of Southern resources. With strength will come the power to secure your rights under any form of government that may be developed in the future.

In conclusion, we would remind the Gazette that views similar to those expressed above were set forth in these columns months before the Imperialist newspaper was heard of. While we regard most of the arguments used by that journal as irrefutable, we are not indebted to it for a single thought. As it itself remarks, the truths it sets forth are old ones, familiar to every reflecting student of history.

Even before the late Presidential campaign we announced that the coming issue was "Democracy or a Dictator," using the former term in its secondary sense, as the name of the party made up of the men North and South who were giving hand to one another over the chasm of recent war, in an earnest effort to re-establish their lost government on its old foundations.

The effort failed, under circumstances more auspicious than will ever occur again.

We do not attempt to deceive ourselves and our readers by pretending that the result is not as it is, and as the Tribune, in common with so many of its Southern contemporaries, predicted that it would be. Nearly every paper in the South would find itself with us to-day if it would only abide by its record during the late campaign.