The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1846-04-11
Al HARD MONEY SPEECH.

r
Senate, we think, in 1885, by Hon.
Thomas H. Benton. 1t will be read
with great interest, at this peculiar cris-
is. Those who talk about hard mon
ey being new question, are greatly
mistaken.
Mr.. President. have been accus-
toned for long time--for years past;
TO hear our paper system orators attack
and deride hard money, and stigmatize
as barbarian the nations which use it.
To listen to them, and a hard money
currency is the very badge and evi-
dence Of barbarism. Asiatics, Afri-
cans, and savage Indians, are their ex-
emplifcations of such nations; and tc,
the level of these would they reduce all
thepeople who prefer gold to PAGER
This is fine compliment to t1ne hard
money men WAC framed oult Constitu-
tion, and believed they Fad conferred
the greatest blessing upon us in giving
Us hard money Government. 1t is a
fine compliment TO our English ances-
ters, who had no paper currency until
the iorepart Of the last century. 1t is
fine compliment to those Greeks and
Romans to whom we are accustomed
to look for all that is great and beauti-
tul in the human race, and who never
had q conception of paper money. 1t
is a fine compliment to France, which
now has specie currency of five hun
dred and fifty millions Of dollars, and
no bank note, less than five hundred
francs. Ii is fine compliment to all
these people and nations. But, letting
that pass should be glad to stop mo.
ment with these paper orators in the
little kingdom. formerly republic, Of
Holland-that ancient Batavia, where
Julius Cesar found the bravest of the
Gauls, and ask them what they think of
the barbarisr. Of the country which has
produced such statesmen as the De
Wits, the Barneveldts, and some of the
princes Of Orange: which has produc-
ed such generals as Tromp, de Ruyter,
prince Maurice, and Winterl Such
admirals as Van Tromp, who sailed up
the Thames with broom at his mast
head significant of his having swept the
channel and the ocean? Such physi-
clans as Boerhaave-such theologians
as Gomar and Arminius--s such scholars
and civilians as Erasmus, Grotius,
Lewenhoeck, Heinsius, Gronovius, and
Swammerdam, such painters as Rem
brandt? | would like to know what
these orators think OF the barbarism of
the country which has produced such
men as these; and which besides, was
the birth place of the agriculture, the
commerce, and the manufactures which
now enrich and adorn England, France
and so many other countries? What
they think of the country which gave
to Europe and the world, the telescope,
the microscope, the pendulem, and the
thermometer! that country which, be-
fore the American Revolution, was the
asylum and refuge Of the prosecuted in
religion, in politics and in literature?
that country in which Bayle composed
his great work, and where Peter the
Great worked at the ship carpenters
de?lhat country whichwa the home
of printing, the resort of scholars, the
seat of frenowned universities, the moth
er and the patroness Of the fine and the
useful arts; and which, for long time,
was regarded as the eve Of Europe, as
Athens has been called the eye Of
Greece ?-According to the reasoning
of these orators. and their test of bar
barism, this Holland must have been a
savage place; for she had no bank notes
all this while, nothing but hard money
and the commercial bill of exchange
According to them, the very badge and
evidence of barbarism was upon her.
Her rank, in the scale of civilization.
was that of Africa, Asia, and our In
dian tribes!
Sir, there is nothing more humlliating
in the whole circle OF political economy
than the speech of a paper system or
ator in praise OF paper money and bank
credits, and IN abuse of hard money
and ready pay. All his notions are
drawn from England drawn from her
since she became paper money coun-
try. The modern England is the OBJ
ject his study, the example Of his i'm
itation, the idolatrous subject of his
worship. AL his notions ofGnance and
currency must be drawn from that
source, where the banks have been in
a state Of suspension exactly the one
half ofthe last fifty years; while France
and Holland, whose currency have re-
NAMED mistaken amidst wars, inva-
sions. rebellions, and changes OF dynas-
ty, and which are the SA VlORS OF
England from her own false system,
are overlooked and despised. Yet
France and Holland nreSent The two