The weekly union record., 1866-02-03

dollars II converting ha gold into other money.
Such reasoniog yoa win meet with throughout
The East, and, rest assured, it is to our injury.
II can De 20 ordinary cause that has created
this state Of aGhiss- 1t cannot be that our
Agricultural lands have become less productive.
or that our mines have ceased TO yield up to
labor their precious deposits. It is because
OF our nnanciai anta2ouism it is the curse
OF an exclusive metallic currency, repressing
enterprise and keeping money beyond the reach
OF the people. If there is any other cause.
have failed to ascertain it. Some of the advo-
Gates OF the present system will. doubtless.
kindly indicate to an inquiring mind the cause
OF results so disastrous to the welfare of the
State. 1T other reasons than that l have
named exist. let them be mentioned, that
PROVISIONS may be made by appropriate lecis-
lation, tending to stay the desolatine food
OF our adversely. OF our population, IS .257
are engaged in agricultural pursuits; S2.573
10 mining; 5,0S7 10 merchandising l24 in
banking; and Of the balance, shout l IS 900
may be ciassed as ordinary or general laborers:
leaving some $4,000 to be divided between the
different professions and trades, known and
unknown occupations. This vast majority, the
industrial classes, seven eighths of our popula-
ton, demand that the present rule be changed;
they invoke the Legislature to repeal the
Specific Contract Act; they demand that We
20 longer discriminate against the National
currency. Shall the voice of the producing
ciasses-the real architects of our present and
tuture opuience and wealth-prevail Your
answer, Senators, will be your action upon this
bill; and for them | invoke your profound
consideration before that answer shall go forth.
1t is the boast of Californians that We have
the most saiubrious climate in the world that
our soil is the most productive and that our
mineral resources are unequalied. Why is it.
then. with all these acknowledged advantages,
that our population Is the poorest of our patton?
Why is it that our fertile and productive
valleys are not teeming With thrifty occupants!
And why is it that our mineral wealth lies
hidden and undeveloped? I? More than all, why
is It that our producing. Industrial classes-the
ris ritae OF the State, are rapidly desertng Us,
By every available means OF transit, for more
inviting aud profitable fields Of labor and
enterprises With water power unsurpassed in
any State, our streams are unused by the
manufacturers. while plain and valley, inviting
occupation by!their richness of soil and beauty
OF scenery. are tenautess, except by an occa-
sional half impoverished settler, whose posses
sions are unimproyed. and whose tenements are
equal only to the necessities of the trapper or
border hunter. Everywhere aud on every hand
throughout the interior of this great State, do
We meet with evidences of the languishine
wasting and dying condition OF the material
interests of our people
The picture is not overdrawn. 1t is true.
alas, too true For the last three years, We
have made no progress either 10 wealth or
population ; but the reverse has marked our
course. True, San Francisco has prospered.
That remarkable city, the glory aud the pride
of every Californian, holds monopoly of the
trade Of the entire Pacific slope, the control
of the commerce of the Pacific seas and it is
said by her citizens that she can prosper, grow
great and rich, without the trade OF California.
But | submit that San Francisco, too, begins
to feel the Injurious and paralyzipg tendencies
of the metallic rule. Two thousand tepemepts
unoccupied, and a list of ten thousand delin-
qnent tax payers, which she now presents, bear
uDmstakable evidence that her people in the
main are not prosperous that she is not
exempt from the rule that obtains in every
country. where an exclusive metallic currency
prevails That the rich get richer and the
poor poorer"
renew the inquiry, what has produced this
condition of things this death like stagnation
OF all our great aud material interests? 1t is
for the rant Of abundant, actire and successful
capital; the rulnous rates of interest charged
for that 1rhrch IRE hare and for the total absence
OF anything dppro1mdf'ng TO q lceu regulated
credit system; evils trh,eh are the insepar0ble
attendants upon an ere!us,re metallic currency.
1t is because we have, by unfriendy Legislation,
inaugC7ated a financial system that brings US
in direct sntagonism to and competition with
the currency and financial system of this great
nation, with its untold and countless millions
of wealth and. in such conflict we are being
ground like wheat between the upper and
neither mill stone; it is because of the dsas
trous and suicidal policy, established by the
combined and concentrated money power of the
capitalists of the Pacific coast for their own
selfish interests, and Of their legitimate offspring
the Specific Contract Act. The cruel
parchment Of this law spreads over US like q
sable pail intercepting the iruc,ifying rays
Of prosperity. Like o whitening drought, it is
drying up our agriculture to the very roots.
1t is binding with iron chains the strong limbs
of our Commerce. The very Genius Of desc
ation, it stalks with stately tread. swaying. its
merciless sceptre over on interior domain fairer
ludu AtAiiau NoitS. ue paiSyluS lDuueuCe
of the Contract Act paralyzes all the industrial
energies Of our people; and Usury sits in the
seat of the money changer, and "grins ghastly
grim" grins at the miseries of its own creating;
jibbers, as the rich blood spurts from the pores
Of overtaxed and iI-requited labor and mocks
with fendish glee all effort to repeal the work
of its own hands-this Specific Contract Law
anticipate, among other echoes to this appeal,
the hollow, metallic laugh of the con6den,
money-lender and the jibes and jeers OF a
subsidized press. say that anticipate all
this; yet. knowing it, with proud conscious
ness of the justice of my cause, dare do my
duty to the people.
Senators repeal this obnoxious law open
wide the door for enterprise and competition in
the money market; adopt and encourage the
circulation of our National Currency give
the people money. Do this. and thrift will
soon preside where stagnation now reigns; do
this, and. in two years, you will have added
two hundred millions to the capital of the
State, and doubled our population.
ADVICE FOR THE SRAsox--Appropriat te