Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-09-20
COLUMBUS, O., FRIDAY MORNING,

lished by Congress. And now, ask you,
when the fact is that you owe more than
any other equal number of mankind-when
the debt of the General Governme Mt alone
is three thousand millions of dollars. and
that when you add to that the State debts
the county, township, city, town and viii
lage debts-you are the most deeply in
debted and most. heavy taxed people on the
face of this globe. I ask you, is that an un-
important question:? Is there not some
thing that brings it within the domain of
party, too? If those who have had the
rule in this country are, in great measure,
at least, responsible for the enormity of this
debt and taxation, want to know when it
was that it got to be out of the domain of
party for us to criticise and investigate the
| conduct of our rulers?
Well, so, too, in regard to the corruptions
of Government and the squandering of
the public treasure and the public proper
~. Pray, are they unimportant questions I?
Are they questions not within the domain
of party investigation and party criticism
When in the world did it come to pass that
there was ruling power in the county,
and that free country, and the people of
the country had not right to investigate
its acts and criticise its conduct? We claim
that right. We, the Democracy, claim it,
and we mean to exercise it, and when we
do 1t, we are not to be told that the ques-
tions which we bring before the people, are
either unimportant or without the domain
oil party questions. But it would be great
deal betterif there were more people who
would follow our example, if it were true
| that these are above the ordinary party
questions. 1t would be great deal bet
ter for this country, if there were more
men to follow our example, and debate these
great questions upon which the prosperity
C7nf Ia in
stead of quarreling about the contemptibIe
little party issues which too often distract
the American people. 1t would be doing
much more service to the people to debate
| these great questions that concern US all
than to squabble about the merest trif1es,
that are as evanescent as the bubble upon
the wave. [Applause.
FINANCES.
So much for that. Now come to an
other thing. General Hayes. in that speech
tells the people as follows: Speaking about
the proposition that has been made to pay
the bonded debt of the Government in
greenbacks, and thereby give to you hun
dred and seventy million dollars in interest
each year, that we now pay for we now
pay over hundred and twenty million
dollars year interest in gold; and that,
reduced to the price of paper, makes about
hundred and seventy millions. Speaking
about that proposition. which he calls the
proposition of the Cincinnati ENQUIRER, and
which he says that paper got from some
where else, he goes on to say:
"On the Goth of last month L spoke at
Batavia, and referred to that subject.
said that Judge Thurman was plainly COM
mitted against the issue of more green
backs; that when we were in the midst of
the war, and the necessities of the country
were such. that it was necessary to get
money by every means in our power, he
mad told the people there was no constitu-
tional authority to issue greenb ,cks."
Now, my friends, 1 don't know where
General Hayes-and I don't believe he
would Intentionally misrepresent mel
don't know Where he got the idea that
ever said, or, as he expresses it, told the
people that the Government had no consti-
tutional authority to issue greenbacks. 1
am very sure that l never said any such
thlng, Tor L am very sure that l never
thought any such thing. The power, how
ever, TO issue greenbacks was one thing,
and the power to make them legal tender
was another. The Government issued GER
tain notes that it did not make legal
tender, and it issued others and made them
legal tender. Upon the question whether
it had authority to issue the notes, L don't
know that there ever was a diversity of
opinion among the people or among the
legal profession, but upon the question
whether 1t had power to make these notes
legal tender, perhaps there were few
men in the legal profession, in the
whole United States, who had not serious
doubts about the constitutional power to
do that. The Supreme Court of Indiana
decided that there was no such power; the
Court of Appeals of Kentucky made SINH
lar decision, and other couts did so, also.
Certainly, l have entertained the gravest
doubts as to the right of the Government
to make that paper money legal tender; !;
but the truth is, that although L entertain
ed these doubts, never, on any occasion
during the existence of the war, did ex-
press these doubts to any audience-Deither
with my pen nor with my tongue. The
reason for it was simply this: that I did
not wish to endeanger the credit of the
Government; did not wish to depreciate
the currency in the hands of the people,
and therefore l refrained from expressing
even a doubt upon the subject in order
that might do neither one nor the other
of these injuries. Yet, l am held up as
having declared to the people that the Gov
ernment had no authority to issue this
paper. never did any such thing.
General Hayes gives another reason for
saying that am opposed to paying the
debt in greenbacks: M -
Il said, further" .-. ...-. . ..-.-
This is General Hayes language:
THAT in his speech at Waverly he had
spoken of this currency as a currency of
rags" ... 49, .-... End"
Well, now, my friends, in contrasting
that currency, which we hal in the good
old jackson times-gold and silver, and
paper convertible at the will of the holder
into gold and silver-in contrasting that
with our present currency, / did say that
then we had currency of gold and silver,
or their equivalents, and now we have q
currency OF rags-only rags. These were
the words applied to paper money not
| convertible into gold and silver at the will
of the holder-a favorite expression of Old
Hickory, who never could be persuaded
into calling it any thing but rags. [Ap-
But General Hayes es still further, for
he tells the people, in his Sidney speech,
that | am opposed to this proposition to
pay the bonded debt in greenbacks, aud, as
further proof of that, he says that in my
speech at Wapakoneta, I only devoted
eleven lines to that subject-and that the
pith of that paragraph of eleven lines is
contained i'll these two lines:
Il am sorry that what have to say for
publication on that subject, Imust reserve
for some future time"
Now, my friend Hayes was not quite as
fair and candid as he generally is, when he
said that the pith of what 1 said on that
occasion was contained in these two lines
The pith, the substance of what [ said was
that saw no legal objection to paying this
bonded debt in greenbacks; that iJ was
only a question of policy as to how fast
you could pay them. without too sudden
or too great an imitation of the currency.
So it was hardly fair in my friend Hayes to
say that the pith of what l said was that
which contained no pith all. So much for
that.
What do think about this greenback
matter may be summed up in very few
words, and although it is not the part of
my speech in which 1 ordinarily speak on
that subject, yet, as am making a some
what rambling and discursiye sDeech to-