Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1867-12-04

GIG uouSuI at currency value, anu nOlOeTe
abroad and at home paid for them in green
backs. When gold was selling at 200 per
cent. these bonds were worth no more or
scarcely more than greenbacks; and what
premium they did bring was on account of
the rate of interest which they paid. Ger
tainfy, then, the purchasers of the bonds are
entitled to no additional guaranty of the
value of the bonds over what they had when
they originally bought them.
We hold that the government should abide
by all its contracts and if it can be clearly
shown that there is equitable obligation
where, in strictness of law, there would be
no legal duty, then the equitable obligation
should govern. But we do not agree that
there is any need OF, or any justice in, at
tempting to decide these equities now. When
the bonds become due it will be time enough
to consider in what way they are to be paid,
whether IN coin or in currency Ii the
country gets back to specie payments before
that time, as it ought to, the question
could MT arise at all, and if it should still be
/ Laundering in the mud of an irredeemable
paper currency, no action like that which
Senator Edmunds proposes will help the mat
ter then. This resolution, if adopted, is only
the action of this Congress, and the next
Congress will not be bound by it, either in
law or in fact. 1t is only an attempt to con-
strue a contract already entered into, and
this Congress cannot in that way bind its
/ successors. 1t settles nothing, and, there
/ fore. its effect, if passed, would only be to
help spectators who might make something
out of temporary rise in the price of bonds.
There is another reason why it seems to
us this resolution is utimely and unwise.
The government is at perfect liberty,
violates no public faith ia SO doing-to 90
into the market, like any other purchaser,
and buy up its own bonds. 1t, perhaps,
has MT the funds to do So now, but it ought
to do 50 rapidly it can. Every dollar it
thus saves is SO far relief to the taxpayers
and the man who sells his bonds gets as
much az, or more than, he paid for them, and
thus suffers nothing, while the people gain
by the transaction. Why should Congress
be asked to take any action, in this view of
the case. to put the creditors of the govern
ment in any better position than they were in
when they purchased these bonds ? Have
they any reason TO complain if they are left
just where they were, and where they volun-
tarily put themselves?
Is it not possible, after all, that the credit
Of the government will not, in the long run,
be improved by such post fdcto legisla-
ton as is asked for in this resolution? If
this Congress can decide that the 5-20's are
payable in gold, cannot the next Congress
vote that they are payable in currency, and
the next after that declare that they are pay
able in three per cent bonds, or anything
else they may choose to name as a sufficient
equivalent? Isn't legislation about a con-
tract, after it is made and parties have
acted under it, of dangerous example? for if
it is lawful 20 put one construction upon it,
is it not equally lawful to put an opposite
construction upon it.
We do not here express an opinion
whether. if these bonds were now due. they
ought TO be paid in coin, for the simple rea-
son that they arc not yet due; and there
VIII DC time enough for an expression upon
that point when the question is actually pre-
scented to the government. 1t is enough, at
present, that the government remains silent
upon the subject. If the resolution had not
been presented, no creditor Of the govern
ment could have complained, and if it is not
now pressed to vote, no bond-holder will
have any just grief; and we are quite sure,
if it passes, it will have only a temporary in
Auence, to the advantage of some spectators
IN stocks, and viii then be treated as-as it
will in fact be,-only expression of an
opinion, which cannot bind the conscience or
the votes of any subsequent Congress.