The Conservative. (M'connelsville, Ohio) 1866-1871, 1867-09-26
j udg o Tn u,r m a n
He Defines His Position on the
GreeDback Issue.
HE rs FOR PAYING THE DEBT
IN LEGAL-TENDERS.

Juo OOHlHttICtUt . EepOTb VI JuuBe AHuT-
mans speech at Marietta upon tho
grocnback question:
FINANCES.
SO much for that. Now I come TO
another thing. Gen. Hayes in that
speech, tells the peoples as follows -
Speaking about the proposition that
has been made to pay the bonded debt
ofthe Government IN greenbacks, and
thereby cave TO you u hundred and
seventy millions dollars in interest
each year, that we now pay for we
now pay over q hundred and twenty
million dollars a year interest in gold
and that, reduced to the price ofpapor,
makes about a hundred and seventy
millions. Speaking about that propo.
sition which he calls the proposition of
the Cincinnati Enquirer, and which he
says that paper got from somewhere
else, he goes on TO say:
"On the goth of last month, / spoke
ut Batavia, and ! referred to that sub
jeot. l said that Judge Thurman was
plainly committed against the issue Of
more greenbacks that wheu we were
in the midst of the war, and the ne"ess-
itics Of tho country were such that it
was necessary to get money by every
means in our power, he had told the
people there was constitutional author
ity to issue grccnbacks."
Now my friends, | don't know where
General Hayes-anJ ] don't believe he
would %intionally misrcpresent mo-
don't know where he got the idea that
| ever said, or, as no expresses il, told
the people that the Government had
no Constitutionally authority to issue
greenbacks. l nm very sure that [
said any such thing, for l m very sure
that l ne7er thought ofany such thing.
The power, however, to issue green.
backs was one thing, and the power
to make them legal tender was another.
The Government issued certain notes
that it did not make q legal tender, and
it issued others and made them legal
tender. Upon the question whether is
had authority TO issue tho notes, |
don't know that there eve was n d.
versity Of opinion among the people
Or among the legal profession but
upon the question whether it had DOW.
or to make these notes legal tender,
perhaps there wore n 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 o similar decision, and other
Courts did, also. Certainly, l have en-
tertained the gravest doubts as to the
right OF the Government TO make that
paper money n legal tender; but the
truth is, that although I entertained
these doubts, never, on any occasion
during the existence of tho war, did /
express these thoughts to any audience
neither with my pen nor with my
tongue. The reason for it was simply
this: that l did not wish to endaneer
the credit of the Government; I did
not wish TO ~depreciate the currency in
the hands of the people, and therefore
l refrained from expressing even n
doubt upon tho subject, in order that |
might do neither one nor the otbor of
these injuries. YeT l am held up as
having declared to the people that tho
Government had no authority to issue
this paper. / never did any such
thing.
General Hayes gives another reason
for saying ] am opposed to paying the
debt in greenbacks:
81 said further"
This is Gen Hayes language:
"That in his speech at Waverly he
had spoken of this currency as a cur
Tency ofrags."
Well NOW my friends, in contrasting
that currency which wo had IN good
old Jackson times-goid and sllver,and
paper convertible at the will of the
holder INTO gold ard sIlvcr-in con.
trasting that with our present curren-
cy, did say that then va had n eur.
roncy ofgOld and silver, or their equiv.
alents, and nov we have n currency of
~rags-only rags. These were fbeI
words l applied to paper money not
convertible into gold and silver at the
VIII OF the hOlder--a favorite express
sion of Old Hickory who never could
be persuaded into calling it any but
rags Applause,
But General Hayes goes still further
for he tellp the people, in his Sidney
speech, thai am opposed to this pro
position to pay the bonded debt IN
grecnbacks, and as farther ~proofoftbat
he says that in my speech at Wapa-
keneta | only devoted eleven lines To
that subject, and that the pith of that
paragraph of eleven Inns is contained in
these two lines:
IL am sorry that what Ihave to say
for publication on that subject 1 must
reserve for some future tune"
Now my friend Hayes was not quite
fair and candid ms he generally is
he said that the pith OF what I
'ald on that occassion was contained IN
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