The Hancock Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Ohio) 1857-1870, 1868-09-11

agony will be over. Suppose we
issue grccnback5 enough to pay OIL
the ) 2Os and call them III, what will
be the effect? We shall have to issue
a thousand million at least, and thus
probably reduce the greenback To
one fourth its face in gold. This de-
preciation will result from the Volume
of currency, (which alone would oi'
minish its worth at least one man.
and thus bring it TO less thsn thirty
five per cent, and from the bad iaitn
which depreciates currency withou'
necessity. Owners of greenbacks
are not ready for the sacrifice. Again;
everything of value would rise to
near three times its present price,
and during the change sharpers woulH
make millions Off honest men,
/ Whenever Congress contempiates
he passage Of such IN act, its mem
ners have only to make arrangements
With capitalists to buy all the real
state and other tangible property
within their reach few days before
he passage of the law, and 90 partly
| N debt for it, thus in afew days they
could double their money and Con-
sressmen, like Pharaoh in Joseph, s
time, could own all the land. This
profiting by Legislation anticipated
a NO fancy sketch. In odr own
couatry, when the Continental cur
rency was redeemed, even in the
yood times of old, it was the Con
Gressmen and their friends who got
the money. The wealth of the Roth
childs has come largely from the
same source; for Kings and. parlia-
ments, rs well as Congressman, have
to divide tie spoil with the CAPT
talist.
After all what comes of the plan I?
The people have the money and the
rascals the land, but who pays the
debt. The greenbacks must be puid
in cold or we must always keep an
lirredcemable currency. The people
will get tired of money that will
neither buy goods nor bring interest
Capitalists will therefore sell them
back the lands for what greenbacks
there are, and take mortgages for the
balance-that balance being NOM
Iinally more than the land cost them,
or than it is worth in gold. Then ut
last we shall be driven to heavy tax
alton and TO bonds for the redemption
of the currency, and as the currency
rises in value capitalists will fore
close their mortgages and have both
land and money, just when both shall
have reached a just value. Such will
be the inevitable result of that fick-
leness which marks the Democratic
masses in our country.
That such result is not now being
wrought out is owing to the incor
ruptible integrity OF a Republican
Congress and the great body of the
Republican party. Necessity alone,
which is above laws and Constitutions.
drove them to tamper with the cur
rency, and, the necessity having
ceased, they are now coming back
to gold from which they parted
That they will get back. with the
support of the people, and restore
the currency as successfully as they
mastered the rebellion, the history
of the last three years fully shows.
Congress has not only paid interest
and reduced the debt, as before stat
ed, but nobly given the soldiers an
additional bounty of over fifty mill
ions. Our extraordinary expenses
of the last year alone were over sew
enty millions, and yet the debt has
not been substantially increased even
during single quarter. The gov
ernment is master of the financial
situation, and to keep it only needs
nov common sense and common
honesty.
The Republican party proposes to
better the credit OF the Government
by paying the interest on the public
debt promptly as it accrues, and by
leaving the currency alone. Within
five years our national commercial
growth, coupled with good faith,
will bring greenbacks to par. BY
that time, if not before, we can issue
a bond at five per cent. that Will sell
at par, and enable us to call in and
pay Off the six per cent. $40 bonds
with the proceeds. But now such
bonds would not sell in fact, with a
large party clamOring for a chance
to cheat them, think if the bond
holders could get their money back
out of their six per cent. bonds, they
would hardly try it Over-Or, if they
would, Pendleton's power must seem
to them about as small as it is. Hon
esty and patience, with Grant as
President and a Republican Con
gress, may, within five years, enable
us to sell four per cent. bonds at par.
The consolidated stocks government
bonds of Great Britain sell at or
near par, though they draw but three
per cent because the capitalists of
Europe know that they will be paid.
Through nearly two hundred years
of struggle with debt, British honor
has not been tarnished with a single |
Pendleton. perhaps this last eX-
preston is too strong, fools have
talked and dogs barked in England
as well as here, and | hope Ameri-
can honor will appear all the brigh-
ter as PendletOn's hOwlings sink to
despair.
Give to our bonds such a confidence
and we can sell at almost as low i'm
tercst as British b0nds. The only
reason why we could not sell just AS
low is, that we do not propose to
make our debt as permanent as Great
Britain, and capitalists desire Il per
manent investment.
Then we can, after reducing the
interest, pay oil the principal at the
rate of hunded millions a year,
~ high i'm fWanfu yaarS unull laayaI