The Vinton record. [volume] (M'arthur, Vinton County, Ohio) 1866-1891, 1868-02-27

GNHHAN. NAANA ~ - AAAAA - -. '--I' ~ =
have, and'I doubt not always
will be, actuated and Control
led by it. / s''i-'ofm'.
| know, also, that there is
such a thing as false, or, it may
be, interested notions as to
what honor is, but if any gen
tleman's notions lead him to
believe q nation to be honora.
BILE must first pay its debts ac-
cording to law andr contract
and then add on thirty or for
ty per cent. over and above
the stipulations, then with him
l take issue. My own State,
under the law OF 1862, has been
| paying the interest and redu-
cling the principal of heEdebt
at a very satisfactory RAE in
legal tenders; every other
State, believe, exceptperhaps
it may be one or two, ha, been
doing the same, and | have not
heard that any of them have
been charged with reputation
or branded with eithermoral or
legal dishonor.' The banks Of
every State, with all other cor
! porations, have in like manner
been using legal tenders in the
payment of their liabilities, so
| that the man who undertakes
to brand his fellows with dis
honor will find that he has
rather a big job on his, hands,
for he will have TO implic0te
not only individuals and States
at large but also overy member
of Congress who voted for the
\ legal-tender act, r..
| Purchasers Of fve-twenty
bonds certainly had no right
to believe that they would
be 1paid in coin; neither
the language of the law nor
the financial condition of the
country justified such n con
clusion, but precisely the re-
verse, and that they did so be-
lieye is apparent from the price
which they paid. The average
gold value of the bonds since
1.-the close of the war in New
York and London has been
about seventy cents or a frac-
rtion ever that sum, certainly,
if it had been the belief or eX-
pectation of the capitalists
that the principal as we'll as
/ the interest was payable in
tgold, they would -hspeAbeen
bringing and theyowould be
worth to-day very nearly, if
not quite, par in gold ..1 .
b The fact that the British
consols bearing but three per
cent. interest are all the time
worth from twenty to twenty
! five per cent. more in the Lon
| don market than our six per
cents can only be accounted
! for on the principle that capi-
! talists there do not believe the
latter are payable in gold. .H
1t is no part Of the theory of
those who favor paying these
bonds in the lawful money of
the country to initiate the cur
rency to any considerable ex-
tent for that purpose. Such a
course would be unwise, un.
just and dishonorable. But it
is their purpose to keep gold
at a premium until at least the
larger portion of our indebted
ness shall have been paid, and
in no other way can justice
be done TO all parties, in no
other way is it possible to make
the capital invested in these
|. bonds bear its equal proper
tiohs of the depreciating e-
! fects of the war. s-..
If these bonds are to be paid
in gold surely the man who in
vested his greenbacks in them
is a stranger to the deprecia'
ting and devastating effects OF
the rebellion, and it matters
not with him if the war had
lasted a generation provided
| the Government had remained
solvent. But this is not the
worst feature of the case. The
man who held on to his gold
until it went up to from one
hundred to one hundred and
eighty per cent. and then in
vested in greenbacks, and in
pursuance of the same sharp
practice reinvested his green
backs in bonds, made rather a
nice thing of it at the expense
of the country. True, that por-
ton Of these bonds which may
remain unpaid when the finan
ces of the country will justify
the resumption Of specie pay
ment will undoubtedly be paid
in gold, but then our policy
ought to lie to pay the great
bulk of our Indebtedness be-
+o,. thnf nar;od orrivac Rut