New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1868-08-18
T4LLAyDIGHlu ON THE FINANCES.

We print on another page so much OF a
Seymour g. Blair speech recently made at
Fort Wayne, Indiana, by c. J., Fallandiglam,
as relates to the National Finances and Debt.
The more material falsehoods embodied in that
speech are as follows:
l. That the Republican party intend that the
National Debt shall never be paid. law
framed and passed by the Republicans in Con-
gress provides that not less than one per cent.
of the principal Of that Debt shall be redeemed
and canceledin each fiscal year. NoRepublican,
so far rs we can remember, has ever proposed
the repeal of that provision But in fact we
hare paid very much faster than this law re-
Quires. The Debt was officially reported, "n
the 1st of August, 1865, as S3,,jGOJOCO)
over and above all the money then in the
TreasmF. On the-ist OF riiis month,sit was
officially reported at S2,ji0,0O0,0JO over and
above the money in the Treasury. That
we had, within tho last three years, paid of
S2l7OOO000 of principal of the Debt, is an oili-
cially established and undcnidb!o fact But
we had in fact paid much more than
this We had paid over Sl00,0D0,O0) TO soldiers
for musteIing-out bOunties. large sums addl-
tional for pay and allowances due those who
have been mustered out since Aug. /, 1865, and
at least SJO0JJO)0 due to States for the equip
nent, sc, of their troops for the War. Then
S32. 100000 of the present aggregate Of or
Debt is really owed by the Pacific Railroads,
to which the Government loans its credit at a
certain rate per mile; but the bonds are pay
able, principal and interest, by Che Roads and
are actually paid by them. The Government
saves enormous sums by using those roads for
the transportation of its troops munitions, pro-
visions nails &c, sc, and stops the interest
on the bonds out Of these payments. These
SO. 100000, therefore, are only an apparent, not
q real, augmentation of the Debt, which Is ac-
tually but S2,478,OOOOOO. We have, in the last
three years, paid off considerably more than
p tenth of the principal of all we owed when
our volunteer armies were disbanded, and can
pay hereafter much more easily than hereto
fore. 1t is proved false, therefore, that we do
not intend to pay the Debt by the fact that
we hare paid and are paying it.
II. Mr.. VallandgLam deliberately lies when
he asserts that the republicans propose to i'll
crease the Debt to S},t0OOOOO0O. 1t was not
50 $780, 100000 on the Isl inst, but $25lOO0)O0O
and that is every cent that we intend to make
it, or to pay. Whoever controverts this is a
foolish reckless liar.
ILL., Mr. Vallandicham asserts that the Debt
"was to have been paid in paper.o Here he
lies again, with malice prepense, and in the
face of abundant and most irrcfmgable testi-
mony We have QuO,ed, over and again, Mr..
Thaddeus Steyens's rer lted ayerments, in adj
yocating the passage of the Legal Tender act,
that every GIcenbacl< was fundable, at the
pleasure Of the holder, in a six per cent. stock
Ghe Five-Twenties) whereof the principal was
payable, after twenty years, in g0ld. Nobody
then disputed or demuned to this while most
of Mr.. Steycns's associates on the Committee
of Ways and Means expressly confirmed it.
That the interest OF those bonds was payable
in coin is expressly and incidentally stipulated !;
and Congress provided that nothing but coin
should be received for Duties on Imports, ex-
pwssly to furnish the whorewithal to pay the
interest and one per cent. of the principal of
the Debt in coin each year, as by law required
Some one having thereafter raised the cav!l
that perhaps the principal of the Five
Twentes might be paid in "Legal-Tender,'
Secretary Chase was appealed to, and
promptly responded that every dollar of the
permanent or funded Debt of the United States
was payable in coin So said Secretary Fes-
sender, two years later; SO said Secretary
McCullocb after his accession. Every Secretary
has thus assured those who were solicited 70
take the bonds that they were payable in coin.
The bonds were taken in virtue of these
assurances, given first in.Congress, then reiter-
ated 10y every Secretary of the Treasury who
issued them. Any villain who now says they
are payable in Greenbacks would as readily