Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1868-07-30
[coNTMUEp FROM FIRST pAGE.]


let me tell him that it is not the wages
! of political prostitution, nor yet of that
sin which is political death; pardon the
digression-this gold piece is money;
not indeed "lawful money" in the lam
guage of the legal-tender act. but Con-
stitutional money, and the only money
known to that instrument. No act of
Congress, and no number of penal pro-
visions, could persuade me that this
twenty dollar legal-tender is as good as
this twenty dollar gold. This (the
gold) is not the representative of or sub
stitute for money; it is money. 1t does
mot say II promise to pay twenty dol
lars" but al am twenty dollars" Now,
gentlemen, I should be very glad to
make this paper money as good as gold
If only knew how. I remember
in ancient mythology one Midas,
who p besought the II gods for
power to turn everything he touched in
Z to gold; but recollect. also, that in the
sequel of the story Midas was written
down an ass I know. then, of no way
of making your fGovernment paper as
good as gold, except either by immense
: " reducing the volume somewhere
near to the standard of taxation, or re-
! auiring it to be redeemed on demand in
gold at the Treasury of the United
States, But neither of these is now
practicable. " What then2 Necessarily
we are to have two currencies for the
present g gold and greenbacks-a dollar
in coin equal to a hundred cents, and a
dollar in legal tender, representing yari.
ously from fifty to seventy cents. And
now; hard money man as / am-odious
as a. deprecated, irredeemable Govern
;ment paper, forced upon the people, is to
mel meet the issue squarely. If
you have gold enough for alls+let us all
have gold. But if not, and there must
be paper for some, then paper for all;
and, in the language of the New York
Democratic platform, some currency for
the Government and the people, the Ia
borer and the ofice-holder, the pensioner
and the soldier, the producer and the
bondholder;" and whosoever would have
gold, let him buy it in the market at its
value in currency. And let us have no
petty quibbling about the phrase "law-
full money! In the platform it is
the antithesis of 81 Hcoin - and in
the entire Legislation of Congress
upon the subject for six years it means
the legal-tender ''greenback" currency
of the country. Redeem, then, in this
lawful moneyAlawful to the plow-holder
and lawful to the bond-holder-as ''rap-
idly as practicable" "sall obligations Of
the Government q not expressly upon
their face, or by law, made payable in
coin. Abolish forthwith your national
banking system; take up the bonds
which they hold, save twenty millions
of interest to the taxpayers, and, in.
stead of redeeming three hundred mill
lions of National currency with green.
backs issue like amount of greenbacks
at. Z once to- supply their place
Here is no inhationi nor is there any,
the smallest hazard, of having "tooi
much money" even of "lawful money"
in the country. With the disappear
ance, too, Of the present National bank
ing monopoly, we shall secure again old
fashioned specie-paying banks, whose
credit shall depend ON their solvency,
and whose promise-to-pay is re-
deemable, not in another promise
to-pay, but in gold and silver,
the Constitutional money of the land.
CONCLUSION.
I have now, my Democratic friends,
finished what l had to say upon the po-
litical issues and situation to-day. One
word further upon another subject, and l
have done. s3s.,..a
You hear from every quarter. through
the Republican press, the alarm that it is
the purpose Of the Democratic party to
.reinaugurate revolution and civil war.
Iet no man be in the least concerned.
Unquestionably it is the fixed purpose
Of Tires millions of Democratic voters
with all the intensity whiehl can fire the
hearts of men born freemen and scorning
to die slaves, if we shall fairly, constitu-
tionally and legally elect President, to
see that he is inaugurated at every haz-