Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1868-06-26

U0UnMu. ..ag
returned into your pockets 1900 of your
10000 gold dollars, and you claim that
the Government owes you $50, 900 more
in gold If in four years you receive
$37, 200 in return for $4,000, your pa
triotism will be well rewarded indeed"
II am net responsible for the bad
management Of the Government" said
the Pittsburg gentleman. :" / was fnan-
ciering for myself and not for the Gov
ernment, and / only ask it to keep its
engagements as / keep miae." eg
But while you were fuanciering for
yourself" said bis friend, "you should
have observed the striking fact that
while the bonds promised gold for the in
terest they did not specify the money in
which the principal was to be paid.
Moreover the greenbacks with which you
bought those bonds bore this legend:
g" This note is legal tender for all
debts, public and private, except duties
on imports, and the interest of the pub
lie debt. UEs mn wb p.
Every one of those notes which has
passed through your hands before you
bought the bonds, and since, has been q
notice served on You by the Government
that the principal of your bonds is pay
able in greenbacks. Accordingly, you
see the Government paying it's other
debts in greenbscks. So it paid the SOL
dier for enduring tolls, and Drawing dan
gers. Even the pitiful pension of the
disabled private is paid in greenbacks
and the widow is paid in greenbacks for
the lost labor Of the husband, who lies
mouldering in a soldiers grave. What
have you done that the Government shall
make an exception in your favor2"
~ hold its bonds," replied the glass
manufacturer, and though the bonds
may fail to specify anything of the sort,
yet there is an implied obligation, when
ever a government issues such bonds,
that the principal shall be paid in gold"
"But," rejoined the merchant, "that
implied obligation is directly negatived
by the inscription on the greeubacks, and
negatived also by the wording of the
bond, which carefully specifies gold for
the interest and carefully omits any
specification as to how the principal is
to be paid thus leaving that point op.
tional with the Government. Moreover,
the greenbacks themselves are notes,
bonds, promises to pay which the Gov
ernment is as much obliged to pay in
coin as any other description of bonds
whatever. Ifthe Government substitutes
its greenback notes for its bonds in your
possession, you hold against ii as valid
an obligation as you held before, and
have no right whatever to cry 'repudia-
ton
"The Government will be able to
redeem the greeubacks in coin as soon as
it will be able to pay your bonds in coin.
Its necessities compel it to give to its
creditors promises instead of pay. 1t is
for you to show why it should give you
interest bearing notes and compel its
other creditors to accept notes which
draw no interest. 1t is for you TO show
why the people shall be taxed to pay in
terest on what the Government owes you,
while they get no interest on the notes
which they hold against the Government.
In what respect is your claim more just
or sacred than theirs?
snow, suppose the Government takes
your bonds at their face, aud pays you
$40, 900 in greenbacks. You can ex-
change that. snm for s2l 400 in gold.
You will then receive more than double
the sum you invested four years ago, and
upon which the Government has paid
you usurJ at the rate of eighteen per
cent. per annum MY FREUD, you have
no good reason for calling this 'repudia-
ton Wien so liberal settlement is
proposed, you have no right TO demand
that $4,000 more in gold than is nom.
mated in the bond shall be wrupg from
the labor Of the country for your private
emolument As just business man you
would net set up such claim against a
private individual, and you could not le-
gally collect il. The obligation of your
bonds, as you construe it against the
public, would convert them and the Gov
ernment itself into instruments Of extor
ton and inordinate oppression.
"This implied obligation with which
you propose to piece out the actual obi
CATION Of the Government, applies with
far more justice to the claims OF the SOL
diers who rendered personal service and
devoted their lives TO the public defense.
But you and the party with which You
aetdo not call reputation to pay them
in greenbacks for the blood they shed and
the limbs they lost You prefer the least
meritorious class Of the public creditors
and for those who have already grown
rich of the necessities Of the Government
you demand an exorbitant, additional
gold premium. The scant wages and re-
yards of the poor, who have toiled for
the Government, and who have bled and
suffered for It, you would pay in green
backsT -..-
As be listened to this argument in
favor Of what be had termed "repudia-
ton" the Pitsburg gentleman be,hought
him that for twenty years be has known
the good old merchant TO be q man who
would part with his last cent and coin
bis body TO pay his bond. He unused a
moment with the air OF a man who hears
something which he must ponder more
at leisure; and then be changed the cor