Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1868-01-08
GeneraI GarneId's Financial


In the Ashtsbula Sentinel Of the LIST
we notice the arrival in Jefferson OF
General Garfield, on the Saturday pre-,
vious. By solicitation, the General
addressed his Jefferson constituents ID
the evening, the Court House, at very
short notice. being filled. After re-
viewing the situation" generally, the
General came TO the question oil our
finances.
The General said he noticed the
propositions before Congress, and
especially the conflict between those
who would initiate the currency and
those who favor rapid contraction. He
promptly and unqualiiedly repuciated
The idea of pay ing off u bonds with
~greenbacks, as il was manlfestIy the
original intent and full purpose OF the
Government and its agents, as well as
those who took the bonds, that they
should be paid in gold. He denounced
the proposition 20 pay in any other
manner, rs bad faith, that we must not
dare to venture upon, if we would pre-
serve our standing among the nations
of the world.
He anticipated trouble from the con-
hict between the contractlonlsts 4
infationists, that il would be wisdom
to avoid, by the earliest possible return
to specie payments; while he would
provide against the complaints ana
dissatisfaction relative to the taxation
of bonds. by new loans made under
provisions that would equalize, at least
in a degree, the burdens of revenue on
one hand, and avoid a sacrifice Of the
public credit on the other. 1t was our
pride as a nation, that during the war,
we furnished our own loans, and did
not 90 abroad to borrow money. Our
own people, to the establishment OF all
Europe, supplied the men and the
money to put down this rebellion. 1t
was done BY loans of our own people
not &c capitalists alone, but of every
man and woman who had a dollar to
spare; and most nobly our people came
forward and took these loans. In our
necessities, we pledged the exemption
of our bonds from taxation. That
pledge must be honored; and that man
was not to be found, who regarded his
country, who would even suggest 9TH
erwise. Of course we would exchange
our bonds, with the holders who are
willing, for new ones, subject to limit
ed taxation at home and reduced inter
est abroad. This would not be repu-
diation.
But he specially urged an early re-
turn to specie payments; and to this
end he suggested a plan, which he ex-
pected shortly to bring before Congress,
by which he thought specie payments
could be reached in a few months, and
at the same time settle positively the
values in trade, free us from all ths
evils of a deprecated currency, and
the political qusrrels over the kind of
money with which 500 bonds should
be paid, and by the same process raise
our credit abroad to par. His plan is
this: Our paper money is now about
80 cents below the par of gold. Let
Congress fix a day on which the Tressu-
ry would pay out gold or greenbacks,
at the option of the receiVer-the paper
dollar at 100 cents and the gold at 80,
and continue to do so for one month,
when gold should be counted at l29,
the next at lbs, and so on for thirty
months, when it would be only 100
By this process, he argued, we should
avoid the bad effects of sudden con
traction while values would be fixed
at a certain standard, present and pros
p~ectively. Under this arrangement,
specie and legal tenders would be con-
vertable, and, long before the thirty
months expired, the paper, for its con
venieDce, would be preferred to gold
at which time we should be brought
fully back to the condition o. money
values from which we departed in 1861.
Mr.. G. remarked il was successfully
tried in England in 1919, when their
currency was raised from about the
level of ours to a par with gold, in a
full e a less time than that prescribed.