The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1868-07-16
THE DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM
INTERPRETED BY THE
NATIONAL ORGAN.
WHAT THE NY. WORLD SAYS THK
FINANCIAL PLANKS MEAN.
No More GreenbackS-NO Expansion
Payment Of BOndhOlders' In.
tePest In GOld-Early Return
to Specie Currency.

From the New York World Of July ~
The platform which was adopted
yesterday by the National Convention,
with demonstrative warmth of ap-
prevail such as has seldom been wit
messed on a similar occasion, is, on
the whole, body of sound political
doctrine. 1t requires comment on
only one or two points. The remarks
we have to offer on these will be
merely explanatory.
The declarations relating to the
finances are scattered through the diff
ferent sections of the platform. They
need to be brought together before we
can get an intelligent view Of their
scope. The platform is explicit
enough upon each particular point,
but its several declarations so limit
and modify one another, that it would
be very misleading to consider any
one OF them apart from the rest.
Payment Of the principal of the five
twenty bonds in greenbacks will easily
be found in the platform, if searched
for. The language is, that when the
obligations of the Government do not
expressly state upon their face, or the
law under which they were issued
does not provide that they shall be
paid in coin, they ought in right and
in justice to be paid in the lawful
money of the United States -
that is to say, in greenbacIs. This is
explicit enough, so far as it relates to
the medium of payment; but how
does the platform propose to provide
the means? In other words, where
are the greenbacks to come from?
On this, also, the platform is explicit:
they are not to be manufactured by
the printing press, but to be raised
by taxation. By this method the
payment of the public debt cannot be
very rapid. The bondholders need
have no fears that their property is
to be swept away by new inundation
of paper money. Payment of the
public debt in greenbacks without in
.creasing their present amount, pay
ment in greenbacks out of the pro-
ceeds of reduced taxation, will leave
the greater portion of the debt stand
ing for many years to come.
There IS. another part of the plat
form which has a pertinent bearing
on this subject. 1t is the declaration
in favor of lone currency for the gov
ernment and the people, for the bond
holder and the producer" Now, al
though nothing is expressly said upon
that point, we suppose the platform
contemplates the payment of the
duties on imports in coin as hereto
fore. This seems to us justifable,
nay, an inevitable inference from what
is said about paying in coin such OBJ
legations of the Government as stipu-
late for coin upon their face. The in
terest upon both the ten-forty and
the five-twenty bonds is payable in
coin by the very terms of the law,
and also the principal of the ten
forties. If the Government keeps
this express engagement, it must by
some means raise the coin, and no
other method is suggested than by
collecting it, as now, at the custom
houses. Now, as the platform pledges
the party to pay specie to the bond
holders to meet their interest and that
part of their principal which the law
requires to be paid in coin, it seems
evident that the one currency of the |
and the people, the |
bondholder and the producer, must |
an early return to specie |
payments. The one currency" must |
mean either uniform good currency, |
or a uniform bad currency. 1t is in |
In itself and inconsistent |
with the platform, that the old, hard |
money Democratic party should |
promise a uniform currency of bad |
money. The one currency means a
sound currency; currency equivalent
to the coin and at all times exchange
able for it. One currency of depreci-
ated greenbacks would be inconsist-
ent with the payment in coin of that
part of the public obligations which
are acknowledged by the platform to
De due In coin; inconsistent with the
collection of the revenue from i'm
ports IN gold; inconsistent with the
Idea that we are ever to return to
specie payments.