Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1868-07-19


y EhAYe said to youotlIat the taxation 81
1866 amounted % $3.50 900, 600. / am
q told that this year il will be less The Sc
elTrities Of The government are not subject
~ taxation. - The capital invested in the
securities reaches s., SOC, 600 eco. All the
n property, real and personal, Of every kind,
\ q derived from the official reports Of 1850,
I amounted 70 $4,000, DOC, 900. Thus you
i See that nearly sne-sixth Of all the capital
m the conntry is exempt from taxation. -
i Bot why Is it that the ameu3t realized
from 1869 will be less than the amount re-
allied in 1866? The rate OF taxation ia
substantially the same. It is true that this
Republican Congress has diminished, as 3
Whole, the taxes on the manufactures Of
New England it is true that they will
diminish s1mewhat the taxes upon whisky,
but the amount collected from either of
bose sources would not materially change
the aggregate. Why then, / ask again, viii
the amount realized from taxes this year
! be less than in 1862 The burthen upon
those who do pay is just as great as it was
| then. The difficulty of making the pay
mest is even greater than it was then.
THE GENERAL DISTRESS AND ITS CAUSE.
A cry of distress when the day for the
| payment of taIes comes round, arises from
every part of the country and il is be-
cause the business of the country is stag
nant it is because your workshops are
| idle; il is because labor finds no occupa.
tiOn it is because the produce of the far
mer remains on his hands, instead of 20
ing TO the market; it is because your stores
| are overloaded with abundant stocks it is
nd
| lyzed, and capital remains inactive.
CURRENCY-CoNTRACT
And why is all this Because Repub-
liean administration insists in eurtailing
the currency, disturbing all values, check
ing all enterprise, throwing out of employ
ment all labor. The tradesman is caught
with large stock on declining prices.
The farmer fears the fall which may over
take him before his wheat reaches the
market. The manufacturer fears that the
price of his raw material to-day will be
greater than the price of his manufactured
goods tomorrow, and the capitalist will not
take his money out of government bonds
and invest il in houses, or lands and stocks.
lest the rents and dividends will not Weld
him simple interest. In the meantime,
labor is without employment, and poverty
stalks through homes where comfort has
always been before. [Applause In the
meantime, this work ofcontraction is stead
lily pushed. Look at every monthly re-
port of the Secretary Of the Treasury, you
viii ind that every month the debt that
bears interest in gold is increased YOU
will find that every dollar which bears no
interest at all, or which bears interest in
currency, Is converted as rapidly as posi-
BILE into the bonds which pay interest. in
gold. And why is this Is there too
much CURRENCY in the country Is there a
.'lethora Of money? Is speculation rife
No one viii dare affirm 50 much, and vet
this work of contraction still goes on, and
value is coined for the bondholder out of
Che sweat and tears, the blood and bones
and muscles of the laboring man
UNITED STATES BONDS.
And when we ask the reason, we are
answered by the declaration of the Repub-
lcan Convention at Chicago that the bonds
must be paid in gold according 10 the let
ter and spirit Of the contract /; by the de-
claration Of its President that the debt of
the bOndholder IS as sacred a. the grave of |
the soldier.
PAYMENT IN LEGAL TENDERS.
deny that it is according either to the |
spirit or to The letter of the contract under
which the iiye-twenty bonds were sold. /
say that neither the spirit nor the letler of
the law under which those bonds were
issued, nor good faith, nor good morals, nor
exact Justice TO the bondholder, require
that they should bepaid in gold. They are
payable in legal tender, and in this opinion
1 am sustained by the resolution of the
Democratic Convention in New York,
which declares that where the obligations
Of the government do not expressly state
upon the face-or the laws under which |
they were issued do not provide-that they
shall be paid in coin, they ought in right |
and justice to be paid in the lawful money
Of the United States.
When the legal tender act was passed, |
the private Indebtedness of the country
amounted to a very large sum. It was con-
tracted to be paid in gold, but was in fact
discharged in paper. The public necessity
was alleged TO be sufficient reason for this
Wholesale conf5eation. Is there no public
necessity now to demand the payment of
the bonds in the money which was paid for
them
POLICY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY ON
THIS QUESTION. -..,
The policy of the Republican party ia |
to pay all these bonds in gold to convert |
all the currency now outstanding, and all |
the Indebtedness of the United States into
these bonds; to pay interest in gold for this !
enormous amount, whatever it may be, and |
to extend the time within which the bonds |
shall be paid. In the meantime the bonds |
are to be exempted from taxation, and the |
interest is to be paid, semi annually, in |
gold. What the amount Of indebtedness
under that system can finally be shown TO |
be, l can not say; S2,500,0 900 we know |
ii is now. Less than that il certainly will |
not be, The interest upon that sum will |
be Sl50,000,000 in gold, and this amount !
is to be drawn annually from the people of |
the country, during all your lives, and the /
lives Of your youngest children, in order 10 |
carry out the dogmss of the Republican |
party.
THE DEMOCRATIC POSITION. -
The Democratic party upon this ques- /
ton has given forth no uncertain sound. 1t |
declares that The debt shall not be extend |
ed, but must be paid as rapidly ss possible; |
all the money collected from the people |
shall not be squsndered on Freedmen's |
Bureaus and standing armies, but shall be |
applied to the payment of this debt and of |
the reduction of the interest 1t declares |
that the go bonds shall be paid in legal
tender, and until they be paid, they shall |
be subjected TO the same rate of taxation as |
all other property. 1t declares there shall |
be one currency for the government and |
the people; for the laborer and the Office |
holder; the Pensioner aud the soldier; the |
freedman and the bondholdsr.
THE DEMOCRATIC PLAN DEMONSTRATED.
And how soon is it practicable to paw |
this debt Three hundred and thirty mil |
lions of bonds are held in the Treasury |
Department as security for the national |
bank circulation. Redeem them, the very |
instant YOU have the option TO do so, with |
legal tender notes, aud let Them supply the |
place of the bank paper. This measure |
alone, with very little initiation Of the cur |
rency, and without any addition 10 the lax
alton, will reduce the debt and save the |
twenty millions of dollars in gold annually, |
which are nov paid rs a bonus 10 the ns-