New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1868-08-18

say, if he could hope to be sustained IN IT.
that they should never be paid Mt all.
". Vallandigham asserts that the oohd-
holder paid only $500 for bond ealing Tor
$1,000. Herein the william lies no less Daseiy
than before. The great mass OF tie Dohus cost
the holders nearly or quite their race III CON-
Very many OF them were taken before our
Lcgal-Tender currency was seriously deprc-
ciated: immense amounts soon aitef Lees sur
render, when there was but - to 80 per cent
difference between GreeBbacks and Com.
But again: The West was largely in debt to
the East, the farmers to the merchants young
business men to capitalists, at the beginning OF
the War. All these were coin debts-contracted
when every dollar meant silver dollar or It's
full equivalent These debtS-many OF them
mortgages-have been almost entirely paId
off in Legal Tender during and since
the War. Every dollar Of the Legal
TENDER paid dollar of coin debit
and the creditors were told, You can
"inveSt your Legal Tender in Government
"bonds, which are payable, principal and inter
"est. in coin" Hundreds of Millions so paid
were so invested the farmers paying OIL their
mortgages with half the produce that would
have been required but for the War and the
consequent Legal Tender 1t was the Debtor
interest, not the Creditor, that profted by our
Currency debasement. The creditors took less
than par for their debts, because the law pre-
scribed il and now all the scoundrelsm OF the
country would cheat them out OF the proceeds
altogether!
V. Val. saws ne is " in favor Of one currency
" for all, and gold for ALL In this, lac lies, as
usual, and the whole drift OF his speech proves
it. Such currency is perfectly practicable
perfectly attainable. We need not wait three
months for it, Let the People unite in oi'e re-
solve, 1--WE will have Specie Payments restored
forthwith and The end is achieved. There
is no want of means, but abundant want OF
will Tco many want to sell their property or
pay their debts ia a false measure OF value,
and so combine to clog the wheels of Re
sumption. NaIlaudigham is either one OF them
himself, or one who seeks to make capital out
of THEN dcluson. lie pretendS great interest
in the crippled soldiers; yet he knows right well
That To pay of the bonds in Greenbacks must
reduce the pensioners pitancc to far less than 1t
row u.s. Every widows mite now deposited IN
D Savings Bank, the pay OF every lab0rcr who
works by the year and is paid ut the year ;
end, and the property of widows and orphans
in the hands of trustees ana guardians, would
be virtually coufscatcd by the measure he ad-
vocatcs. Grccnbacks would be made so album
dant that-bcing not even fundable-they would
sink 10 "a merely nominal value, like the French
As,ignats or our old Continental shinplastels
and Speculation would ride rough shod over
parllyzcd and covering Industry. II would be
the carnival of Swindlmg and thc blight of
Productive Labor
VI ValhndigIam says that the Democratic
plan Of paying the Debt will save TO the taX-pay-
es at,O79,OOOO0O. As that * about two-thirds
the sum total of the Fye-Tweutics he must
mean that those arc at once to be paid off in
Greeuhacks, and the Grccnbacks never paid at
ALL We assert that the injury and loss in
hctcd on Labor and Production by such a sud
den and enormous initiation Of the Currency
would exceed thrice that stupenous amount. A
few would be made rich by It bur tllu immonse
majority of frugal, industrious people would
be ruined He quotes Butler aud Morton as
couuteuancinc this plan, but gives no proof of
n. II is one kind of lmaycry 20 say that the
Fivc-Twcntcs may be paid in the Grcenbachs
already existing it is quite another 90 say that
Fifteen Hundred Millions of Greenbacli5 may
he printed of expressly to swamp and extin-
guish the Fiye-Twcntics The former would
somewhat appreciate all money values; the
latter would whem all values in general ruin.
Yet it is only by this latter that any such sum
as S1.O;90 900 can be saved in paying of the
Fivc-TWcntics.
VII Finally, Val comes very near the truth
a.
hostile to his scheme, while the Democratic is
pledged 10 il. lie adds tlat Seymour has
empha'ically and uucquiyTally accepted the
"DemocIatc platform Lpaying the Fiye-Twen-
cites in Grcenbacksl ard says that his admin
"istration shall be governed by it," He
may have said so, but his heart is not in it,
His speeches last Spring prove that he knors
this whole scheme 10 be as ruinous as il is ras-
cally. Aud, if he now succnmbs to it, he covers
his name with indclble iniamy.