The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1868-08-25

INV IL iS Will SOuE IcpuUllCdus III
Maine, but in Ohio aud Indiana there
the people are SO anxious to get on that
they threaten to jostle ME off of my own
platform. (Great laughter and ap-
plause.) A year ago the leading men
called us copperheads and traitors. Now
they politely say the theory is true, but
altogether impracticable. Not at all,
my friends. Pay the bonds as they be-
come due. Save the interest. Save the
premium on gold. How The nation
al banks have out circulation of $780,
100000 secured by bonds. You under
stand this operation very we'll. Three
men buy one hundred thousand dollars
worth of bonds. They deposit them in
the Treasury. They get their 6per cent.
interest in gold. They get 90 per cent.
in bank notes and this they come home
here to loan at 10 or Is or % per cent.
as they may be able to exact from the
purse of the borrowers. The Govern
ment pays per cent. in gold to these
gentlemen for the burden Of lending
money at 90. Break up the system.
Call in that circulation. Issue green
backs in its stead. Take up $500, 0,00O,-
uOO VI JULIUS anu odNo SlS,VoO,VVO ~
gold annually by way OF interest. This
will reduce your debt, reduce your inter
est, and enable you either to reduce
your taxes or to increase your payment
the next year. Your income is at least
$500, 100000 a year. Be honest. Be
economical. Let the thefts be stopped.
Let robbery be punished. Expend $780,
000, 900 year, twice as much as Presi-
dent Buchanan expended, far more than
General Jackson expended in any four
years of his administration. Add $780,
100000 for interest, and yet you have
more than $500, ,OO0, 900 year, and that
sum constantly increasing by Il large
amount with which to pay off the public
debt. In this way it can be paid-every
dollar in principal and interest, by the
time it becomes due, without adding
one cent to the tax or one cent to the
circulation. If it is thought advisable,
the taxes can be reduced, and the pay
ment be prolonged for ten years. hear
it stated that this is unjust to the pub
lie creditor. Not at all. You pay him
back all he gave, you pay him high in
terest, you pay him all he promised.
Show me single bondholder who, if
you pay him to-day in legal tenders
with gold at l40 per cent. will not re-
place his outlaygI will show you fifty,
who, in addition to twelve per cent. in
terest, have added in five years forty
per cent. to their principal. The ques-
tion is not whether you will pay the
what you owe, but whether
you will rob the people to pay the bond
holder what you do not owe. Gap
plause.) | hear it stated this is unjust
to the people. When this legal tender
law was passed, it confiscated two
thirds of all the Indebtedness of the
The man who had note fol
$1,000 in gold was compelled to take
$1,000 in paper. The man who had
leased house for $500 in gold could
pay his rent with $500 in paper. !
knew an instance in New York City: A
man sold his neighbor lot for $50, 900.
The purchaser was a thrifty trader who
could make more than 6 per cent. from
his money. The seller was thriftless
trader who could not make so much.
They agreed that the purchaser should
pay when h1 pleased, but in the mean-
ViuiC ohVuiu 10Y " POI SS"O' ''''tS'e'
He waited till gold was two hundred
and fifty. He took his so, 900 in gold
and brought $4,000 in legal-tender,
paid 100000 to the seller, invested $780,
600 in five-twenty bonds, has drawn
$500 in gold year interest, and now
is the most loyal patriot and the loud
est clamorer for payment Of the bonds
in gold, of all my acquaintauces. Gap
plause.) He is a reasonably good man,
they say. He is o Christian man, and
they say that every night as he goes TO
bed he prays God that he may do to
other men as other men do to
him. and when he raises his hand
in prayer, that God may deliver
him from all his enemies, he prays
that he may be saved from
that public enemy who wants to pay the
five-twenty bonds in greenbacks-(l loud
laughter and applause)-and | hear it
said this system will depreciate the cur
rency, and cheat labor OF its just re-
wards. Not at all. Every dollar of the
public debt which is ia this way paid
will relieve the property of the country
from the mortgage which is upon Ii,
and making the greenbacks more Gel
tain of redemption will increase their
value. No, gentlemen, pay these five
twentics in legal-tender notes the mo-
ment they become redcemable, aud you
will reduce the debt, you will save the
interest, you will relieve labor from its
burdens. (Applause.) Couple with
this the taxation of capital to the same
sxtent as you tax labor, stop the eXces-
sive contraction of the currency, eX-
pand it if necessary to recover the busl-
ness of the country from the prostration
it now feels, and you will make capital
you will make industry con
tented. Your shlpyards will be alive
again. Our fertile fields will yield a
bOuntiful harvest. Labor will perform
its accustomed work, and bowling its
cheerful head to burthcn which is al
ways heavy, will push forward with
higher courage and loftier step.
(Cheers.) Do not misunderstood me.
/ did not vote for the legal-tender law.
l opposed it. / thought it very wrong
/ was then, ! am now, 4 hard-money
man. foresaw the evils of an expand
ed and deprecated currency; but the
law was passed. nc evils "tic CouIia aSl-
ed; they have been endured by the peo-
ple; and | am now in favor of extract
ing from the system all the good which
can be gotten ont Of it. (Applause.) l
have no hostility to the bondholders.
They are, doubtless, worthy and estim-
able gentlemen. would do them exact
Justice. Where promised gold would
pay gold; where l promised paper l
would pay paper. I beg of them now
to be Just and wise. would not threat
en-, but they may go further and fare
worse. Labor is suffering; it may be-
come restive. The Republican party
upsets this whole policy. 1t insists on
paying the debt in gold and exempting
bonds from taxation.
The Funding bill expresses the whole
idea. 1t passed both Houses; it would
have become a law except for the ad-
journnent. 1t provided that the pres
ent bonds should be exchanged for
other bonds bearing 4! per cent. inter
est, payable in forty years, principal
and interest, both to be paid III gold,
and to be exempt from all State and
~ I IL Il