Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1868-08-18

BondhOlders, Pause and ReAect!
A a, lFor the Ohio Statesman )
Allow me, through the columns of your
paper, TO say a few words in regard to the
great financial question which now agi-
tates and convulses our country to its very
foundations.
In proceeding to make a few observa-
tions upon this great and momentols ques-
ton, so vital and important to the temporal
and physical happiness of forty millions of
human beings now living in the United
States, as well as that of millions upon
millions who are to come after us, shall
take it for granted that our National bonds,
commonly called five-twenties, are payable
In greenbacks. This I assume to be q
point which does not admit of any serious
argument between men who are morally
honest and have no interest in the matter
but that of arriving at the truth. .iGai9 fdi
'E When we have the direct testimony of
THAD. STEVENS, Chairman OF the Commit
tee of Ways and Means Of the House, and
Senator SHERMAN, Chairman of the same
Committee of the Senate, whose duty it
was to prepare and report the bill by whose
authority the greenbacks and bonds were
issued, declaring that they are payable fh
greenbat ks, I consider the door to argti-
ment closed. But, in addition to the de-
clarations of SHERMAN and STEVENS, we
have also those of Senator MORTON and
General BUTLER, two shining lights of
Republican authority But If we had not
a word OF authority from Republicans to
establish this point, the language of the act
Of Congress by which the bonds were is
sued, is SO plain and explicit that any man
of ordinary intelligence, by reading said
act, must inevitably come to the conclusion
that, as long as greenbacks are a legal
tender in payment Of all debts, as specified
in said act, so long win these bonds be pay
able in greenbdcks. But I am depressing
from the main object which / had In view
when commenced this article.
AS our Republican friends, who contend
that these bonds are only payable in coin,
frequently and triumphantly ask us where
we are to get greenbacks enough to pay
too thousand millions of bonds, when we
have only about three hundred millions OF
greenbacks, / might answer this silly and
absurd question by asking them how we
are to pay the same amount of bonds with
t,oo hundred millions of gold, when this
amount of gold is annually decreasing at
the rate Of thirty or forty millions? Is it
easier to pay debt of one hundred dollars
with ten dollars in gold than with t,oenty dol
lars in green6acksP .5s. e1 3thTT".. :
q But there are better and more sensible
ways of answering all such questions.-
Allowing, for arguments sake, that we
have only three hundred millions of green
backs, and that Congress has no constitu-
tional right to issue any more which can
be applied to the payment of these bonds,
think it can be demonstrated to be very
easy matter to pay off all our five-twenties
with these. If it cannot be done with
this amount of greenbacks, it is certainly
self-evident that it Cannot be done with
one-haf the amount in gold. Suppose we
keep uplour yearly revenue receipts to four
hundred millions of dollars, and reduce our
expenditures exclusive of interest on
public debit to one hundred millions an
nually, which can easily be done by re-
ducing the army and navy to a peace foot
ing and practicing rigid economy in the
of every department of the
Government. This would leave US at least
one hundred and fifty millions OF dollars
in the first year to use toward the payment
of these bonds. AS all our revenue receipts
are in legal tender, National Bank bills and
coin, as matter of course all that we
pay out this year to cancel our bonds and
meet the necessary expenses of the Gov
ernment, will again flow back into the
treasury next year, in the form of taxes,
and be again ready to cancel another in
stallment of bonds, and SO these legal ten
ders will continually flow into our treasury
and be paid out again, until all these bonds
are paid. i's ~ . ''.-'''F 80 '7"'
But am not prepared to admit that the
three hundred millions of greenbacks we
have now, are all that can be made avail
able to pay these bonds, We ought at
once to abolish the National Banks and
substitute greenbacks for their issue. This
would give US three hundred millions more
of greenbacks, with which we can redeem
that amount of bonds and save the interest
on the same. And as we pay off the bonds
we can use the interest thus yearly saved
to pay off more of them. .,J -;
Suppose, again, that the present amount
of greenbacks is not sufficient to pay off
the bonds, upon what ground can an argu-
ment be based that we have no legal and
constitutional right to issue any more and
make them legal tender in payment of
these bonds? Has the Constitution been
changed in this respect since the first legal
tenders were issued? Iftne present green
backs ever were legal tender, they are so
now, and, If they are 80 now, there is no
reason why future Congress should not
have the power to issue more. .tT
1t is true, as Mr.. THOMPSON said from the
steps Of the Capitol the other evening, that
when these legal tenders were first issued,
the Democrats declared they were uneon-
Yet as our courts gener-
ally O throughout the country, - and
the Republican party in a body,
have declared the contrary, and COM
PEELED all men to receive them in pay
ment of all private debts, as well as the
public debts of our State and municipal au-
thorities. when those debts had been con-
tracted on gold basis, and in many cases
by specific contracts had been stipulated
to be paid in gold, Justice, reason and COM
mon sense demand that our fve-twenty
bonds, which were paid for in greenbacks,
when gold was at much higher premium
than it is now should be redeemed in green
backs. srf. r+r
But suppose we grant that the green
backs are not a legal tender, and never
have been, what would be the result !?
What would be the conclusion at which we
must inevitably arrive, if we accept this
theory? Are we prepared to admit that
all the debts which have been Maid in this