Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1868-06-17
Che ~. q. Chronicle.
From the Cincinnati Gazette.
Garfield on Money.

UT. UafnelQ maze speech IN Inc
House on the 18th, on the currency AN
abstract of which we have published.
The main proposition of the speech,
was the evils of paper money, particu-
larly of irredeemable paper money and
the end was a plan for cure of the
present situation by raising the paper
currency to par with specie. And be-
sides the general evils of the present
situation, the additional occasion for
this earnest enthusiastically prepared
effort, is thus stated:
II is my clear conviction that the most form
l9Aole danger with which the country is now
threatened Is = large increase in the volume of
paper money.
1t is strange that when there is near
ly four times as much paper money as
the country ever had with specie pay.
ment, and when the instability and un-
certainty of the value Of the currency
makes all kinds of contracts for future
payment hazardous, there should be
real danger that our legislators will
authorize the issue of more of these
irredeemable, repudiAted, legal-tender
notes? Nothing is strange or improba-
bic In paper money policies. They
who believe in facilitating business, and
increasing the general wealth, by
making paper money, have a mania
which neither reason nor experience
can touch. Every paper money bub-
ole In the world has burst; yet men 90
at work with the same confidence to
build another. Every paper money
infusion into the circulation gives out
signs of evil and failure from the start;
yet men always believe that this is
only due to some imperfection of de-
tail. and that all that is needed is to
perfect the plan; and a perfected
paper money plan is slwsys to issue
more.
The paper money party is like the
Cave of Adullsul, to which David fed |
from the enmity of Saul, where ''every
one that was in distress, and every one !
that was in debt, and every one that |
was discontented, gathered themselves |
unto him, and he became q captain |
over them" 1t gathers in the great |
army of debtors, who would scale their !
debts by debasing the money of pay
ment; the bankrupt, who want new
shuttle, and are ready for any desperate
venture; the spectators, who think to
realize by an advance in prices; the
gamblers in stocks, produce and mer.
chandise, who think to find their har-
vest in the fuctuating values that
always attend paper money issues /; the
spectators in real estate, who are
always looking for rise to realize their
end; the vast multitude of the igno-
rant, who think that what is called
"easy times" comes from paper money;
and, lastly, the shiftless vagabonds,
who are against honest payment, any
how.
Hence, The Adullamite party is al
ways a great one in this country. In
deed, faith in paper money is peculiar
American trait. 1t has perseVered in
the face of the repeated great disasters
which paper money has brought upon
the country, as well as the constant
of evils from the same cause,
between these great periodical crises.
Daniel Webster said the people suffer-
ed more losses by the Continental cur
'ency system than by the war OF the
revolution. He said also: In
From the close of the war to the time of the 1
adoption of this Constitution, as verify believe
ne people suffered as much. except in loss Of '
ne, from the disordered state Of the eurreney 9
nd the prostration Of commerce and business.
s they suffered during the war.
Paper money was the chief cause of '
,hay's rebellion in Massachusetts,. Mr..
fairfield says: 1t nearly threw the /
itstes into war with each other, before C
he forming of the Constitution. To t
rohibit the issue of paper money was t
ne of rhe chief objects of the National l
-nion. As strongly as words could, g
be Constitution for6adeit. In periods Q
ating about 1919, 1887 and 1857, there C
ere pap Er money crises by which the b
oun:ry suffered much greater losses v
nan it would if it had. during those is
ltervals, raised by taxation an amount K
quail to a ii the paper money issue, and s.
INK it in the sea-" q
And yet; we cling to the delusion Of u
aper MOI ley, and, like the continual b
of confding persons from Il
le rural districts, who trust their fl
loney to the patent-safe game, in the is
cs of the continual publication of q
ie victims in the city papers, we 90 e
TO anoth er paper money scheme, Just W
confidin gly as before, and we always v
elieve tn lt this time we have got the al
ling peri ected so that ali that is need A
| is to issue more. And now, TO the al
,nfiding masses, and 20 the rest Of the Is
dullamite party, are added the politr- q
i gamblers, they, who. like their b
flther, Satan, have nothing al
their own 10 give, and are obnoxious Ii
fame, but who offer people a world Ii
paper money if they only elect them ii
office; who promise general Eiping d.
1t of debts by the issue of greenbacks; sa
Id who, like Jack Cade, declsre that q,
hen they cUme TO resign, there shall "
, such good times as were never seen
sfore, and that the pint bear pot shall of
Did three pints, and the yard stick vi
lall be stretched, and men shall have at
oney without work. and The green eT
lex mill shall grind till every poor th
an shall have at least $500 in his Gu
the Enquirer says is the of
ght average. pa
uprising acrobatic spectacle of Mr. II
Gorge Pendleton mounted on a great 81
eenback, as big as as a window blind, tn
iUed from the Enquirer Office as a pc
mple of the kind he viii emit, and da
reering over the country, CHASTITY ch
tn green, like the sulphurous flame, bill
the candidate who is to bring in the tn
eenback millennium; Pendleton who, in
len the public credit was prostrated au
the rebel war, and the Government tic
financial distress, and when men Vi
ought there was no resource for the ira
blic defense save to issue legal tend col
notes, opposed the resort, denounced lio
cir issue as unconstitutional, and ito
lde this declaration of the inevitable wi
in they would work: tht
'ou send those notes out into the world raj
mped with irrsdeemsbility. You put on mC
m the mark Of Cain. and. like Cain. they will ;;
i3rth e be y5Sabqng,s, and tugitlyes on the
requires no prophet to tell what will be their diC
tory. The currency will be expanded; prices -
be inflated fixed values will deprec:ate arr
ONES will be diminished; the savings of the thi
II will vanish the hoardings of the widow -;
melt away bonds. mortgages, and notes sol
rything Of liked value. will lose their value; In
rythinR Of changeable value will be appre- -
ted the necessaries of life will rise in value eol
Contraction will follow Pri- VIII
Q ruin and public bankruptcy, either with or hes
hout REPuDIATIoS, will inevitably follow. -
Political consistency was never 80
mocrstic party virtue; but yet it is eU1 an
title remarkable that man should -,
dertake to make himself Presiden. on on
candidate by putting on his own No,
ehead that which he himself de. Tb IT,
ibed as the mark of Cain. OF such
the latest accessions to the none -
y Cave of Adullam. And then we -, -
re some politicians Cn the other side, -, ~
n think that the xvap 20 dram +bo Pus