The Portland daily press., 1869-09-24
seaator SIMMER sn Rcpudiatien.


it, has been read before take our advice and
read it again. We regret that we cannot
publish the speech in full.
1t is the great Senator's greatest eiiort' anu
is worthy to be kept in type IKE s'a'iuins
advertisement. until the American people
learn if Inv heart. If anything could add TO
Mr.. Summers reputation as prac1lcai States
man and orator this speech Will do II. IL Is
nlain terse and practical, full OF common
sense. appealing to the loftiest sentiments OF
natriotism and the commonest principles of
honesty. The great, honest heart of the peo-
pie will beat responsively to his noble utter.
ances, and the good results of his timely APP.
peal for the national credit and honor, will
not be confined to the State in which it was
uttered. In every household in the land,
where the inmates believe that righteous
ness exateth nation and indeed wherever
uprightness, integrity and fair dealing are i'll
culcated and practiced, there will MIR. Sum
ner's speech be hailed as containing a correct
statement of the only method by which this
country can preserve its fair name and fame
be tarnished, and secure the permanent hap
pness and prosperity of its people:
REPUTATION is CoNFIscATIoN.
Reputation means confiscation, and, in the
present case, confiscation CT the property of
loyal citizens. With unparalleled generosity
the nation has refused to confiscate rebel
property; and now it is is proposed to coniis-
cate loyal property. When 1 expose repudia-
ton as confscation, L mean to be precise.
Between two enactments, one requiring the
surrender of property without compensation,
and the other declaring that the nation shall
not and will not pay an equal amount due &C
cording to solemn promise, there can be no
Just distinction. The two are alike. The
former might alarm a greater number, be-
cause on its face more demonstrative. But
anayze the two, and you will see that in
each private property is taken by the nation
without compensation and appropriated to its
own use. Therefore do say reputation is
confiscation.
PAYMENTS IN GREENBACKs.
A favorite device of reputation is to pay
the national debt in greenbacks,- in other
words to pay bonds bearing interest with mere
promises not bearing interest, violating in the
first place, rule of honesty, which forbids
such trick, and, in the second place, rule
of law, which refuses to recognize an inferior
obligation as payment Of arsuperior. Here is in
plain terms reputation ofthe interest and in
definite postponement of the principal. This
proposition, when first preached, contempla-
ted nothinglessthan an infinite issue of green
backs flooding the country, as France was
flooded Hby assignats, and utterly destroyed
values Of all kinds. Although in its present
more moderate form it is limited to payment
by existing greenbacks, yet it has the same
radical injustice. Interest-bearlng bonds are
to be paid with non-interest bearing bits of
paper. The statement of the case is enough.
Its proposer would never do this thing in his
own affairs, but how can he ask his country
to do what honesty forbids in private life?
TAXATION OF BONDS.
Another device is to tax the bonds when
the money was lent on the positive condition
that the bonds should not be taxed. This, of
course is to break the contract in another
way. 1t is reputation in another form.
To argue these questions is happily unnec-
essary, and 1 allude to them only because l
wish to exhibit the loss to the country from
such attempts. This can be made plain as a
church-door. And here must ask attention
to details.
EXTRA INTEREST CAUSED BY scHEMEs OF
REPUDIATIoN.------
The total debt of our country on the LIST of
September aside from the sixty millions OF
bonds issued to the Pacific Railway, was ST.
Ats, O62 sol and here I mention with great
satisfaction, that since the 1st of March last,
the debt has been reduced $40,500O00. The
surplus revenue now accruing is not less than
S1O0,O00,OO0 year, and will be, probably, not
less than $125,000,00O year, Of which large
sum not less thanS75, 100000 must be attribu-
ted to the better enforcement of the laws and
the economy prevailing in all departments
An
as is our surplus revenue, it should have been
more, and would have been more bnt for the
liquidation menaced by the Democracy
This can be shown easily.
II we look at our bonded debt, we find it is
now 50, 107 1886, 300, upon which we pay not
less than $124O00,O0O in annual interest, the
larger part at six per cent, the smaller at five
per cent gold. The difference between this
interest and that paid by other powers is the
measure of our annual loss. English three
per cents, and French fours are firm in the
market, but England and France have not
the same immeasurable resources that are
ours; nor is either so secure in its govern
ment. 1t is easy to see that our debt could
have been funded without paying more than
four per cent, but for the doubt cast upon our
credit by the dishonest schemes of repudia-
tors. payment in greenbacks" and "taxa-
ton of bonds" are costly cries. Without these
there would have been $40,000O00 to swell
our surplus revenue. But this sum, if invest
ed in a sinking fund at four per cent interest,
would pay the whole bonded debt in less than
thirty years. Such is our annual loss.
The sum total of thisi loss directly charge
able upon the regulators is more than one
hundred millions, already paid in taxes; and
much l fear, fellow citizens, that before the
nation can recover from the discredit infict-
ed upon it, another hundred millions will be
paid in the same way. 1t is hard to see this
immense treasure, wrung by taxation from
the toll of the people, to pay these schemes of
a dishonest democracy. Do not forget that
the cost of this experiment is confined to no
particular class. Wherever the tax gatherer
goes there it is paid.
Every workman pays it in his food and
clothing; every mechanic and artisan in his
tools; every housewife in her cooking stove
and fiat-iron; every merchant in the stamp
upon his note; every man OF salary in the in
come tax; aye, even every laborer in his
wood, his coal, his potatoes, and his salt
Many of these taxes imposed under duress Of
war will be removed soon, 1 trust; but still
the enormous sum of forty millions annually
must be contributed by the labor of the coun-
try until the world is convinced that, in spite
of Democratic menace, the Republic will
maintain its plighted faith to the end.
People wish to reduce taxation. tell you
how. Be honest. Let no doubt resi- upon the
public faith. Ehen will the present burden
some taxation grow 'small by degrees and
beautifully less" 1t is the doubt which costs.
1t is with our country, as with an individual
the doubt obliges the payment of ertra Inter-
est. To stop that extra interest we must keep
faith.
ABSURDITY AND AGGRAVATION.
As we look at the origin of the ereenback
we shall find new motive for fidelity. I do
not speak of that patriotic character which
commsnds the national debt; but of the finan-
cial principle on which the greenback was
first issued. 1t came from the overruling ex-
igencies Of selfdefence. The national exist
ence defended upon movey.-which could be
had only through a forced loan. The green
back was the agency by which it was collect
ed. The disloyal party resisted the passsge of
the dlsloyal act, prophesying danger and diff
Guilty. But the safety of the nation required
the risk and the Republican party assumed it.
And now this same disloyal party, once
against the greenback, insist upon continuing
in peace what was justified only in wsn--;::sss.
sist upon forced loan. when ne overrulinp
exigencies-of. 'seff-defence have all ceased, and
, .tue nation is saved. To such absurdity is this
party now driven.
The case is aggravated when we consider
the boundless resources OF the country
through which in short time even this great
debt will be lghtened, if the praters of repudi.
alton are silenced. Peace, financially as well
as politically, is needed Let us have peace
Nowhere will it be felt more than at the
South, which is awakening to consciousness
of resources unknown while slavery ruled.
With these considerable additions to the ma
tional capital five years cannot pass without a
sensible diminution of our burdens. A rate