The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1869-01-30

pire be lost 2 Shall France overrun oil
Europe and threaten Great Britain in the |
East, or shall the currency OF the empire be
the inconversible note Of the Bank Of Eng |
land? He chose the latter. How wisely
the success u England and the allied armies.
eliminating at Waterloo, attest. At incon- |
vertlble curr .ncy fought the battles Of Eng
| nd, and of the world from that Sunday
morning, the 2Sd OF February, 1877, when
the King himself in council ordered the
suspension of specie payments, till the 18th
Of June, 1915.
Irredeemable paper laid the foundation Of
Englsnd's manufacturing and commercial
prosperity, supplied her navy which, at
Trafalgar, made her .ne mistress Of the
seas, and procured the gold with which ali
the armies OF Europe were paid, andp for
eighteen years there was neither financial
rsvulsion, business panic, or distress. IL
answer to the election that it IL necessary
TO have gold currency for foreign trade
quote Maclaren, one of the most philoso-
4 phical az well as accurate writers Of Eng
land, IN his history of the currency;
/ at IL remarkable that no difficulty was expe
rieDced by our merchants, "a carrying on their
trade with other nations during this PERIOD
though they no longer had stock OF bullion
/ KEEP. for them at the bank by means Of which
/ they might adjust their foreign payments No
incor' enience, indeed, of any kind was felt
/ from the substitution Of paper for gold, and, It
the bank directors had 50 ordered their issues
as to keep the mint and market price Of gold
on an equality il seems that no objection could
have been urged against the paper currency,
except its liability to forgery, and We should
never have heard of the currency controversy
| We remember our own war Of the rebel
ion, without the legal tender note, must
have come to an end in the beginning Of
| l s62; the banks had suspended, and, like
broken reeds, the government could no long
CT lean upon them business was parayzed,
men and supplies could hardly be obtained,
the armies were unpaid, and no decisive
battle had been fought when congress pass
ed the legal tender act Of 1862 From that
time business received q new impulse, labor
was employed, manufactures everywhere
/ sprung up, supplies were abundant, and
although by q great error the legal tender
note was not made the money of the gov
ernment for all purposes, as it should have
been, yet, crippled as it was, 1t supplied
and paved our soldiers, pens med the
wounded, provided for the widow aud or
phan, and produced a decree Of prosperity
Heretofore unknown, which has been main
tanned ever since, and during this period OF
SIX years financial panics AID disasters were
unknown and unthought OF until the Insane
attempt Of the banker and capitalist to force
a return 70 specie payments by contraction
OF the currency.
During the year 1854 we xoorted more
than one hundred mil ions Of gold and sill
yer, only $35 900 900 of which came from
/ IA nd Lua a.
from any effect it had on the busn IS % the
country. In any ether year, whde our cur
rency was upon a specie basis, the exPor.
Of one tenth part OF that sum bcTor our
production wouli lave produced financial
panles, rum, and distress greater than that
" 1887 when our total export Of specie was
less than six million dollars.
Point me to any other SIX years in the
financial history Of the country 10 which
libor has been 50 we'll paid IN which pro-
duction has been so varied and successful .
in which there have not been more than one
! financial panic scattering ruin and disaster
through TIE land. We have heard much OF
the patriotism of the bankers and capitalists
VINO are said to have come forward to lend
their gold to the country in Us time of ut
lost need, but that is exactly what they
did not do.
10 December, 1881, the BANKS suspended
specie payments without right, without
authority OF !as, in violation OF their own
plighted faith and promises, 50 that neither
;se government nor Any one else could get
a dollar OF their gold from heir vaults
: When, in pursuance Of the act Of congress
Of the zotn Ct February, 1852, $l50,000,000
Of legal tender notes were issued, with
which our soldiers were paid and the debts
1 Of the United States esnceied, did the Oanks
or capitalists lean these TO toe government
or did we make them for Ourselvesg On
4 the contrary, the banks refused even to re-
4 ceige the government notes on deposit
When the Cover lment wanted more money
to ply the soldier end carry Or the war, did
4 they get it from the banker and capitalstf
] Mo- they issued their own legal-t. nder
notes as money and paid their debts Hav-
ing provided that THESE notes might b. fun
I ded into a gold-bearing six pr cent. bold,
/ the capitalists bought them up when they
4 fell to a discount Of sixty per cent, by sell
J ing the gold at that premium which they
! had hosrded in their vaults and had refused
/ 70 loan to the government, and funded this,
+ which they now call failed paper. in bonds
I Tor the payment Of which in gold, or, what
! Is equivalent, return 20 specie payments,
they now howl at tine doors o. the capitol,
unmindiul Of the destruction Of value, the
I starving OF the laborer, and the run and de-
vastation they may cause.
Although this return to specie payment
has been sgItated ever since the war what
| petition has ONE up TO you from the peo-
/ pie demanding it at your handsg what
meetings Of the people have been held to
make TO you petitions for relief from griev-
ances in this behalf Not one; not one.
/ Only resolutions of boards of trace and
I bankers.
I stand here, therefore, for inconveriible
paper money, the greenback, which has
fought our battles and saved our country,
which has been held BY us as just equiva
| lent for the blood of our soldiers, the lives
Of our sons, the widowhOod of our daught-
ers, aud the orphanage Of their children:
| stand here for currency by which the
business transactions Of forty million peo-
pie are safely and successfully done, which,
founded on the faith, the wealth, and prop
| erty Of the nation, - at once the exempiar
| and engine Of its industry and power-tnat
money which saved the country in war and
has gwen it prosperity and happiness in
peace To IL four million men owe their
smancp .tIon from slavery; 10 it labor is
Indebted for elevation from that thrsll OF
degradation in which Il has been enveoped
fos ages | stand for that money, there
fore, which is by far the best agent and III
strument Of exchange of an enlightened
and free people tina gold and silver, the