The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-08-19
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.
Editorial Opinions of the Lending Journals
Upon Current Topics Compiled Every
Day for the Evening Telegraph.
MIR. PENDLEToN AND HARD MONEY.

MIR. PENDLETON AND HARD MONEY.
From the NJ Y. World.
The New York World OF August has siX-and-a-
half column article to show that the Democratic
party is 'thc only party pledged to restore specie
payments Has the World ever heard Of one George
II. PendlctOn Democratic politician OF local rcpu-
taton in Ohio?-trom the Columbus (Ohio) journal
Yes. George II. Pendletou is Democrat
of deserved national reputation Nor is this
all we know about him. lie has been nomi-
mated by the Democrats of Ohio to be their
Governor and it is more than probable that
he will be elected. Furthermore this same
George II. Pendleton was a member of the
Thirty fifth, Thirty-sixth, Thirty-seventh
and Thirty-eighth Congresses. and in Jan
nary of the year of our Lord 1862 opposed
with marked ability and perfect steadfastness,
from its first introduction to its final passage
the utterly unconstitutional Treasury-note
BILL or Legal-tender act with which Radical
Legislators cursed the country, prolonged the
war, and now perpetuate and multiply the
peoples sufferings.
Mr.. Pendleton denounced the bill for the
unprecedented, unconstitutional, and out
rageous usurpation that it was and is, for the
laundering and contract-destroying thing that
1t was and is, and has been proved to be. He
showed that such a lawhad neverbeen passed,
never voted on, never proposed, never in
troduced never recommended by any depart
ment of the Government never seriously
entertained in debate in either branch of
Congress.
He forecast and portrayed the confusion that
the Legal-tender act would bring upon the
business of the country, impairing the obliga-
tion of contracts, unsettling values, and pro-
longing the war; and so keen was his sense
of all these calamities, which are now of our
history or of our present experience, that he
used such language in his speech of January
30 as this:-
81 believe that this Government has reached
the evils of secession by its great bowers and RE
sources may be able to defend itself against those
in arms against it; but firmly believe it cannot
maintain itself against the shock of the accumulated
ana manifold dangers which follow inevitably
closely in the wake Of an Illegal unsound, and de-
precated Government paper currency
Mr.. Pendleton recited the history of the
paper money of the Confederation and the
calamities it wrought-the history of the Con-
stitutional Convention and the debate therein.
which resulted in the denial to Congress of
the power to make paper money legal
tender. He repeated the emphatic language
of Webster and indorsed it, saying:-
Congress can alone coin money. Congress can
alone fix the value of foreign coin. No State can
coin money. No state can fix the value
of foreign coin. No State, not even Congress
itself, can make anythinga tender but gold
and silver, in payment OF debts Gold and silver, at
dard OF value in this country; neither Congress nor
any State has authority to establish any other stan
dard or to displace this
He repeated and endorsed the emphatic
language of Calhoun to the same effect. Nor
was this all He then showed that. as the
price of bonds in the money markets then
was the legal-tenders would operate a practi-
cal confscation:-
"What are these bonds worth to-day? The quo
tations of last week were never higher than ninety
cents Yet you propose to send out these notes
legal tender stamped as they are here to-day, at
value of ninety cents in the dollar. You compel
every to whom $1,000 due to take in satisfac
ton Of his claim that which is only worth 5000. You
COnhsCate, wCkedly and unnecessarily, one-tenth-
even at the present rate-Of all the Indebtedness of
the country. Sir, it is a monstrous proposition
which hope will not be tolerated by this House."
The decision of the Supreme Court has
ameliorated some of the evils here portrayed
as to debts incurred before the passage of the
bill, but the sentence shows that their in
evitable depreciation and their essentially
vicious character were equally clear to his
mind.
Mr. Pendleton went further. He denied
the power of the Government to emit the
currency notes, whether they were made
legal-tender on not. He cited the clause of the
Constitution expressly withholding from Con-
gress the power to ''emit bills of credit He
cited the decision of Chief-Justice Marshall
defining 'bills of credit as ''paper medium
intended to circulate between individuals,
and between Government and individuals, for
the ordinary purposes of society '-distin-
guished, of course, from mere notes issued
as evidence of Indebtedness
Having disposed thus of the lawlessness of
the Legal-tender act, Mr.. Pendleton went on
to portray its consummate folly as a measure
of finance or political economy. Said he
''There is no time when the faith of the Govern
ment is pledged to their payment The wit of man
has never discovered means by which paper cur
rency be kept at par value except by its speedy
cheap, certain conVertblilty mto gold ana SILVER.
Unless convertible they have always deprecated,
they always will depreclate they ought to depreciae,
because they are only valuable the representa-
tives Of gold and silver. You send these notes
ability. YOu put on them the mark OF
Cain, and, like Cain, they will 90 forth to
be vagabonds ana lugitiyes upon the earth.
What, then, will be the consequence? The
currency will be expanded; prices will be inflated
fixed values will depreClate; incomes will be dimn-
ished the savings OF the poor will Yanish the hoard
lngs OF the widow VIII melt away; bonds, mort
cages and notes, everything OF fixed value will lose
their value; everything OF changeable Yalue Will be
appreciated the necessarles OF life Will rise in value
the Government will pay twO-fod-certainly largely
more than 1t ought-lOr everything that 1t goes into
the market to buy; gold and silver Will be driven
out OF the country. WHAT then? The day OF reck.
oning must come. Contraction will follow. Private
ruin and public bankruptcy either with or without
reputation, Will inevitably follow"
And then, as if his own eloquence upon the
matter was not enough, he read to the ears
that refused to hear the weighty words OF
Webster in that noble and well-known passage
where he denounces what we are experiencing
"a disordered currency-as one Of the great
est of political evils
"Of all contrivances for cheating the labOrin,
classes of mankind, none has been more efectua
than that which deuded them with paper money
Ordinary tyranny, oppression, excessive taxation
they bear lightly on the happiness OF the mass OF tn
community compared with fraudulent currence
and the robberes committed by deprecated paper.
NJ. d., 11oto, o1,ga1 biC C,,aanb with tni