The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1869-02-11
SENATOR GHERMAN'S SPEECH
On the Financial Question.
Delivered I'm the Senate of the
United States, January
E 81, 1860.

Mr.. Sherman commenced by stating
that he appealed to no party to sup.
port this measure, yet all must recog
J nize the difficulty of harmOnizing the
great diYersities of opinion that exist
on financial measures, except by par.
tial surrender of individual opinion
and something like party support oi
any measure that may be agreed upon
| He then proceeded to state the amount
and character of our paper currency, as
follows: -.
United States Notes. OBJ, ,O75
! National Bank NOtes............. 299, ,966, ,56G
Three per cent. Certifcates.... 55,865, ZOO
/ Fractional urrency............... 34,2I5,71t
In .s745, ,9O8, 1855
All this currency is, by law, at par.
| Yet one dollar of it has only. the pur.
chase power of seyenty-fOur cents in
gold. It seemed to him we must be-
gin with abandoning the attempt to
reason from false standard, and rec
Ognize the immutable law Of currency
THAT there is but one par, and that is
gold. He elaborated this idea at
some length, citing in support thereof
the act of the Bank of England, and
of the British Parliament relative
/ thereto, and events in the history of
our country during the revolution and
the war of 1912. A distinction be-
tween the standard of value and the
actual agent Of exchange must always
be kept in view. One must be in gold
and the other ought to be paper mon
ey, convertible into golds Such paper
currency, with proper measures, to
meet panics or extreme drains of
specie, is proven by all experience to
be the best possible currency that has
yet been devised by man. An un-
mixed coin currency can not exist in
a commercial country, for necessity
will compel merchants to devise,' and
! the people will use some representa-
tive of money, whether it be bankers
bills of exchange, certificates of de-
post, or banky or government paper
money, and one binding, unrelaxing
rule that cOmpels payment in coin at
all times during panics, distress or
war, as well as peace, viii periodically
produce disaster and bankruptcy. The
requisites Of a good currency are:
1. That it is to be a paper currency.
2. That it be amply secured, either
by the credit of nation or by uuques-
toned collatera1s.
3. That, except in cases of panic, it
be convertible into coin.
4. That provisions be made for a
suspension of the right to demand
coin during such panics, and the only
legislative questions that can arise on
these points are wheth the paper
money should be issUed by the nation
or by cOrpOratOr5, and what relief
shall be provided in case of a necessary
su pension Of specie payment.
As TO the first question, both Eng
land and the United States have set
! tied upon bank currency secured by
the public credit. AS to the second,
they have tried various devices, as the
raising of the rate of interest, a tenn
pOrary suspension of specie payments,
making the paper legal tender; but
all these eXpedients are m rely tenn
porarily to bridge over a war or g
panic, period of starvation, or an un-
natural adverse balance of trade.
They are remedies in sickness, to be
discarded the moment that health
comes again. Whatever theorists
may suggest; however sugar-coated
the remedy may be, there is but one
st of a healthy pare currency, and
that is its cOnverlibility into gold coin.
If, then, gold only is the true stand
ard, why shall we not commence our
financial measures by restoring it to
its place as a legal standard of money?
Why not allow our citizens to base
their future contracts on gold? Why
not enforce these contracts in the
courts as legal and valid? There are
difficulties in applying a new stand
ard to existing contracts made upon a
different standard, but this difficulty
does not apply to future contracts.
We wish to restore specie payments,
and yet we forbid all men from deal
ing in specie. Such contracts are put
upon the same legal footing as gam
ing contracts. It would seem that if
we are at all sincere in wishing specie
payment, that we should not only pro-
mote specie contracts, but should en-
! courage them. Contracts to a vast
amount are now from necessity made
upon the gold basis. All our foreign
commerce, exports and imports,
amounting annually to over. eight
! hundred millions of dollars, are based
upon gold. The price of all public
securities is fixed by the gold standard
in London and Frankfort. The sale
of imported goods by the importer to
the jobbers is by the gold standard.
The daily transactions of gold in New
York often amount to 100000, 900.
On the Pacific slope gold is the only
standard of value. We can not alter
this if we would. Why not recognize
the fact, legalize these contracts, and
conform our measures to the general
adjustment Of existing contracts, in
Guiding paper money, to the standard
of gold? And, sir, let me also recog-
nize the general principle that it is no
wiser and no more in accordance with
the spirit of our Government to leave
this adjustment to the voluntary con-
tracts of the people rather than under
take it by the arbitrary rules of law,
four people are not free. They can
do this without injury to the debtor or
creditor, without cOnfscation of prop
erty, and without any change in the
intrinsic value of property. For these
] reasons the Committee of Finance re-
gard the first section of this bill, which
legalizes gold contracts, as an indis-
pensable preliminary to any plan for
appreciating our currency to gold.
Where contracts are authorized in
gold, all the provisions of the munic-
ipal law, which protect contracts from
fraud, usury or coercion, apply to
them as well as TO contracts in curren-
cy, 1t is only by restoring gold con