The States and Union. [volume] (Ashland, Ohio) 1868-1872, 1869-02-03
AND OHIO WEDNESDAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 5 1863:

J United States. This loan, now pays
! Bile amounts in the aggregate to, th,
! sum of $500, COO, 900. If we ole
npu 70 pay the creditor interest at tn,
/. rate of SIX per cent. on these bond,
up 70 the first day Of May, 1859, am
to then pay him in the funds Rbicl
we received of him, and undertook t
pay him, or in some other security
which he viii prefer. We do him am.
pie Justice; bur If We give him IN nd,
vantage beyond this, We are generou.
to hin, but unjust to the people vhe
are The debtor.
We are not bound n faith ar NOR.
DIS TO make the fund which We pay q
the creditor for his principal-be it
what it may, gold or legal-tender
no es-worth more at the time of pay
ment than it was worth when it was
borrowed This appears to me strict
Ily just-the view which q righteous
arbitrator or judge would take of the
subject if submitted to him for decis-
ion and it were better for the credi-
tor than an exuberant generosity
which would promise him more than
he is entitled to, when the debtor is
but just able to comply with his actu-
al contract, fairly interpreted Look
ed at in this point ofview, names are
nothing. If you borrow piece of
coin called dollar, having in it one
hundred cents worth of pure metal,
and by virtue of your sovereign power
SO debase your coin that the dollar
contains but seventy-fve cents worth,
it is reputation, or its equivalent act
of injus ice. IF you, in behalf of the
Nation, borrow coin having in it but
seventy-fve cents worth of pure met
al and call it dollar, and afterward
improve your coin and put in it one
hundred cents worth Of pure metal
to make the dollar, and pay this inn
proved dollar to discharge the loan or
the baser coin, it IN generosity to the
lender and injustice to the nation-it
is taking from the taxpayer without
reason and giving to the capitalist
without consideration The same 10
the case whether the fund loaned and
borrowed be adulterated coin or de-
pTeCldtGQ CURRENCY
Having found the true measure Of
justice you may safely do it, without
tear of being chargeable with undue
partiality to the paying over the re-
ceiving class. They are all alike your
constituents. You are the representa-
tivss, and may safely make yourselves
the impartial representatives Of all.
A distinction may be suggested az to
the foreign creditor, but if you do
jastiee to the domestic, you do jusr
tice also to the foreign creditor; and
personally, your two bodies have much
more than your due proportion of
creditors, as compared with the out
side, masses of community, who are
producers and tax payers ; so that
your members, as a body, are per-
sonally interested on the side of bond
holders, rather than the taxpayers,
aud when it comes to the question OF
the sudden or hasty resumption of
specie payment, you may meet it with
q conclusive, an, overwhelming argu-
ment, in proof of your disinterested-
ness. You have not only large pro-
portion of creditors than debtors in |
ysur two bodies, but your salaries |
viii be to each worth $1,700 q year
more in gold than it is now worth,
while paid in legal-tendsr currency. |
It is clear that as individuals and
asa party you are safe in doing sim
pie Justice. The question, then, at /
once arises: What can you do, and
what ought you to do, at once, to
Tighten. the enormous burdens resting
ensShe productive industry-the labor
of the country?
We are paying now an excessive
interest; such as no nation worthy OF
credit ever yet paid for long period
of time-such as no nation can long
continue to pay, and enjoy credit at
home or abroad; and we must con-
tinue to pay it until our bonds be paid
or funded on reasonable terms.
There is some talk of borrowing to
pay. our debt We can not borrow
with this enormous load of annual IN
teeest upon Us, except on terms OF
likeextravagance. We may, perhaps,
buy our six per cent. 5-2U's with
bonds at q fraction less interest, hav-
ingsa longer term to run, and with
principal and interest expressly paya-
bic in gold but this would not much
relieve our burdens or at ali remove
the doubt which hangs over our abili-
y, and which depresses our securities
in foreign markets
1t il thought by many advisable to
hasten by Legislative action the re-
of specie payments--that is
10 say, the restoration Of specie cur
rsncy, and making gold and silver the
,nly legal-tender in payment of debts.
Those who propose this have not, it
seems to me, well considered it. A.
general provision of the kind would
be productive of much hardship and
Injustice to the debtor class of our
.ommunity-the class made up of our
active young business men, merchants
shippers, m short, the
elass--thoss who combine
heir own personal energies with bor-
,owed capital, and build up gradually
IN indspsndence for themse'ves, while
hey give prosperity to rths country.
Vow, If We resume specie payments At
,nce, and make gold and silver the
,uiy legal-tendsr, we ruin this whole
.lsss Of business men At onee, and
lrive them to bankruptcy. If THAR
isbts now amount to ak thousand
pillions--repeal the legal-tendsr act,
n othsrwise force m immediate re-
of specie currency, you add,