Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-04-06

according to law. Now that ne mas gorgeo
himself full to the throat with our bonds,
bought with paper, you return to specie
payment in order to render certain their
payment in gold. He is full; you keep
him full. We are empty; you keep US
empty. He is fat; you feed him more.
We are lean; you strip us of our little
remaining flesh. " Such viii be the correct
reasoning of the people on the resump-
ton of specie payment before pro-
vision is made to pay the five
twenty bonds according to law. Its force
will be enhanced thousand fold by the
condition in which this Illegal policy will
place them. Specie payment means the
strong contraction of the circulating me-
dium-it means the withdrawal of all the
currency in excess of a gold basis from
the trade, and traffic, and business wants
of the country-it means less money in
the hands of the farmer, the mechanic,
and, consequently, the merchant of the
medium towns and villages of the West
1t means low prices for everything the
producer has to sell; fifty cents bushel
for wheat; twenty cents for corn; and
pork, and beef, and hay, and oats in pro-
portion. There will be no corresponding
reduction in the expenses of the people.
The tariff will protect the manufacturer
In high prices in the sale of all the nee
cessaries of life. The tariff tax on wool
ems, co!tons, linens, iron, steel, sugar,
coffee, tea, salt and coal will remain una
bated for the consumer to pay. And
above all, the debt with its vast demands,
will be undiminished. An annual stream
of over hundred millions year in gold
viii sap like a canker, the energies of in
dustry. Specie payment for the bondhold-
er, whose bonds are legally payable by
issues of legal tender, is well-spring of
| Joy. For the people it is depression and
pinching poverty. For him it is two
fold gain and the bright fulfllment of all
his dazzling desires and hopes For them
it is the decrease of all their means with
which to pay, and no decrease of the
amount that is assessed by the Govern
ment and their own wants upon their Ia
Dor and their earnings. 1t solidifies and
consolidates the debt, in the hands Of the
money changers, into mass of shining
| gold, there TO remain as a multiplied and
multiplying treasure forever. 1t cuts off
its lawful payment, exiinguIshes the hopes
! of the people to be free from its burdens,
and leaves them barren of money with
which TO meet their taxes, feed, clothe and
educate their families, and carry on the
every day duties of life, 1t insures a
| double process of iniquity. To the mil
liOnaire it gives boundless treasures more,
and from the poor man it takes away that
which he already hath. The creditor
class, who receive all the money, will
hail its advent with songs of praise. The
debtor class, who have all the money
TO pay, will mourn and weep in ruin at
its coming. The bondholder who sits st
the receipt of custom and gathers in from
every dusty, tired, sweating form that
passes by, will shout hosannahs to the
glad day. The ploughman, the reaper,
and all those whose handicraft fill
our shops, with mechanism, will groan
beneath their Burdens and clank the chains
of a hopeless servitude. ] am in favor of
gold and silver as a legal tender of the
country, but not until we have paid the
debt we owe the bondholder according to
the law. l am in favor of it when its
benefits will flow alike to ell ] am not
in favor of it wheni it will only still further
feed and bloat a baleful and accursed
monopoly, and still further harrass, plum
der, impoverish, and distress the firesides
of laboring mssses-still further pinch,
grind and tax the h6aFthstone of the sol
der, his widow, and his orphan, for the |
benefit of the vulUures and cOrmorants
who inhabit the high places of the land. |
Every dollar of gold now in existence in
the United States does not exceed two
hundred and fifty millions. There are
forty millions of people for this to sup
ply. If distributed fairly among all, it
would yield six dollars and q quarter to
each and no more. If made the basis for
banking it will do but little better. But
the bOndhOlder draws into his Golfers
alone one hundred and twenty millions a
year. How much of circulating medi-
UNI will the remainder, in any shape that
it can be used, afford our Immense and
rapidly swelling population 2
THE ARGUMENT AGAINST IRREDERMABLE
PAPER MONEY CONSIDERED.
ain INST, however, at this point by the
argument against iTTcdeemaDle paper mo-
ney. No such argument lies in the mouth
of the bondholder's party. He pFOelaiRs
everywhere, in the legislative councils and
in the highways, that the people can re-
deem the bonds in gold The Republican
platform of Indiana, as construed by its
endorsementof the present administration,
SAYS it must be done, and done GhGerfully.
Can the people not redeem the saIhe
amount of legal tender notes with which
the bonds have been paid off and cancel
| led quite as well? CaC they not do it
much easier, because in the meantime they
are not annually drained by the payment
of one hundred and twenty millions of
! interest in gold, and they would thus have
| a chance to recruit their own oppressed
resources? This wasting fountain OF in
terest would at once wholly cease to flow.
The legal lander notes bear none. The
people would haye them in their own
poe cts. The debt woRld MOI ORly cease
| to be interest bearing, but it would be
owing by the people to people themselves,
into whose hands this currency would at
once finditsway. And when they provided
| for its redemption the masses would
he the holders of the national obligations
instead of tie privileged and pampered
few who now possess theEa. The debt
| would be transferred. As currency X
issued from time TO time during the next
| fifteen years, according to the law and
| according to the wants of the country,
and With each issue portion of the bonds
paid. the people would gradually cease to
owe the bOndhOldeF, aild al the ED OF
that time they would simply owe them
selves the amount of the circulating me-
dunn then in their hands. And who will
say that in the meantime that the people
are not as capable of making provision
for the redemption of non-interest bear
ing debt which would be payable to them
selves, as they are of meeting the eZtor.
tomato demands of the same amount of
debt which has doubled its just proper
| tioas and draws six per cent interest in
gold on its whole face, the fraudulent as
well as the real, in favor of ? small class
who pay no taxes to assist il the general
distress?
The advocate of avariee and monopoly
announces in the same breath that the
people can and shall redeem the bonds,
dollar for dollar, in gold, but the same
amount of legal tender notes used to
pay these bonds, would be irredeemable
The bG-e statement of this position re-
veals it in ali is force, as low anc
mean evasion in behalf of sordiG RICHES, ant
, against the rights of the taxpayer. 1t IL
the last resort of selfish capital in its con
> test with oppressed labor. 1t is the final,
{ | miserable and shallow excuse for the non
: fulfllment or that law, and the non
. enforcement of that coatract which thu
J | whole world knows to exist between II
= n -..-e.,,,o,,. a,,l tho holders of itS bOnde