Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-04-05

4 eOi has uellDcidtelf, WIN tAh Ahfot IAoliOi
before him, sought TO delude and impos
upon the people of Indiana, he shall no
be allowed to pass either, until he /, i
made 10 stand before you exposed anC
condemned Did he not well know tina
the 81, $50, 55S, 500 embraced not merely
the bonus paid to the 5ond-holder in th,
original purchase and the interest ALREADY
paid thereon, but that il also embraced III,
annual accruing interest which is yet e
fall due, and which spoke of as an out
standing obligation to be paid as the year
roll onR If be was ignorant Of. THAT fac
he knew not enough to address an audi
ence on the subject Yet he takes thi.
estimate, plainly made, and adding it e
the sum which the bonds are shown &c
have actually cost, cries out that he has
discovered discrepancy between the re
suit of my calculations and the officially
declared face of the public debt to-day.
Was | seeking to demonstrate the
amount of the debt that is now
declared The principal of the
| debt is alone borne in the books of the
department. Interest is never computed
and set forth There, yet interest with its
silent, steady and remorseless accumula-
tons, makes its perpetual demands upon
the people for payment and is the most
| implacable and corroding enemy that
ever attacked the laboring classes. Allow
me to illustrate this point by Stating a
simple case in the ordinary affairs of life.
| Suppose in some crisis of business, when
money is of vital moment to save your
credit, you go to lender, who, taking
advantage of your bitter need, and know
ing that you can get relief no where else,
after listening with Indifference to your
entreaties for fair dealing, finally consents
to take your note, payable in twenty
years, with six per cent. interest per an
mum, for $1,000, and hands you 5000 in
return. You would have no difficulty in
! understanding the extOrtion of the four
hundred dollars on the face of your
note for which you had received nothing.
You could also easily comprehend that
you were each year paying twenty-four
dollars interest on that spurious sum, as
well as thirly-six dollars on the six hun
dred which you did actually receive.
Some day, however, you sit down and
make an estimate of the amount which
this transaction is to cost you by the time
the note is due, for which there has never
been any consideration. We will say that
the note has already been running five
years. Your first item in the account is
the S4O0, the bonus which you had to
give to the usurer in the beginning, in
order to get the $500. Your second item
is the five years interest, which you have
already paid on this bonus, and amounts
to Sl20. Your third and last item is the
interest that is yet to fall due, and that
you are to pay during the next fifteen
years, on the $40O. This would be $3.50.
THE ExToRTIONs OF THE BONDED DEBT IL
Illustrated.
The full estimate and account would
stand as follows:
Bonus for which you received no.
thing. 400 %
Interest already paid on bonus. 120 90
Interest on bonus yet to be paid. $50 90
Total clear gain to the lender. $3.50 90
This is the whole story of the bonds in
simple form. The mind of every school
boy sees it all at a glance. But Senator
of acknowledged ability, driven to des-
peration by the exigencies of base and
sinking cause, travels long distances in or
der to tell the people that he has found an
error in this. He says thatif you add 5000
which you admit that you received to the
$3.50 that you have TO pay without any
consideration, the amount will be $3.50
more than the face of the note, which de-
clares the debt to be $1,000, making no
computation of the interest This is
precisely Gov. Morton's argument, to in
yolve me in a contradiction. No com
ments of mine can make its glsr-
ing and shameless fallacy more
conspicuous. 1t is creditable to
the public service to know that there are
but few men who would hazard their
credit for fairness by such transparent
effort to deceive. There was atime when
a Senator of the United States could i'll
afford to be caught in the very act of de-
liberate misrepresentation, and L believe
that the rebuke of honest minds will pur-
sue him even now when the Senate is
shom of so much of its former glory. He
came from Washington here to deliver his
speech. 1t was deliberately done, and
upon full preparation. 1t is called the
keynote of the campaign. Be it so. |
have shown one of its lOudest notes to be
false-false beyond his power, or the
power of his friends, to evade its discOrd,
or to reduce it to harmony. The music
of monopoly, Usury and untaXed bonds,
it is true, will 90 on. 1t is sweet to the
ears of the privileged few. The Senator
speech has for them world of melody.
The bondholder listens, enraptured. To
the banker on bonds the delicious airs of
the opera are not so ravishing. But to
the true and faithful hearing of the tax
payer it brings no sounds of sUlace, hope
or comfort. 1t is to him full of discord
and perverted strains. 1t has all the pur-
pose Of the singing Siren, who led her
vOtaTies to ruin, without her beauty or
her irresistible charms.
| NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. AS TO INCREASING THE
VOLUME OF CURRENCY.
This disclosure however, of the decep,
ton designed by the Senator on one given
point, is but the beginning of the duty
which has fallen to my hands on this occa-
sion. He was prolific of misrepresenta-
ton. His next achievement in this field
is as remarkable as that which have just
reviewed and wiped out He has so long
recognized no other law than that of neces.
sity, that at last the very obligations OF
truth are openly repudiated in obedience
to the requirements of faction of detect,
ed and disgraced plunderers of the people.
| | advocated an increase of the volume OF
currency and the payment and cancella
zion of bonds from time to time by new
issues uuder the legal tender acts. This
course would meet the crying demands of
| trade and business, give the farmer good
| prices for his products and the mechanic
| full wages for his work. Ii would revive
every branch of industry and give
| employment to more than a million OF
| men, women and children who are now
deprived of the opportunity of earning
their bread because of the policy of finan
cial contraction. 1t would also at onc'
tighten the cruel taxation which now
preys like hungry vulture on the vital
of the country. At every payment thu
made a portion of that golden stream o
interest, which now flows with the cease
less ticking of your watches, while awake
and while asleep, from the pockets of tn
taxpayer who works for his living int
the pockets of the bondholder who Meth
er works nor pays taxes on his chershe,
monopoly, would dry up. How plain
all thisl Your burdens would diminisl
every hour until you would finally, b,
gradual processes, emerge from the bond
age of debt and taxation free and Olsen
thralled people. Knowing the full fore
of this position, for, as shall show, h
has occupied it until very recently him