The Plymouth Democrat. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1869-1941, 1870-04-21
How the Debt is Being Paid,

past year about eight millions. Tn Ihls
point, Governor Morton made the follow
ing assertion
during the first eleven months OF
General Grants administration, the pub
lie debt has been paid off to the amount
of SS0,649,911, which has been done by
the application of the surplus revenues to
that purpose, while, during the last year
of Mr.. Johnson's administration, the debt
was only reduced $J,959,71S, although the
taxation was or eater than il Is now"
Even if this were true, what does 1t
prove to the credit of the Administration
Where, beneath the sun, are the people of
the earth paying such an amount OF taxes
as the American people are to-day yielding
up to the Federal authorities . What other
government now in existence, in either hem
isphere, levies such q contribution on its
citizens, in proportion to their numbers
and resources, as the American Republic !?
Before the war, seventy millions year
was heavy assessment for federal expen-
diture. Now the blighting column foOts
up nearly four hundred millions year for
The same purpose
And in the face OF these facts the Sem
atOr from Indiana makes bold claim OF
merit that some portion OF this tremen-
dOus taxation has Teen applied to the
payment of bonds lit is q boast that not
quite all of this terrible sum taken from
the people has been squandered and
wasted in reckless expenditures. L. is an
assumption OF virtue, because out of the
vast millions in their hands the Govern
ment officials used small fraction TO re-
lieve the people from debt. Surely, 1T Is
no difficult task for a man TO pay a debt
If boundless treasure belonging To others
are given to him in trust for that purpose
There is wicked1ess, however, here in
this connection that battles the power of
human tongue properly TO denounce. 1t
is claimed that eighty millions of bonds
have been redeemed. If So how has it
been dOnes Have they paid them accord
ing to law or according to the rule of rob-
berry, By the plain provisions OF the
contract, rs have demonstrated from the
most eminent Republican authorities, they
are payable in legal tender notes. In the
very teeth of this contract, the Secretary
of the Treasury announces that he paid
them in gold at a time when gold was
worth twenty per cent. more than the
kind of money which was legally due to
the bondhOlders. This Republican official,
therefore, in open violation of j ", made
2 present to- the Insurer of your money,
your sweat stained taxes as follows:
Twenty cents on every dollar; twenty
dollars on every hundred; two hundred
dollars on every thousand; two thousand
dollars on every million, and exactly six
teen millions one hundred and twenty
nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety
four dollars on the whole amount which
the Senator says has been thus redeemed
and paid off Over sixteen millions N this
meager transaction taken directly from
your pockets and placed in the Golfers of
the bondholder, with no more law to sur
port it than there is for an act of piracy on
The high seas There can be no answer
to this, save u confession of guilt, and
there is no escape from its blistering in
fanny. Over sixteen millions taken before
your very eyes and bestowed rs bare
gratuity, a naked gitt, on the full mono
polist Is this the system by which you
wish the debt &c be paid? 1t is shame
less robbery Shall it continue? II is q
naked ana confessed plumber of the poor,
IN order to add to the stores of the rich.
Il Is committed in your view, and de
hberately avowed in your hearing. Shall
it stop, or shall il 90 on. " I'll Won uphold
an Administration that has its favorite
class, tor whose benefit it seizes your taxes
In defiance of law? There is no denial
that can be made TIE sixteen millions
are in excess of the contract. They
legally belong TO the people and should be
back IN their hands. They are illegally in
She hands OF the bOndholder, and should
be taken away. And the Administration
which placed them there should be driven
from power.
But the strangest and most extraordi-
nary feature of financial legerdcma;n ever
known in this country before, remains to
be told. Though your earnings have been
taken and more than sixteen millions OF
them thrown IKE oifal 10 a shoal OF hun.
cry sharks, get the interest bearing bond
ed deb, has not been reduced, The loud
Dretense that il Las been diminished a sin
gle dollar, Is simply q partisan ialschood
Eow resoundlng from one &C an to the
other from plrti-an lips, and in the col
urlns Cf = partisan press. / hCld here In
my hand the Official Statement Of The
public debt Of the United States, March
1910, the first day Of the present month.
1t is gned George s. Boutwell,, Sec
rotary OF the Treasury" l read fronl it il
your presence as foii0ws:
Debt bearing interest in cola
BONDS a five per cep' S22l, 30'
Bonds q * Per ISSG,; q, 81
Amount Outstanding ..........-..... 81 49, 9se G5'
Two thousand, one hundred and sever
millions, niue hundred and thirty-nint
thousand six hundred AMI fifty dollars
now declare 10 you that the debt bearing
interest in com was less than this amount
on the FIRST day OF March, 1869, little
more than one year ago. The books o.
the department. are OF easy access to the
friends OF the Administration I repeat
that the debt hearing interest in coin ha.
grown larger instead of smaller in the
nanjs OF the party that Claims to bayt
paid oil more than eighty millions.
I'll the records viii refute this statement
let them be produced have verified il
from official sOUrces, and [ challenge in
vesticatiOn, and defy contradiction.
made it upon the f'Ger'Of the House With.
IN the last two weeks, and asked for de-
NAL No denial was made, but an expla-
nation was rendered by the chairman Of
the Committee on Appropriations. He
sand the bonds that had been redeemed
had been placed in the sinking fund,
and that they still bore interest Is not
this marvellous mode Of paying debt ?
You are told that YOU have paid the prin-
cipai, and yet you are to keep on paying
the interest When you have paid the
lace OF note, with all the interest then
due, who ever, until now, heard of the col
lection of further annual sums of interest ?
Yet this is the precise and only expIana-
ton made by the friends of this Admins
tratlon Of the undeniable fact that The
official records Of the Department show
no decrease of the public debt, but rather
an enlargement. They say that the
amount you have actually paid, and in the
payment of which you have bee. robbed
over sixteen millions, is still carried on
the books, and interest on the same still
collected from your pocketsl
This is a frightful and a hideous mock
cry. The whole financial system is n delu-
sion and snare; a swindle and crime /;
felony committed upon the taxpayer by
well-mounted, booted and spurred high
waymen; a burglary upon every humble
homestead whose inmates lie down at
nighttll after "A day of wearisome toll a