The Plymouth Democrat. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1869-1941, 1870-02-24
Contradictions or the Government.

by the Supreme Court is to be attended by
some curious legal and practical results.
The point actually decided is that debts
contracted prior to the passage of the le-
gal-ter der act (Feb. %, 1852 can not be
paid legal tenders, and must be paid in
coin. The other point not decided, but
theoretically deduced from the language
of t re court is, that debts contracted since
the passage of the act were based on le
gal-tenders, and may therefore be paid in
that medium.
The decision, by !ringing all debts con-
tracted prior to February %, 1852, up to a
gold standard, increases them by twenty
per cent, or one fifth more than the debtor
thought they were Thus the State debt
of Missouri is something like SIS, 100000.
This sum has heretofore been considered
as that amount of greenbacks, or legal
tenders. But the decision of the court
makes it that nount of gold, and thereby
increases it b S3,600,OOO. The same pro-
cess also app.les to large proportion OF
State, county, city, township and railroad
debts the aggregate of which is enormous
NOT less, perhaps, than half as much as
the whole national debt. The instant in
crease of this enormous Indebtedness by
one fifth of its amount is assuredly no
trif;ng circumstance, as debtors will find
out, when they begin to feel its effects
IT will accelerate that disastrous segrega-
ton of creditors and debtors into two com
pact, defined, hostile classes, which the
whole scheme of Republican misgovern-
ment at Washington has done so much to
| initiate and encourage, and provoke the
introduction into our politics OF clements
which wise and prudent statesmen would
have labored to keep out.
| 1t will be said that debts contracted
prior to the passage OF the legal-tender
act were understood at the time to be for
gold and, therefore, the payment of them
in gold is no unjust hardship. This is
literally and strictly true. Justice aoomd
require that debts existing prior to Feb
ruary %, 1862, should be paid in gold.
The creditor has right to demand, and
the debtor has a right to pay nothing less.
But the evil is that the debtors govern
ment has made him believe for eight years
that he could pay his debt in something
else than gold That government has
practically abolished gold as a currency,
and forced its citizens 10 accept the cheaper
medium of legal tenders, with the positive
promise that these legal tenders should be
redeemed in gold, and the implied promise
that they should constitute full and
satisfactory payment of all their debts.
Both these promises to citizens the gov
eminent has deliberately repudiated. 1t
refuses to redeem its legal tenders In gold,
and it refuses to permit its citizens to pay
a portion of their debts with them. In
other words, it refuses to pay portion OF
its debt in gold, but compelS its citizens to
pay portion of their debts in gold. 1t
would seem, then, that Mungen, of Ohio,
and GOlladay, of Kentucky, are not the
only regulators in the country the whole
ruling party at Washington is a party OF
regulators.
The second point of the decision of the
court is the deduction from its language
that debts contracted subsequently to the
passage of the legal-tender act may be
! paid III legaltenders. This, certainly, is
lust and fair, for the understanding at the
Time such debts were contracted was that
hey were payable in the ordinary cur
rency. But here, again, the government
appears in a contradiction. Nearly the
whole of its debts were contracted subse-
quent to the passage of the legal-tender
act, and would, according to the language
of the governments court, be fairly re-
deemablc in legal-tenders, except those
portions of the debt made expressly paya-
BILE in gold. But the government has re-
solved to pay the whole OF its debt In gold
that is, to pay 20 per cent. more than
our Supreme Court says it ought to pay
We are not making an argument against
the payment of the national debt in coin
that question is, perhaps, settled. We are
exhibiting the monstrous contradictions,
inconsistencies and violations of solemn
pledges, that have marked the govern
ments entire financial policy for eight
, years, and that have inspired the public
mind with uncOncealed distrust of ana
promise that the government may now
make The effect of these cOntradic
! tiOns is more maign than can be easily
imagined. 1t fails with cruel and crush
> ing force upon the debtor class of thu
country, which includes nineteen-twen
r tieths of the people; for they see that tn,
/ tendency of the whole system of vagarie
S and uncertainties is to make the rich richie
j, and the poor poOrer-to build up an aris
tocracy of creditors, to favor classes, t.
7 place power in the hands of wealth,
}, combinations, and to grind the masses int
the dust with oppressive, unjust and un
e necessary taxes. That this evil condition
2 of things, so harsh to debtors and so favor
t able to creditors, is admitted by Republi
cans themselves is evident from thes
e truthful words spoken by the Democro
e of Wednesday, in its comments on tn
c courts decision:
r mOnopOlists have both Congress and the Suprem
. Court on their side. They have contrived a banl
u ing system which gives them plenty of currenc
s to lend; and they have contrived tariff whic
makes their products sell for high prices, while tn
. agricultural products of the West sell for 10y
prices; and now to complete the operation, th
C Western counties cities and States, being Target
: in debt, must pay gold to the creditor on thei
bonds, even while our people borrow of kasterI
oahhs az Ign rates, tne currency wnIcu tiey ncee
g and sell flock OF sheep to buy pair OF blankets
This sort Of thing will not last always. The tim
: is coming when the Westewi elect members
IL Congress who have both the will and the
n break these letters. But at this present momen
J., the Northwest resembes.he scri plural Issacher-
:. "a strong ass F" between burdens.
Il IL IL not very plea SAINT thing To feel that
e unreasonably plundered by banking and tart
n monopOlies, at the very time we called upon
6 pay to the last cent our own obligatOns but, ft
IL all that part is clear-to pay our honest debit
:, and to comply with the laws to the letter. Ou
a redress will come when we elect members of Coz
g gress who will vote as one man for reduction ,
u taxation and reds. ributon of currency.
Is Western Republicans have good reaso
n to reproach themselves in this wretche
N business, for they might have prevente
e. the evil. For eight years, the East, unde
Is the lead of New England, has been er
gagged in selfish struggle tor power
struggle to which the Union itself wa
y made not only secondary, but subservlen
Z The war was made the untruthful preteS
a for the passage of the Ubiquitous tariff W
a now complain of, and the Southern Sens
Is tors and Representatives have been adroi
e ly excluded from Congress, that the exc
/ cution of the N v England programme
aggrandizement might have that muc
p less opposition Of course it was all don
Al under the treac erous guise of loyalty, bu
u the Western republicans were easil
e caught in the snare They labored fc
!" loyalty, while their Eastern brethren Il
II bored for power; and now, after the Iowa
Is ty part of the business has almost var
r ished into air, our Western Republica