Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1871-12-29
From the Washington Patriot.
Return to Specie Payment.


From the Washington Patriot.
Return to Specie Payment.
The following bill was introduced in the
House on the 18th inst, by DIR. Merrick, Of
Maryland, and referee to the Committee on
Banking and Currency:
AN ACT regulating the mode VI payment of du-
ties on imports and equalizipg the value of
Treasury notes.
Sec L. Be it enacted by the Senate and House
| of Representatives of the United States of
America in Congress assembled, That from
and after the passage of this sct all Treasury
notes of the United States shah be receivable
in payment of duties on impeTts in the same
manner and upon like footing rs they are now
authorized by law to be receieed in payment
of any other debt or obligation due to the
United States.
The foregoing bill is the short and direct
road to the resumption of spscie payment
Many of our sound thinking public men have
been indisposed to advocate 9 resumption OF
specie payment, because they. believe such a
result could not be accomplished without in
volvlng a contraction of tho volume of the
currency to ali extent that would be embar-
RAISING aud hazardous to our various CONNER
cial enterprises. The amount of currency is
not greater than the demands of commerce
and trade require and we should hesitate to
commend any measure which would either
directly or indirectly diminish that amount at
the present time. The process. by which this
bill proposes to restore the country to a con-
stitutonal currency will enlarge instead OF
contracting its volume, by bringing into &C
tive circulation the gold now boarded in the
vaults of the Federal Treasury, aud like a.
mount in private hands.
The only depreciation which to-day exists
| is the depreciation which the Government it.
self creates, and continually enforces, by re-
fusal to receive its own notes at par. How
ever unsound the latest decision of the Su-
preme Court may be-that it is competent for
the Government to make its notes legal
tender-stiIl, while that decision stands for
law, the glaring injustice Of the Government
depreciating the very paper which it forces
every citizen to receive 10 repayment of his
debts, and in all commercial transactions,
must force itself upon every mind. Let the
Government give full credit to its own issues,
and all men will, with one accord, give them
equal credit. So long as there is an artificial
discrimination made, aud In arbitrary de-
nand for concentrating ell the specie Of the
country at the Custom House of New York,
and for boarding it in the Treasury, it will OF
necessity command premium over legal ten
der uotes, aud the instant 1at constraint is
removed paper aud gold vi If eGs.al value.
The pretext that the Government requires
specie accumulated in this mode, to enable it
to meet the gold Interest un the public debt,
is manifesty falIacious, for if the Treasury
notes are at par with gold, the Government,
Can, Of course, pay either in gold or Treasury
notes its gold interest. No creditor, foreign
or domestic, would refuse to receive Treasury
notes for his interest if they were of equal
value with gold, and any one electing to take
gold could, of course, draw it. as the Govern
ment having paper or gold indiscriminately
at command, would have his choice grati6ed
without cost. But granting that the imme-
date effect of the measure would not be to
raise the notes absolutely to par with gold,
the difference in value would be trivial, and
the Government could readily 60 iuto the
market and purchase the gold at a very small
premium. The whole gold interest upon the
put debt is not far from one hundred and
twenty millions per annum.- Assuming that
the difference in the market value Of gold and
paper should be as much as five per cent,
this would require only six millions of paper
to be paid as premium for the requisite a.
mount of gold. The Government is now, at
the expense of the commercial interest Of the
country, making profit by selling its sur
plus gold and trading upon the misfortunes
of the people. How much better to subject
- Iva T., hot Of hp
surplus which it applies to the extinguish-
meut of the national debt in order to accom-
plish a result for which the material interest
of the whole country is thirsting, and for the
non-attainment of which the honor and good
faith of the nation are arraigned before the
civilized world.
1t is not because it cannot and ought not to
be done that it has not long since been done.
But tie discrimination against its own paper
by the Government under the pretence of ne
cessity to provide for its gold interest on the
national debt. is only an artful device to main
tain aud to enhance the present enormously
high tariff by the addition to the nominal du-
ties of all that excess which can be created by
premium upon gold.
For example, the duty upon given article
is fifty dollars, required to be paid in gold,
and the gold premium being fourteen per
cent, then the real duty is 6fty-seven dollars
instead of fifty, or an addition of fourteen per
cent to the nominal duty. Again, the bond
holders, like. the tariff men, are interested in
keeping up the discrimination in rates, for,
instead of realizing sixty dollars interest upon
his thousand dollar bond, he receives sos. 40.
Let US do full justice to the boud-holder-Iet
us pay the last dollar to which the national
faith is pledged, and let us pay it in gold and
silver; but let us not so pay as to pay more
than ought justly to be paid. Let them have
no unjust discrimination in their favor. But
let the faith of the nation be proven equal and
perfect to all men, and especially to the labor
ing classes of the country, so oppressed and
borne down by the monopolizlng manufactnr-
ing, and bond-holding and moneyed capital
lists. The Democratic party wars against mo-
nopoly and oppression 10 every form and un-
der every disguise. 1t is the true and only
friend of the people and of the laborins classes,
and, in the interests Of labor aud Of the peo-
pie, its mission is to expose and resist all tyran-
ny Of government, all injustice Of monopoliz-
ing capitalists, and to maintain the integrity
of the Constitution, and the equal rights Of
the people, In the mission which lies before
it, one of the first familiar steps is the restor-
alton Of he constitutional currency-gold and
i silver-an achievement easy, simple, and GER