The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1872-03-30
OUR PLATFORM AND ITS CRITICS
OF NEW JERSEY

OUR PLATINUM AND ITS CRITICS.
The prominence which Labor Reform has
lately assumed before the people; the in
creasing popularity Of the movement; the
consciousness Of numbers and strength
which the nomination Of candidate for
the presidency Of the nation implies the
enthusiasm which that candidate awakens
among the people Of every section u the
country the evident alarm of Grant and
his cooperating corruptionists in and out
# Congress. have directed with great ear
nestness the attention Of the public To the
platform of the Labor Party, and have
provoked among those anxious for the con
tinuance If the present order Of things,
criticism bitter, false and foolish. A sample
f the false and foolish We copy from the
Iuhnstown. Pa } y Industrial Bulletin
The second resolution declares that the Ma
uonal debt should be paid in good faith, ac-
cordIng g the original contract, which We
all say But the questions arise-Nhat
Is payment. and what was the contract
both VI the political parties Of the country
allege that national debts can only be paid
ia the money Of nations, while a few people
st.ll assert that our national debt NAV be paid
II lrredermable paper currency.
The questions, What is payment, and
what was the contract :, are questions
which are now definitely settled by the
highest judicial tribunal in the land. i'll the
sense and manner in which the Labor Party
has always claimed they should be settled.
~ - 1---+i~---, ---~-S~.~- --i-:-t- ~ Ia
seem incapable Of other answer than the
one given by the Labor Party; and We af
hrm that the men who enacted the laws
providing for the issue Of what are known
As the $40 bonds, and the men who pur-
chased the bonds knew they were payable
ia greenbacks and We affirm further that
every greenback bore an endorsement de-
claring in positive terms that it was a legal
tender for these bonds and that it was not
until after the war, after the bondholder
had made his influence felt with the cor
ruptionists in Congress, that it was ever
doubted that the 800 bonds were payable
in greenbacks, or the money Of the nation.
The argument is irresistible, and leaves no
room for honest doubt
50 indignant was Thaddeus Stevens,
who reported the bill authorizing the issue
Of the $40 bonds, at the effort to violate
the solemn contract with the people, by
making them pay these bonds in gold, that
De declared he would rather vote for Sey-
mour than for Grant, if any purpose exist
ed to perpetrate such fraud upon the
people
The honest scorn Of the great Pennsyl-
vania Commoner was aroused at the mere
suggestion Of paying these bonds in gold
The financial committee of the Senate, with
Sherman, Of Ohio, as its chairman, report
ed that these bonds we're payable, according
to law, in greenhacks and in fact the very
terms Of the law, BY which the interest Of
the bonds was made payable in gold, allows
no two questions as to the principal of the
bonds. 1t could as reasonably be claimed
that the bonds known as the 10-40's, whose
principal and interest we're made payable in
gold by the terms of the law, were payable
IN greenbacks, as that the principal If the
30 bonds was payable III gold
The passage Of the g Bill to strengthen
the Public Credit, which declared that
the principal of the $50 bonds should be
paid in gold, was the wickedest fraud that
ever free people endured. 1t was passed
by the votes of men who had solemnly de-
clared IN official reports and speeches that
the contract between the bondholder and
the government required these bonds to be
paid IN greenbacks. No grosser repudia-
ton OF solemn contract was ever sanction
ID by legislative body, or one which, if
not corrected, will work greater wrong.
The question which was subsequently
raised, as to the power Of Congress to issue
greenbacks and make them money, If de-
elded adversely to the existence of this
power, would not have affected the validity
OF the payment Of these bonds in green
backs. If a contract for payment in gold
is valid, SO is equally valid contract for
payment In currency, money or commodity.
1t IS the right of contract that is in cues
ton, not as TO how the contract shall be
fulfilled. The bondholder contracted to
take payment of his bonds in the same
money Of the country that he paid for
them, and when he demands gold, as now
he does, he violates his contract and
tramPleH upon all the equities Of the case
But the question has been decided in favor
Of the power Of Congress to make money,