The Portland daily press., 1874-06-20
The Finances.
Remarks of Hon. Thomas B. Reed Of
Portland at the Republican State Con-

tee on Credentials was preparing its report,
Hon. Thomas B. Reed being called upon, ad-
dressed the Convention as follows:
Mr. President and Gentlemen of the COnve,ation:
We have met here to-day to concert measures
for our eighteenth annual victory. No other
party before ours has been so long SO unnter-
ruptedly victorious. The utmost successive
stretch of Democratic sovereignty was only
twelve years. This year we cannot fail. No
action of GU rs however iniprudent can fritter
away the vast majority which throngs under
our banners. The future beyond this year we
also have in our hands. 1t depends upon US
alone whether we shall fill out the 1uii quarter
or even half century OF power am In Inc iuoare,
on earth can set limits to our sway So long as
we represent in the future, as in.the past, the
sound, enlightened, progressive, honest good
sense of the people we need tear no rival nor
own any coBqueror. No party in the history of
this country or of the world has had any finer
past The last twelve years is the brightest pc
Rod of American history, fuller than any 9TH
er of noble achievements and marked by the
establishment on secure foundations of true
principles of freedom and equality. The hsto-
ry of the last twelve years is the history of the
Republican party. Under our guidance this
nation has for the first time in the history of
the republic, a government of the = whole .3
whole people. We have builded broad
and spacious the Temple of Liberty, and
the oppressed of all lands, and best of all, the
oppressed of ouri own land, may worship
there in the plenitude of entire possession
But splendid as has been our past, full as it
must ever be to this generation of the noblest
lrecollections, and wonderful as it will seem to
the generations after us, we cannot, we ought
not, to draw upon it for the future. Our ascen-
dency hereafter will depend upon our acts here
after. Republics are proverbia.ly ungrateful
If we fail to place ourselves in the van, If we
bring forward mean men and mean measures
we shall be overthrown, and the ingratitude of
republics, in our case, will be only the wisdom
of self-preservaton. We shall deserve our dis
aster. Here as elsewhere nobility lays under
obligations. Ourpast pledges us to an upright
and honorable future. - 30 W
4 The last twelve years of course, we can never
repeat. The greatness of the issues we have
met and rightly decided must always dwarf the
issues we shall meet for the rest of our lives.
/ Laurels like emancipation, acknowledgements
and the crushing out of the Rebellion We can
never gather again. Let US thank God That we
have gathered them once, and let us take care
| that we wear them wOrthily. There is still
work for us to do. Although the parade of war
excites more enthusiasm than the payment of
debt, and the questions of liberty are more
| stirring than questions of money, yet the last
are the legacies of the first, and we owe it to
ourselves and to our country that we meet the
one as manfully as the other r 'FFFHs z
I'VE have the choice of positions. Whatever
position we tike the Democracy must take the
OU0eF. NOW WDaU pOSlGlOu Suall we take! lQ
my Judgment the world has reached that pitch
of civilization where honesty alone is beautiful
in statesmaushp The day of diplomatic cum
ming has gone by. Political cunning is rapidly
becoming thing of the past, The people are
fundamentally honest. All they ask is infor-
nation. Show them true thing and they are
ready to follow it, cost what it may. We have
only to go back brief six years in our history
for most signal example Only six years ago
all the leaders of the Democratic party and all
the demagoguas in ours were conjuring the beO-
pie to break their faith with the public creditor.
You remember how every man who had loaned
his gold to the government was stigmatized as
a bloated bond-holder. You remember how
every means was used to array the poor against
the rich. We were then suffering under heavi-
er taxation than now. Had there been a spark
of dishonesty in the people, the temptation
would have indeed been mighty. Remember
with what stern contempt, with what vast ma
jorties the people repudiated the regulators.
The nation which in five short years had raised
armies of two millions of men, which had left fif-
ty thousand of its Gead on the field of battle,
which had emancipated and enfranchised
race, could not be made to chatter with ped
dlers or cheat with pettifoggers. And SO by
the American nation it hath been determined
forever, that the word of promise to the public
creditor shall be kept to his uttermost hope. y
And yet in one thing we have thus far failed
The people have not been wanting, but the
statesmen have. In 1862 the Congress Of the
United States authorized the issue of one hun
dred and fifty millions of treasury notes for a
temporary purpose. These notes were made
legal tender, 1 think this was at an evil day
for the country. 1t was confession of insol-
vency, of distrust in the willingness of the
people to uphold the government. Its only eff
feet was to enable those who owed to pay their
debts with less than they owed 1t was NOR
ally wrong; and no nation violates the rules of
right and escapes retributlOn. 1t seems to me
peculiarly proper to say this in the State of
Maine, for, had the advice of the great states
man from tbs state who was then chairman of
I the Senate Committee of Finance been follow
ed the notes would never have been legal ten
der and one obstacle to the return to hard
money would not now bar our way,
But, be all this as it may, it is all past and
, irrevocable. We must meet the question as it
is and not as it might have been. Our govern.
ment then has issued notes of which there are
upwards of three hundred and fifty million dol
lars. The propise was to pay them on de-
mand. After nine years of peace they have
not one of them been paid And the question
nowis, shall they be paid or new ones be
! issued and none of them be paid at all? Can
any argument add power to your answer? The
government has promised to pay. Shall it do
it?
But the question of payment of these notes
is not by any means the most difficult question
The question of the payment of these notes in
wolves the whole question of the currency of
the country. Gold and silver have been driven
out Of the channels of circulation, IN obed-
lation must always be driven out by worse.
Gold. and silver have become simply mer-
chandise, and we have an irredeemable paper
currency, huctuating. unsteady representing one,
thing to-day and another thing Tomorrow. !
This is what none of us want. We want an
honest currency. What is such a currency
Men define the word very much to suit them
selves, but we mean by it medium for the ex-
change OF property, a measure OF values. It
we want measure of values we want fixed
/ measure We do not want elastic
NOBODY, ever heard of an elastic yard stick or
an elastic quart pot Least of all did any body
ever propose yard stick which would sOme-
times measure eleven inches, sometimes ten
and nine, but never by any possibility twelve or
thirteen. The universal consent of the world
has fixed upon gold and silver as containing
that permanent element which makes it the fit
circulating medium of the world, and all man
kind are pretty sure to be wiser than any one
man or any one nation. And their wisdom in
this case is easily justified; for gold and silver
are good measures of value because they are
values themselves. They represent just as
much labor as the things they purchase. They
cost lust as much toll as the productions of the
farm or the loom. Ai' ltii Q sgA - J a-s "
But 1 have no time to make general dis
eussion of currency. The people here are all
agreed that what we need is hard money. Now
this is just what we have been striving for
ever since we had a country. We have never
had true1cu.rency yet, and tor the evil effects
OF bad one We have only to consult the history
OF our own country. I do not pretend that a
hard money currency is the panacea for all the
evils, that it will stop panics or hasten the
millennium. We only claim that they will be
less frequent Speculation is inherent in the
human makeup. When you and I have built a
house over our heads and get some surplus
money, we want to set it at work making
more and the chances are that the first specu-
lator who comes along with plausible scheme
and promise of 100, will get our money-apd
what we do the whole nation is liable to do.
1t then we have sound currency and lose, it
is bad, but il is money we have got and COM
paratively we can afford to lose it. But sup
pose the currencys paper. and the $1OOOwe had
earned is called $1,000. We, the best informed
of US, cannot help thinking we have really got
more money. Because we have earned it easier
it goes easier. The tendency is inevitable to
make speculation wilder. and before we know
1t we have adyentured more than we have got,
and when the crash comes, it sweeps away not
only our surplus but our all. In word, real
prosperity win induce speculation, but when
we lose we only lose what we have got. Un-
ity ct