The daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1873-1877, 1874-04-13
GOVERNOR DIX ON INITIATION,
His Message to the New York Les islature, and
an Emphatic Endorsement Of His Sentiments
by Both Houses,
Correspondence of the New York Times.


Correspondence OF the New York Times.
STATE OF NEW YORK. }
EXECUTIVE CHAMBER April Z, 1874.
To the Legislature;
L deem it due to the interest and honor
of the State to call upon you, as its chosen
representatives, to take into consideration
the proposition before Congress in regard
to the currency. Though yet immature.
and requiring the concurrent action Of both
houses to give them the validity of law,
they have, nevertheless, received in each
such partial sanction as to excite serious
alarm as to the result In my annual mes
sage in January last, | expressed the ear
nest hope that the paper circulation issued
by the Government would be curtailed, and
that early steps would be taken to resume
specie payments.
did not anticipate that so extraordinary
proposition as that of initiating the cur
rency by adding to outstanding legal-ten
der notes, or by authorizing further issue
of national bank paper, would be seriously
made. In view of the purpose which has
been indicated to enlarge the volume Of
paper of both descriptions, and to repudi
ate all attempts to re-establish the stan
dard Of specie-a policy, as | sincerely be.
! lieve, traught with wide spread ruin to the
industry of the country, and with immi.
nent danger to its credit invoke youI
interposltion to contribute all in your pow.
er to prevent its adoption. Your Opin.
ion, representing as you do more largely
than the Legislature of any other State
the fnanancial and commercial interests
of the Union, should carry with it great
weight.
The fragrant injustice of the proposed
measure will be the more apparent wher
you consider that, if adopted without re.
pealing the Legal tender act, the results
will be not only TO depreciate the paper
currency still further, but to compel its &C.
ceptance in payment of debt, thus openly
violating the solemnly proclaimed pledges
Of the Government five years ago to re.
deem its notes in specie at the earliest
practicable period, impairing the obligation
OF contracts, and concentrating what the
Constitution prohibits TO the States as an
act of moral and political turpitude To
degrade the currency, and at the same
time compel the people to receive it as
equivalent to specie, would be the most
tyrannical exercise and abuse of financial
power of which civilized Government has
ever been guilty in time of peace, 1t diff.
fers in no essential respect either under
its moral or its practical effects from de-
graduation of the standard of specie by an
adulteration Of the national coin.
Five years ago the sense Of rectitudt
would have revolted at the suggestion o.
such an act of perfdy; but persistence
in wrong and injustice rarely fails to recon.
Gle further wrong to the thought first and
to the purpose afterward If, spurning
away all the teachings of history and
trampling under foot all the maxims of pc.
litical Justice, we adopt policy as fraudu-
lent as it is demoraizing, our successors
will look back on our conduct with humili-
alton and disgrace. The millions of depre.
ciated and irredeemable paper, if issued,
as proposed, will by a law of distri
button which no human power can control
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