Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1874-04-09
7 he Legal Tender Issue.

measure, So The vote shows that the
members of Congress differed upon
the question according to their indi-
vidual views:
Mr.. EDITOR 1T seems Mr.. Barber
has dared to differ with The Repub-
lean m mbers of Congress from this
State 10 voting against the dangerous
precedent of relieving commercial
embarrassment, real or SUI posed, by
the easy expedient of coming money
out of the same material that wrap
ping paper aud meal sacks are made
of. Some of the local papers question
the soundness ofMr. BIS republicanism
for so voting. In justice to him there
are many republicans who take this
opportunity to inform him that he
never did q more honest, prudent,
statesmanlike act during his whole
public life. He is just the sort of
man that many of them would like
send back to Congress again.
As we have understood the matter
from hearing men learned in the law
talk about it, the legal tender act
compelling people to receive green
backs instead of gold was justified
under the constitution oulv by the
necessities of war. But to manufac-
ture paper money to relieve people
from financial difficulties occasioned
by over trading and extravaganza,
an extravaganza originating in the
food of greenback currency we in
herited from tho war, is rather too
literal an exemplfeation of the adage
that the chair of the same dog is the
Best remedy for his bite" The ad'
vantages of panic are, that people
cease to live beyond their incomes
they pay off their debts if they can,
and never venture beyond their depth
in the future. But in the future it is
no difference what We buy no diff
ference what bills We run up at the
stores the saloous, the lizard tables
and liveries. The United States,
paterDal Uncle Sam, will foot the
bills, and hand over TO US the green
backs by the bale and force our cred
itors to take them.
But let Us analyze this easy way
of getting out of debt. Is it honest ?
Are we republicans the men who in
dignantIy denounced railroad corpor-
atoms for watering their stock Are
consistency and shame terms un-
known to our party? Where are
we drifting? The so called panic BIS
virtually passed !; the patient was on
his feet, but the doctors come with
40 million pills Of the same stuff that
caused his delirium at first, and re-
cuire him to swallow them and cure
his past intoxication by getting drunk
and wild again; he is invited to aban-
don the terra frmd of honest labor
and embark on the boisterous sea Of
speculation and chance what be hae
Just suffered shipwreck.
But if we examine this after birth
issue of national currency, we shall
see at once that it is nothing less than
downright robbery, and the nation
that is guilty of it has no right to
punish Missouri mail robbers, thieves
or counterfeiters. And the Jacobins
that ruled France were accredited as
misguided fanatics Until they compelled
the peasantry to accept their worthless
assignats for the products of their
fields. The historian does not know
which to denounce in the most scath
ing terms, the villainy of the assignats
or the murders of the gullotlne. But
the French Jacobins had some apol-
ogy for watering their currency and
compelling the people to take it.
National credit had utterly disap
peared. We have no excuse to offer
tor such an act. Suppose the amount
of greenback currency now in circu-
lation throughout the United States is
$500, 100000. If the nation issue
$40 600, 900 more the whole aggregate
will not buy more gold than the pre-,
yious $40O,oO0,O0O. Its effect is pre-
cisely this: Every man who works for
day, and gets greenback dollar,
pays tho government ten cents. Ii
the employer owes his laborer 800,
the latter pays one dollar to the gov.
eminent. The government issues
$4,000, 900 of additional money, di-
lutes its currency, and this loss falls
on those who have government money
in their hands at the time Of the in
flation. If this is not robbery by
the national sanction and act,
what name shall we give it? But
look at the precedent. The govern
ment, under temporary clamor, may
double the amount Of the circulating
medium, and thus take from the
pockets Of the people, who have the
money in their hands one half of its
value. The additions of S4O,000,000
to the currency will likely diminish its
aggregate value far more than that
sum. Il will uusettle all value, and
what every man owns, what he earns,
will depend on the will of Congress,
that can bankrupt him or enrich him
at its will. The fact that greenbaoks
had net reached the value of gold
proved We needed no more of them at
present. Had they reached that point
gold and silver would have added to
the circulating medium.
Now, Mr.. Editor, there are many
Republicans that want no milk-and
water man for next Congress men
who can be carried away by tran
sient excitement, that we will all see
directly was leading US to commercial
ruin and national dishonor. We want
man who is bold, earnest, honest
enough to teach US the true path to
4 Nv.