Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1874-05-28
Speech of Hon. Isaac sherwood


wood, in the House of Representa-
tives in Congress, on the subject of
the Currency and Free Banking Bill
which was vetoed by the President
Our space will not admit of our pub
fishing the speech entire:
Money derives its force from COM
mon consent. If men or govern
ments choose to coin credits instead
of gold, and this credit performs all
the functions of money, it is as potent
to discharge debt and to produce
wealth as coined gold. The same re-
markable Walker, just referred to, puts
a perfect nightmare of statistica into
column to prove that when money is
plenty interest is high. Consequently
scarce money means cheap interest,"
On this theory a short apple crop
means cheap cider, and the hog chol-
era is the forerunner of cheap hams.
If the grangers can only be made to see
it, the true solution Of the cheap trans
portation problem is to make bonfire
of about half the freight cars on our
railroads, thereby reducing the freight
tariff so per cent. -
| Whether we denounce the green
back as a mendicant or renounce it as
dishonored promise it was potent
element in war, and is to-day the great
handspring moving all the machinery
of Government AS an element of
civilization it has taught US that there
are other elements Of civilization it has
taught US that there are other elements
than gold and silver by which the af-
fairs Of men and nations may be con-
Quoted And it is bound to stay with
us in defiance of allathe economies of
| all the Englishmen. Our own country,
in war and peace, for the past ten
years has been conducted in defiance
of every principle of military strategy
and political economy laid down by
the books. In war the most success
ful and brilliant military achievements
were in direct violation of all military
book strategy Grants LcaInpaign
against Vicksburgh, and . Sherman
campaign from Rocky Face to Sayan.
nah, were both in opposition to militia
ry precedents. In peace we have been
operating under an exclusively paper
currency ,and deprecated at that. This
according to the books, is fatal. We
have been operating under protec
tive tariff, which, according to the En-
glish economies, is fatal and yet We
have fourished under both.
After Grant had taken Vicksburg
and "Sherman had marched to the
sea-" after the iron-c clad Monitor had
met the Merrimac in Hampton Roads
what were all the books on military
and naval strategy worth :? And to.
day, after ten years of substantial and
healthful growth in in invention, in
manufacturers, in material wealth, in
population, in moral grandeur, what
do all the books of all the Englishmen
amount to? - ;
The Declaration of Independence
was not written in accordance with
English precedent; and when the
young Republic was started, as fee
BILE contribution to a new system oil
political economy, there was no cele-
brated Englishman to give it send.
of, or a god. send, with book. And
to day, with nearly a century of sue
cessful history behind us-R century
born the year Adam Smith sent into
the world his wealth of Nations--hoW
marvellous it is that not one English
man has fortified the Republic with {
book .-
INCONSISTENCY OF THE CoNTRACTIoNIsT;
BY the way, how is it that the polit
ical economists on this floor and else
where, who ara for nothing but golC
dollars, are also for protective tariff
The celebrated Engl!shmen who hav'
furnished so many ready-made econo
mics are much clearer and stronger OF
the free trade doctrine than the func
tions of money and the science of fl
nance. How is it that this concentra
ton of English brain for one hundred
years, demonstrating the fallRcy o
protection has failed to carray con
viction, while the many loose anC
disiointed dissertations on the scienct
of finance have made such an over
whelming conviction? Itseems to M
the argument for contraction is onl,
fortified by the interest of n section
and does not embrace the theory o
the greatest good for all sections.
WHAT PAPER MONEY HAS DONE.
, The past ten years, during which W
have violated SO much political econ
omy, has been the most prosperou
decade in our brief century of history
. In these ten years-nearly one-half o
: which were desolate with the havoc Q
. war-the aggregate wealth of tn
! country has almost doubled.
By the Federal census of 1860 we wer
worth in round numbers trihe owe
f SIG, 200, 100000; in 1870 we wer
= worth $50, 900, 100000. In the decad
! our export trade increased over 6
e per cent, our manufacturing capita
: over 100 per cent, and the value Q
: manufactured articles over 140 pc
, cent All this, and notwithstanding
T the immense destruction of propert
I by civil war, valued at eight thousan'
e millions, the slave property valued a
: twelve hundred millions, the killing
Q and manning of million men, III
f; payment for an average perlod 0
] three years of over one million men
}, not to produce wealth but to destro.
' 1.-THE payment of immense bountie
i and pensions, paying the interest ol
r our bonded debt, paying over thre
r hundred and fifty millions of the prin
D clpal, and sustaining taxation as NJ
: new nation was ever taxed before
1 The result is as marvellous as it is mag
/ niicent.
e What is the secret of this, tn
a grandest contribution thus far in tn