The daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1873-1877, 1874-04-07
A LIE AS A STANDARD OF VALUE.
Address Of Edward Atkinson, of Massachusetts,
Delivered Before the Cooper Institute
Authorization Meeting, Tuesday
Evening March "a
From the New York Tribune.

From the New York Tribune.
The word bring from Massachusetts, is
this: We are rejoiced to see that the time
has come when the discussion of the great
fiscal questions, on which the welfare of
the people SO much depends, can call to-
gether such an assemblage as the one pc
fore me. 1t is time, indeed, II at the rule
of rectitude and probity should be applied
to the dealings Of the Government with the
people; without which,a we who are mer-
chants and manufacturers so well know,
no commerce, either among menor between
nations-not even social order-can posi-
bly, exist. The Government itself is to-
day the great example of dishonesty and
Of useless and vicious insolvency; hence it
is no wonder that its agents, its SPIES its
informers, attempt to cast obloquy upon
those except for whom the utter anarchy
of mutual distrust would prevail. Were
not the merchants, the traders, the people
far better and more honest than the laws
their rulers made for them, the nation it.
self would cease to exist. AT the door of
those misguided or depraved legislators
who have enacted base statutes, lies the
responsibility of most of the real frauds
that exist, as well as Of the disgrace of
false charges made against honest men.
The employment by Government of spies
in the administration of its affairs is always
an evidence of weakness. and the degree
of their employment always measures that
of its imbecility and rottenness. What we
demand of legislators is that they shall
apply the same simple rule of equity to the
transactions Of the nation that we apply to
our doings with each other. 1t needs only
the plain, ordinary and true course that an
honest aud upright merchant would take,
that he could not help taking,-to rescue
this country from the oppression and dan
gers that are upon us.
In the dark time Of civil war, when the
fate Of the nation was at stake, many acts
were done for which, in time of peace,
there could be no justification among
them was the Legal Tender act, whereby
the Government levied forced loan. The
danger Of this step was we'll understood by
those who gave it reluctant vote Not
until MIR. Chase had himself gone down to
the Senate Chamber and had said that
without it he could not carry on the Gov
eminent, did our lamented Sumner and
others OF his associates yield their consent
Why did they hesitate? 1t was because
these men, who then urged heavier taxation
rather than recourse to a forced loan, knew
that no nation had ever yet redeemed the
promises issued as money under the stress
OF war. Every nation, without exception,
that has ever issued debt, to serve as mon
ey, has repudiated it, and has returned to
specie payment through natural bankrupt
cy. They dreaded lest the glorious enthu-
siasm for liberty should then fail which
had then brought the nation to the temper
in which the people would have given
property, lfe all but honor, to the cause
for which they fought They dreaded
such failure when the stern, hard duties of
restoring the losses of the war should have
come upon US.
A NATIONAL TRUST
Yet, knowing that kingdoms and en-
pires had thus failed, that every other ma
ton that had ever Used promises in the
place of dollars, or Of other coined money,
had failed to redeem them knowing the
dangers, they yet trusted a free people,
and believed that we should prove an ex-
ceptiOn, and that in this, as in other ways,
we should become an example and lead
er among the nations. Shall we prove
false in this high faith? Are we to dis
grace ourselves and them? Arewe to dis
honor the dead? Shall the act which Lin
coin signed to save the nation, prove its
ruin? The ignorant, the depraved, and
the incompetent men who have failed in
these past years to dedicate the abundant
revenues that the people have poured so
lavlshly into their hands to the honest.
prompt, and true payment of the demand
debt represented by the greenbacls, have
dlsgraced and dishonored the great men by
whose acts the nation was saved, and have
converted this legal tender promise into a
lie and cheat.
BY its continued and enforced use they
pick the pockets of the people and steal
from the laborer portion of the fruit of
his labor, making him no return. Some
honest but ignorant legislators have un-
dertaken TO rebuke those who call the
greenbacks lie, and have tried to hold
them up TO public scorn, because they say
we cast obloquy upon one of the great war
instruments by which the nation was saved.
We honor the sword and the rife which
our soldiers used, when laid away as tro-
phies, but IT they had been placed in the
hands OF highwaymen when their right
eous work had ended and had been used
by them to rob US on the road, should we
still cherish and value the weapons even of
our hOnOred dead?
These men who have put the greenbacks
Into use that had been paid and withdrawn
have done an act as base-they have con-
verified the righteous weapons of the war
into the implements of robbery and op-
preston. l charge not bad motives upon
many men. There are not MANY men.
thank God, put on the livery of Heav-
en- to serve the devil in, but ignorance and
weakness are more dangerous than wrong
intent, When even an honest but hope
lessly incapable Secretary of the Treasury
seems to be only the dice-box with which
your Butler, Sanborns, and Javnes
throw loaded dice in the gambling
game to which u false and dishon.
ored currency and a bad rev.
enue system have brought all our COM
merce, 1t is time indeed to hold meetings
OF the people, to tell Congress-ta no ac-
ton unless you take right action, condone
no fraud, tolerate no tampering with the
currency Tell Congress at least to re-en.
act the limit Of the currency, and take
from the Secretary of the Treasury the
power to play fast and loose with the grea
exchanges OF the country, measured al
they are In thousands of millions. Take
away TINS unlawful assumption, which put
II IN the power even of a subordinate O
the treasury to make or mar the Fortunes
OF thousands. Demand this in the nam,
OF the consumers of all the products ex
changed upon whom this tmapering witt
the currency ntilcts the heaviest tax of an,
now imposed upon them.
THE MAIN QUEsTIoN-KEEP FAITH
Let us say to those men in Congress
who mean well but know not how to act.
were well indeed if you could act quickly
we are suffering hecausa tho stondorJ :