Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1874-05-12
NATIONAL CURRENCY.

From the Congressional Record of April
7th We take the following extract of speech
delivered in the House of Representatives,
by the Hon. William D. Kelley, of Pennsyl-
vania, in which high tribute is paid to our
county>mau, John A. Thomson, ESQ.,:
have said that the power to emit money
cannot be delegated without danger to the
Government and the people, and especially to
the current trade and commerce of the coun>
try. 1t involves the highest attribute of
sovereignty, and cannot be parceled out
among the people of the several States with
out such collisions of interest and opinion as
must perpetually endanger trade and COM
merce. And, sir, I maintain the position
that paper money emitted by the Government
should be based on the credit of the Govern
ment which rests on the taxable property and
power of the country; that Government is
cues promising to nay specie, or any other
mode of redemption than by its receipt in
payment of taxes and all other pecuniary
liabilities to the Government, would he fraught
with the same delusive snare that bank prom
ises to do an impossible thing are fraught
with
know, sir, that this statement will en-
velop me with the tender emotion of pity,
nigh akin to love. of the eloquent gentleman
from the Hartford district of Connecticut,
TMr Hawley,1 of my eloquent friend from
New Jersey, Mr.. Phelps, and, it may be,
of my good friend from Illinois Mr.. Burchard |
and the learned bullionsts of the country
generally. should undoubtedly be over
whelmed by the consciousness of their low
ing condescension and pity we're not some-
thing of an egotist, and in the habit of think
.r
other men, especially when [ stand on
proposition taught me, and supported more
ably than I can support it, by Benjamin
Franklin, John Jay, (when presiding over
the Continental Congress,) Thomas Jefferson,
Alexander Hamilton, John Taylor of Caro-
line, James Madison, and John G. Calhoun,
among the dead, and by Henry G. Carey,
John a. Thomson of Summit Point, West
Virginia, and Charles Sears, of Navasink,
New Jersey. three as original and profound
thinkers as God ever blessed our country with,
and with legion OF men less worthy of dis
tinction than they, bnt scarcely less worthy of
it than my associates on this fuor who do me
the honor to pity my ignorance and credulity
But let me say. and il would be we'll for
tho country to consider the proposition, that
Nil talk CT the resumption of specie payments
at this time is dcusion without a shadow of
foundation in fact or theory sustained by fact;
and they who not being bankers or of the
creditor class who urge resumption are misled
by the teachings of men who proclaim their
science to be science based on assumptions
This is Ike the oriental theory by which the
earth is kept in its place the earth rests on
elephant, it is said. and the elephant on a
tortoise, and the tortoise is assumed to rest on
something, and if this assumption is wrong,
the possibility is that the theory is not cx>
actly right. And so is it with this science
based on assumptions; when assumptions are
consistent with the, facts of history and social
life then We may prove the deductions from
them.