The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1874-04-01

li5a Senator Ferry-s speech.
The speech of the Hon Thomas w
Ferry, of Michigan, on the currency
delivered in the United States Senate
on the 10th inst, establishes the right
of the junior Senator from Michigan
to hold a place in the front rank OF
legislators. Mr.. Ferry has shown
himself, not only the peer of older
Senators, but, on the question at issue,
master of the situation. Its easy to
say of a given argument, lit is unan-
swerable." This remark has been APP
piled by all the Liberal journals and
all the specie resumptionists to the
recent speech of Mr.. Schurz. If the
editors of the Liberal journals and
the capitalists will read the speech of
Mr. Ferry they will End that the re
mark is not true. Mr. Ferry has not
only answered, but refuted, Mr..
Sehurz points. one by one, until the
gentleman from Missouri has not a
foot of financial ground to stand upon.
1t i impossible to do justice to this
speech by attempting to review it in
the brief space at our command The
best we can do is to give some short
extracts covering the main points dis
cussed. ~. ,=ar r...-
Tins he draws attention to the
oneness of the government and the
people:
The advocates of resumption have
assumed a personality for the govern
ment, distinct and apart from the peo-
pie, to mystify the issue. The gov
eminent is simply the agency of the
people, charged to do their will, and
for their financial necessities to put in
the form of money the peoples prom
Uses to pay 1t is for their necessity,
and is their own expedient. In money
OF their own creation, stamped with
the seal of their own government, and
made lien on the whole national
wealth, they have Perfect faith, and
ask for no other and want no better
circulation C..g---..s.s
He sums up the advantages of free
banking in the following wise SEN
tenccs:a ii 4..---.ts.s-ee,,liss 3
"A free banking system for the
country is great step in the right di-
rection. 1t is anti-monopoly and in
the interest of the whole people. 1t
tends directly toward the more rapid
national development. RESTRICTED,
as now, 1T becomes an object of preju-
dicial distrust; made free to all, it
works into the favor and faith of all.
C
sable to the industrial necessities of
the nation. Without proper medium
of exchange the growth Of the country
and the accumulation of wealth would
be arrested. All nations have found
circulation through paper money |
He quotes Mr.. Calhoun, of South
Carolina, and Thomas Jefferson to
show that even in their time the
necessity for a national system of pa
per money was foreseen. fE rs 1@H
On the feasibility of substituting
paper issues for gold and silver he
cites Macleod as follows: Toms brfi
b THE simplest and most perfect
form of Il currency is that which rep
resents nothing but transferable debt,
and of which the material is of no in
trinsicf value, such as paper. 1t is
only when States have reached high
degreezof civilization that they adopt
this perfect form; before they attain
that the material of it entirely consists
of something which has an intrinsic
value, such as gold or silver.
And McCulloch, to the, same pur-
pose:
If there were perfect security that
the power of issuing paper money
would not be abused-that is, if there
were perfect security for its being is
sued in such quantities as to preserve
its value relatively to the mass of cir
culating commodities nearly equal
the precious metals might be entirely
dispensed with s4 ~2li ~
Mr.. F adds: From many minds of
experience, it might further be shown
that security is the essential element
of any form of money"
Then addressing himself directly to
the question, he states the alternative
results involved in the propositions
expansion and contraction - very
sharply, as follows: s 1sl --7F
The alternative now stands before
US of expansion in some form or re-
sumption; commercial life or CONNER
cial death: either diffusion of wealth.
or monopoly of wealth The question
involves the prosperity of the pro-
Queer, else the enrichment of the non
producer; whether the laborer shall
walk more erect. or the capitalist more
proudly strut s4 - s.A- s. 80. Z
He then adds: - 81. -. -.
..Under free banking there would
be freedom and profit to industry
Restricted banking is monopoly of
tem Of i free bantns tends 70 eaaaty
of circulation; monopoly of banking
creates inequality. One is repubH-
can; the other is anti-repubEcan. One
erects an aristocracy, while the other
dethrones It. Expansion, or free
banking, involves no more increase Of
our national bonds. Resumption
looks to the issue of more of the ma
tional bonds and the expansion of our
public debt. Throughout this whole
debate I have looked in vain to the