Wilmington daily gazette., 1874-01-29
Speech 81 mr. Dayar
N THE sENATE, JANUARY 2s.


Mr.. Bayard, (dem.) of Delaware, addressed
the Senate. He said the people of the United
States In their financial condition had arrived
at the point where the roads TO. ked, and the
question was whether they would take the
path to the right or to the left He briefly re-
ment and argued that the Legal Tender act
was q war measure and should not be contin
ued now in time of peace. A standard of
values should be declared by basing all cur
rency on the gold standard, and he had no
doubt the people of this country would cheer
fully make sacrifices to deliver themselves
from the evils of paper currency under which
they had labored for tho past twelve
years. He quoted words of Daniel Webster
against disordered currency, and expressed
have Its influence upon Senators now. He
argued that the path Of duty, honesty and
wisdom, was that to resumption of specie pay
ment ut the earliest possible day. ami quoted
the opinion Of eK|Secretary NcCulloch In IA
Of legal tender notes, he thought, was not on
ly without warrant OF law, but against tho
law, The policy OF the late Secretary INT.
B6utWell1 aAd besa coutluusd by his success
yur. Sud thAt Soaator declared on the floor the
uther day IN hts speech that any policy look
| ffaut with asaeer. Was it possible that tha
people Of tho United States were to have NO
hope. The hsosrabe Senator (Ar. Boutwgal}
hsd alesed bissspeech by declaring that We
mast have dishonor or Increase taxation. He
| (Nr. Bayard) thought the Senator had written
l his own epitaph rs q 1naHcier BY these words.
He neqt rsad from q decision Of the supreme
Court to show that greonbackB were redeem
able In coin, and said he hoped that there
would be an cad to the wretched Quibble so
dishon0ring TO the country about promising to
pay:
was system II puAed or overruled prices, kept
up With the idea Of making people believe ,hsS
are wealthy When really they are moi The
more he considered the results of tho prtsen,
fioancial policy the mora he desired to reiracs
the steps taken daring the war. The wing
disposition aud tsnd. .ney scanned to be ito looi
TO tbs general government for assistance which
individual enterprise should develop Fropo
, sitions TO combine railroads and hand then
over to the Secretary of the Interior. to pur
, chase the telegraph and hand it over to tn
D Postmaster General, and others Of similar char
acter, all tended to conve ri the government in
, , to a vast monopoly, in th shadow Of which in
, dividusi liberty would wither and die. III
did not propose q specific plan for tue re
I sumption Ot specie payments, but woul
support any sound measure 10 place the l )
= On u firm financial basis. The national bank
/, ing system he thought imperfect. aud hoped tt
+, see the time when the people Of this tnio
< would have the right Ia regulate banks 10
. themselves subject of course, to the restriction
IL of the constitution prohibiting any note bein
r made legal endsr. Let the State system {
IS i.anks be again revived The honest business
oi the county had been outdone by dishonest hGs
N ness. The past Two years bad been waste.
l. lie would not say that all hope had passe
~ away; tut there had been failure to take al
:, :, vantage of the opportunities Of that perio'
10 Our difficulties had increased lie believe
n. enough gold could be accumulated in the Trea
ar ury within the next four years to meet ever
5, obligation as presented, but there should be
" cessation 10 the payment of debts not yet du
ie the principal of which isnot desired by the no
u ders Snch policy would suffice to bring II
,r Treasury 81 the unitsd States back toa syste
y of honesty and wisdom which the honor Of II
is government deserves.