Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-10-30

cleaning out her foreign debt as fast as
practicable.
But 20 rccur 90 our own county. We see
our financial likelihood ehbing ag.Iy through
our foreign debt, without any eiiirient plan
10 arrest it. Oar Constitution allows the
fre,. export of all cOmmljities. therefore.
Congress, like the British parlisment, can
MT prohibit the citizen from exporting
gold. But, were IL otherwise. C0nsrt =
has yoluul arily pursued tue opposite policy
by creating the foreign debt, and there
by giving free vent TO the oUlfOW OF
our gold. The gold which goes ont TO pay
The Government debt goes out not TO re-
turn, but il is run through foreign minis
and is stamped with regal dies. IL is not
like the commercial debt of the citizen con-
tracted abroad, for he brings in return yalu-
able commodities as the consideration 10
combine with the labor and natural re-
sources Of the country, and in this way
makes his debt a producing capital. The
gold interest paid ON our foreign debt is not
only, without compromising advantages,
but it is positive commercial and finaIl-
cial evil, as / have already shown.
EIvE-TwENTIEs.
The $40 bonds are made payable in
lawful money, while the interest is pay
able in gold. | maintain that these go
bonds are sOivable in legal tender notes Of
the United States. They say on their face
that they are good for all debts, private or
public, and If The face of your bonds do
not specifically provide that they shall be
payable in gold, hold they are payable in
legal tender notes.
GRANTS PLAN.
The President proposes to repeal the
legal tender act Of ~. lie would make
more gold bonds and have all the taxes,
after his proposed resumption, which is
next year, paid in coin. lie would leave
the coinage ac.s Of 1871 and 1910 il force,
and nothing but gold and silver would be a
legal-tender after one year. Hence, after
that date, all the fiye-tWenly bonds and 9TH
e. bonds pulated in TIC bonds to be pay
able in lawful money" all State and cor
pOration bonds and all private debts
must then of necessity be PAYABLE
in gold. This would give an addi-
tional value TO the demands Of the
creditor Of l2a per cent, and subtract a
corresponding value from the productions
and property Of the debtor. The public
and private debt Of our country amounts to
about S. 100, $4,000. To pay it in gold It
would require premium Of about $780,
100000, and a corresponding increase of
the value Of the interest on the debt by
making it payable in gold. The aggregate
annual taxation Of our country amounts TO
about S6ll, $50, 32G; it would add an annual
value af about SSO,0O0,OO0 if paid in gold.
The results ,OOl,OO0,OOQ profit to tho
creditor, 81, 900 10000 eonfiscat:On to the
debtor, SS0,OOO,OOO additional annual taxa :
tion to the people.
But this is not all. The President would
have the legal-tender notes redeemed in
gold at the end of two years. The result
would be that their increasing value would
equal the interest Of a gold-bearing bond,
and many Of them would be withdrawn
from circulation and boarded with the
bonds. This wOald operate as another
tightening cord on the property and Indus
tries Of the country.
Again, TO provide gold to redeem the
legal-tender notes the President would
crowd more gold bonds, bearing gold inter
est, on the market. To get out of debt he
would get deeper in. He would pay gold
interest on the bond, when he pays no in
terest now Oh the legal-tender note. He
would increase instead Oflighteningthe bur
den of taxation.
TIE BLOODY CHASM.
Our friends Of the West have learned a
lesson, and they are now ready TO come
and shake hands across the chasm and be |
one among us. And there is a grand COM
mercial future before us. View the mass |
of our country, embracing tine Aleghanies |
on the one hand and the Rocky mountains |
on he other; see the centre cut by that |
gTandest Of rivers. Here comes the placid |
Ohio from the Aleghanies, and there the |
turbid Missouri from the Rocky mountains. |
Here come the waters from the lakes and |
the fifteen hundred tributaries, arr gather |
ed in the bosom Of this old patriarch Of /
waters as he PUSHES forward to the sea, with |
a mingling Of the soils as there should be |
a mingling Of the commercial interests of |
the people in the West and South.
New England has held the sceptre of |
supremacy long enough; it is |
trembling in her palsied grasp. We are
nlw wrenching it from her, finger by finger. |
LIT us press forward. Let us forget the |
bl ,Ody past. The future is before US, and |
lie. us see to it that we fall not out by the
WAY. Applause