Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1875-09-16
THE CURRENCY.
Pendleton's Original Opinion of
OfThem as Il War Agency,

, 800, ,000,00 of Treasury notes was un
der consideration in the House of Rep
resentatives, Mr.. Pendleton, Of Ohio
on the 29th of January, made speecl
in opposition to the bill. [See Globe
pages 55O-51.l After arguing at length
the unconstitutionality of the meas
ure, he went on to say:
But, even if l believed this bill to be
constitutional in both aspects, yet see
enoug b in it to merit, as l think, the
hearty condemnation of the House. Ii
provides that these notes shall be re-
deemable only at the pleasure of the
United States.
The gentleman from New York Mr.
Spaulding] called them demand notes,
They have been so called throughout
the country. They do not bear sim
gle characteristic of demand note.
There is no time, from the hour when
they shall pass into the hands OF the
holder, when he can by their terms
demand that they shall be redeemed.
There is no time when the Government
is pledged to their payment. The hold
er NAV present them, and he Is told
that the time has Dot arrived at which,
by the face of the bill, they are to be
paid. They will inevitably depreciate.
The wit of man has never discovered a
means by which paper money can be
keIt at par value, except by its speedy,
cheap cOnvertibility into gold and sill
yer. l need not cite gentleman to his
tory or authOritieS-writers on pOliti-
cal economy-to prove it. Unless con-
yertibIe they have always depreciated;
they always will depreciate;they ought
to depreciate, because they are only
valuable as the representatives of gold
and silver; and if they are not convert
ible into that of which they are repre-
sentatives, they must necessarily lose
their value. You send these notes out
into the world stamped with irredeem-
| ability. You put on them the mark OF
Cain, and like Cain, they will go forth
to be vagabonds and fugitlves on the
earth. What then will be the cOnse-
quence? 1t requires no prophet to tell
what will be their history. The cur
rency will be expanded; prices will be
| inflated; fixed values will depreclate;
incomes will be diminished; the sa-
wings of the poor will vanish; the
hoardings of the widow will melt away;
bonds, mortgages, and notes, every
thing of fixed value will lose their val
ue; everything OF changeable value Will
be appreciated; the necssaries of life will
rise in value; the Government will ray
two-fold, certainly largely more than
it ought, for everything it goes into the
market to buy; gold ard silver will be
driven out of the country. What then?
The day of reckoning will come. Con-
traction will follow. Private ruin and
bankruptcy, either with or without re-
pudiation, will inevitably follow.
Mr.. Webster has painted most fell
citously the disastrous resnlts to follow
from this same course of conduct: "a
disordered currency is one OF the great
est political evils. 1t undermines the
virtues necessary for the support OF the
social system, and encourages evils de-
structive of its happiness. 1t wars
against industry, frugality and econo-
my, and it fosters the evil spirits Of ex-
travagance and speculation. Of all the
contrivances for cheating the laboring
classes of mankind none has been more
effectual than that which deluded them
with paper money. Ordinary tyran-
nv. oppression, excessive taxation.
these bear lightly on the mass OF the
community, compared with fraudulent
currencies, and robberies committed
! bp deprecated paper. Our own histo-
ry has recorded for our instruction
enough, and more than enough, of the
demOralizing tendency, the injustice,
and the intolerable oppression on the
virtuous and well-dispOsed, of degra-
ded paper currency, authorized by law,
or i'm any way cOuntenanced by Gov
erument. - We6ster's Speeches, vol. 2.
page 81.
Can We not learn something from the
early experience of our own country?
Can we not learn something from the
| overthrow of the revolutionary gov
ernment of France, by this very over
issue of deprecated paper? Can Wenot
learn something from those throes
which the society of England endured
during the long suspension of and at
its return to specie currency in 1872?
Can we not now rise to a wisdom OF
craftsmanship which shall control the
financial necessities of the country,
without plungiDg it into that guilt from
which there is, with honor and safety,
no recovery?
Sir, 1 beg gentlemen to permit me to
read i'm closing, what have to say, one
more lesson of wisdom from that states
man Cf New England to whom I have
had occasion 80 often already to refer.
read it with the hope that it will be
engraved on the memory of every man
here. and that it will enable us to avoid
the evils of which he has spoken by adj
herring to the course which he has wise
ly marked out:
ho1 hQftar nIlrrlnRv
than the United States. There was no
nation which had guarded It's currency
with more care, for the trainers OF the
Constitution and thoce who had enact
ed the only statutes on the subject were
hard money men. They ha0 lett and
duly appreciated the evils OF paper
medium; they therefore sedulously
guarded the currency of the United
States from debasement. The legal
currency of the United States was gold
and silver coin. This was subject In
regard to which Congress had run into
no folly. Gold and silver currency was
the law of the world abroad; there
could, in the present condition OF the
world, be no other currency"
Let gentlemen heed this lesson OF
wisdom. Let them, if need be, tax the
energies and wealth of the country suf-
ficiently to restore the credit of the
Government. Let them borrow what
ever money in addition may be neces-
sary-borrow it to the full extent that
may be necessary-and let us adhere
rig idly, firmly, consistently, persist.
ly, and to the end, to the principle of
refusing to surrender that currency
which the Constitution has given US,
and in the maintenance Of which this
government has never, as yet, for one
moment waned..
THE work of the Bible revisors on the
New Testament has now been in pro-
gress five years and will occupy five