The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1875-07-30
Gov. Allen of Ohio ON the Cur.
renCy.

a speech in the evening, which he did t.
large and attentive crowd, The follow
ing is that portion OF his remarks bearing
on the currency.
Now, there are some curious facts thai
arise in the history of politics, and we
have a singular exemplifcation of the
statement at this time We hear it said
by all of the newspapers in that interest
and the most of them in the State are
conducted by postmasters-we hear it
said that the Democratic party at Column
bus, at its State Convention, hoisted the
flag of" rag money Did they? What
is rag money? Who made it2 Where
did it come from? Every cent of it was
made by your press gang at Washington
City, run by the Treasury Department.
Every dollar of this rag money! from
the beginning to the end, was made by
you, gentleman, who are now clamorin e
against rag money" Laughter. How
came it in circulation? Did the Demo-
.crats circulate it? Oh, no. A Demo.
cratic voice was not heard in the cOun.
ellis of the country when that immense
volume of paper was issued, and when
the same Congress that issued it wrote up
on the back of it. This is a legal-tender
for all debts and you must take it, ex-
cept in paying interest to the bondholders
and in the Custom-house. By this they
made discrimination in their own cur
rency; they impaired one faculty to it and
denied it another. They paid their debts
with it, and paid the farmers with it when
they bought anything from them during
the war; they paid the soldiers with it;
thew paid pensions with it; but they won't
nav the bondholders with it. although it
was specially provided that one class of
bonds was to be paid in it. Why is this2
The bondholders have a great advan-
tage in holding this immense amount of
property, and at the same time paying no
taxes and getting their interest paid in
coin on it. But whatever the currency is
in quality and volume, it is their work,
not, ours, If they call the issues of the
Government rag money" whose rag
money" is it2 Didn't you make it?
LLaughter.l You made the ''rag money
Not one dollar of paper money in the
United States was manufactured by Dem
ocrats. And yet these fellows are max
ing clamor as though we had imposed
upon the country all this rag money
They are repudiating their own bantling.
They are trying to bring their own spawn
into contempt, and in doing that they are
doing good deal more than they think
they are doing. Now, rag money as
they call it, is a promise OF the United
States to pay. That is all 1t Is. A bond
of the United States is promise to pay;
a bond of the State of Ohio or the city of
Cincinnati is a promise to pay; all the
railroad bonds of the Republic are prom
Uses 10 pay. They all stand upon the
same foundation of credit, and the man
who undertakes to discredit the notes of
his Government discredits the entire
amount of our private and corporation in
debtedness as WE'LL the individual notes
of a people who will not pay their public
indebtedness will be worth but little in
the money market Of the world.
There are in the United States, includ-
ing all the bonded Indebtedness of the I'm
ion OF States, cities, towns and railroads,
about ten thousand millions of dollars, and
all this vast sum hangs upon the precise
thread that sustains the greenbacks and
all the bank circulation of the country.
They are based upon the idea Of credit.
and that credit alone is to be expressed in
fidelity to the institution that issues that
note or bond which it promises to pay.
They are all promissOry notes; they are
all intertwined with each other; they form
an immense credit system in the United
States and in every country In the world
that is civilized. You would be surpris-
ed, presume, if were to tell you that
the whole trade of the British Empire
from Canada to India-a larger COM
merce than any country in the world, old
or young, ever had before-is transacted
upon credit, every dollar of it. Whenev-
er these people commence an assault up
on the credit of the country, called green
ha
an assault upon the entire volume of
this property that consists solely in cred
1t.
But these gentlemen who are making
such hue and cry about rag money have
n owordsof depreciation for the two thous
and National banks, to which we pay !
twenty millions of dollars per year for the |
blessed favor of furnishing US currency. |
And what kind of a currency do they fur |
nish us2 Is it not a rag currency? Is |
it not made out af the same material out |
of which greenbacks are constructed, and |
is it not redeemable in greenbacks? |
Then why is this species of rag money |
better than the greenbacks, and why |
should we pay this enormous sum every
year for the privilege of having a curren-
cy redeemable in greenbacks, when we
can have the greenbacks themselves, and
save our twenty millions of dollars? If
we could hear the clink of the coin on the
counter when we pass a National bank
bill to its maker, for redemption, there
would be distinction with a difference
between the two kinds of money. Bnt
while the National bank rag is only re-
deemable with a greenback rag, and the
faith and prosperity OF this great Govern
ment is pledged to redeem the greenback,
"a tl,E h, L. l., ]
preferable, as it certainly is the cheapest
currency. To call the greenback worth
less aud an irrcdeemable currency, is to
impugn the honor and credit of the Gov
eminent. Upon the face of each note
is printed, THE United States will pay to
1t does not say when
it will pay it, as it does in its interest
bearing bonds, but it nevertheless sol
emily promises to pay the amount.
The matter of the payment of either
of the series of the interest bearing bonds
rests entirely upon the honor of the Gov
eminent. There is no power under
heaven to compel the payment of any of
our bonds If the Government declines TO
do so. Therefore, what right have the
TO say that the Government
will pay one class of its honesty cOntraC-
ted Indebtedness and refuse to pay anoth-
err? The obligations of this Government
will all be paid. The people will not al
low reputation in any shape. Their
moral sense revOlts at the idea. But,
say our Republican friends, you Demo,
Gratis have hard money record. How
can you be for rag money now? | &C
say to them that circumstances CT
politics. When we were harH .opGo
party, hard money was posS;' mon1v
was Tor the interest OF u rDle, and it