Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1875-10-08
The Currency Question On the Pacific

The Currency Question On the Pacific.
At monster meeting In Union Hall, San
Francisco, Hon. ]. G. Burrows thus expressed
himself on the currency question:
Now, 1 know this currency question has
been the subject of much division and of much
| discussion; but, whatever may have been the
| division in the Republican party, know this
| is true, that the Republican party has never
breathed word of reputation of one solitary
| dollar of the national debt. Tremendous ap-
| plause.
Whatever may have been our trouble on
the other side, the need of currency as it was
maintained, this Republican party has always
maintained that every solitary dollar of our
| Indebtedness should be paid to the last cent.
How is it with the Democratic party? Have
they done as much; have they not time and
again talked of reputation; have they not
| talked of paying the bonds with greenhacks?
Has It not been favorite theory that they
might pay of the seventeen hundred millions
of bonded indebtedness with greenbacks7 Why,
sir, look at it. Look at that monstrous doc
trins, seventeen hundred millions of bonded
Indebtedness drawing interest at five or six per
cent. They propose to discharge it with prom
ises to pay. They propose to start a printing
machine, buy the ink and the paper and run of
seventeen hundred millions OF promises and
take up the bonded indebI ednsss and discharge
owed to you by renewed promises. You hold
my note for 500, drawing interest at ten per
cent; the year is up; the note is due; l owe
YOU $110; go to you and tell you that want
to take up that note. 1 get it and destroy it
and make out another for $40, which hand
you. "For value received hereby promise to
pay the bearer S11O." But you say, "when is
this paya5le2'' ''No time" "Where is IL
paya6Ie?'' "Nowhere." 'WeT, to whom is
it payable?" "Nobody." SIN what!'
Nothing. That is money; take that. That
is your money, and that is your pay, and
when that is worn out, why that is the end of
it. daughter That is the way we propose
to pay our debts, and that is the imitation
theory. Merriment.] Well, now, my fel-
low-citizens, there is nothing in that but dis
honesty; there is nothing in that but fraud.
There is no way to pay this Indebtedness but
to pay it in the recognized money Of the
world. [Cheering and applause.l
am glad that you have money here; you
have got money on this side. When the war
broke out we had money, too, to pay our
debts; but soon we had no money left to pay
our soldiers; we had no money to clothe him,
and all we could do was to give promises that
we would pay the money some time, and so we
gave him greeuback, which is a promise to
pay. And now the Democratic party pro-
poses what9 To issue more of these. As they
do in Ohio, to enter upon great scheme of
imitation. Make these greenbacks, but then
how are the people to get hold of them?
There is no way of getting money but to save
it. How are the people to get hold of them2
VIII you have great crib made and filed
with them, where every man can help himself
CMerriment.1 Are you to take these green
backs and pay of the bonds with theml Then
what are you going to do with the greenbacks;
let them runl
Ny fslloW-citizens, the Democratic party also
declared against national banks. l saw an argu-
ment to-day in the paper advocating wiping out
our national banks and letting the Government
go into the banking business; let the Federal
Government carry on the banking business.
When in the history of the Government did
you ever have a banking system better than
the one we have got to-day2 There was a
time, you know, when we would take our State
bills themselves and carried them in our pocl-
cts. To-day they might be good, but to-mor-
row they would be worthless. To-day we have
a currency that is good everywhere, in Maine,
in Texas and in California everywhere in the
Republic, this national currency, every dollar
of which is secured by the bonds of the Gov
ernment. When did you have currency be-
fore, every dollar of which was Just as good
when the bank was broken as when it was SOL
vent and yet that is the fact to-day. But
saw an article in the paper which said, 'Why
not take up these bonds, why not destroy them
duu Save lllt lHsC{CSS upOn 6l4Sh4s dLu l6b Tie
Government issue greenbacks directly?" I
will tell you why. There are two reasons In
the first place you would not save the interest,
because if the banks did not hold these bonds,
somebody else would, and it makes 40 difference
to whom you pay the interest: that is the
delusion. In the next place, it is a fraud
and a deception to issue one solitary dollar
more of promise to pay. [APplaHse.J To do
it in peace, too. For when the Government
should with one hand take its bonds, and in
the other the greenbacks, the men who were
to take the bonds said, how many of these ire
deemable promises to pay are you to issue!
Never but four hundred millions. 1t was
necessary to say that in order that they might
float the bonds OF the nation. Now, what
violation of the public faith it would be to turn
around and issue these greenbackS Gd IFtinitatsl,
and the more you issue the more you depre-
ciate the value of the currency. And, my fel- |
this claim of the Democracy is
delusion and a fraud, and this Republican
party has set its face like flint towards specie
or toward this goal, when every
greenback in the land will be worth just 110
cents on the dollar in gold.
No, my fellow-citizens, 1 say if you would
redeem the pledges of the Government, you
must keep this Republican party in power, and
just so sure as you do you know that every
every solitary dollar of the debt will be paid.