The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1875-07-01
The Currency Question.

by lar the most important of the issues
now before the people of the United States,
is that which relates to the currency. Here
tofore the Issue has been rather a sectional
than party one-the great central states OF
the west, and the greater part of the south
being pervaded by the sophistries of the in
fationists, while the eastern states and the
business centres of the country, where public
opinion is shaped by better understanding
of the principles which lay at the foundation
OF all sound finance, have favored an early re-
turn to specie payments.
Those who have watched the drift of pub
| lie sentiment on this question must be con-
vlnced that however strong the KelIy-Mor-
ton-Logan school was in the first session OF
| the last Congress, it weakened in that body
during the last session, and agreed upon a
measure fixing date for resumption and the
| gradual contraction of the currency with
| great uIanimity, which would have been re-
jected in March 1874. Gen. Logan's people
have indicated very plainly to him that Hi
nois Republicans want no more paper mon
ey, so that he will undoubtedly acquiesce in
any action pledging the Republican party to
early resumption. Already the Indiana pa
per which is supposed to express Senator
Morton's views, has taken decided grounds
against further initiation of the currency
That paper, the indianapolis Journal, says
that ''no man will ever be elected President
who openly favors unlimited expansion and
consequent depreciation of the currency, or
who favors policy whose logical conclusion
is general reputation of the national obliga-
tions." Judge Kelly of Pennsylvania is the
only man among those who have been the
leading advocates of imitation among
the Republican members of Congress who
| now advocates an expansion of the currency
or currency which shall be elastic through
the medium of his convertible bond scheme.
The Pioneer-Press, the independent journal
of st. Paul, Minnesota, takes this view of the
present tendency of the two political parties,
as will be seen from the following extract
from the issue of that paper of June "a:
But the indications now are that the next
presidential campaign will turn upon this issue
OF Hard-money or .Rag money, and that each of
the two great political parties is gradually
| yielding to the preponderating weight of the
popular element in its ranks, or its leadership,
| on one side or the other of this question; that
| the Republican party, in short, is gradually
! cutting loose from the Kelly-Morton.L Logan
school of financial economists and enlisting un-
| der the banner of hard money and honesty
| while the Democratic party will be forced to
| turn its back on its3 hard money antecedents
| and accept Pendleton aud Voorhees, and Bogy
for its leaders into the desert of an irredeema-
BILE currency, in pursuit of that brilliant but il
| lusory mirage which promises to slake the thirst
| of the multitude with endless lakes and rivers
| and fountains OF cheap money, but which turn
| only to hot and shimmering sands on which
| the fainting traveller perishes in the vain chase
| after an impossible fantasy. For example we
| find that in Indiana, Ohio and Missouri and in
several southern states the democracy are fran
tically infiationist, and that the old hard-mon-
| ey leaders Of the party have been compelled to
| surrender to the frenzied mob of shinplaster
| devotees, headed by Pendleton. Voorhees,, and
others. Shnplasterism means simply repudia-
| ton; the payment or rather non.payment of
the national debt in greenbacks, the original
| form in which it was presented by Pendleton; /;
| and, OF course, the permanent non-payment of
| the greenbacks; it means the deliberate dis
honorlng by the government of all its obliga-
tiOns, and it is naturally expected to command
the Jealous support of the southern Democracy.
| With the three great states of the west, whose
| votes are essential to Democratic success in
| 1876, and the bulk of the southern states array
| gu Oh tuo Slue Ol Iuo SElnplaSter pOlCy, un6y
| would probably capture the next national DEM
| Ocratic convention, and when such sturdy
| champions of coin redemption as Thur
man and Fog-ho Allen are overborne by the
| western tempest of infation-the one into ST.
| lent acquieSence, the other into open advocacy
of the delusions he despises, we can hardly ex-
pect that in Democratic national convention
| such men as Tilden or any other advocate of
sane financial theories would stand any chance.
The indications then, are that the rag-money
nr1d nrvdI Inf ftnn ole oE fho han,4 t,1
party of the west and south will overwhelm
the next national convention, dictate its plat
form and nominate its candidates. They are
going to try it anyhow, that is certain.
It's true that the Democracy of the Eas.
tern states have recently taken decided
grounds in favor an early resumption of spe
Gle payments. This change of sentiment,
however, has taken place since 1868 when the
Pendleton plank of the convention which
nominated Seymour was received with the
greatest enthusiasm. This plank declares for
the payment or the national debt with green
backs where coin is not expressly stated in
the bond. In his great speech in this city in
1868, when the Democracy was measured by
"acres," Mr.. Pendleton distinctly ADVOCATED
an expansion OF the currency in order to pay
the national debt. In the course of his
speech which is an argument for the pay.
ment of the debt in greenbacks and the con
sequent imitation of the currency, Mr.. Pen
dleton said:
Suppose we initiate the currency and the far
mer sells his corn for So 30 per bushel and
takes the proceeds to the West and for every
bushel locates two good acres of land, or tha
he sells his wheat for S. per bushel aud for ev
cry bushel locates four good acres, and suppose
your men who labor. save from your dali,
wages, beyond what is necessary to support you
families 800 per year, and go to the West, tC
the richest ground ever ploughed, and buy
farm of seventy-tive acres, hoao mach does thai
imitation injure you9
Mr.. Penpleton goes on to say tina. he voted
against the currency bill in Congress when il
was war measure-that he is a hard money
man and protested against it at its inception
but concludes that now we have it and hav
suffered all its evils, he for one is sin favor O
standing by the system until we have got ou
every particle of good there is in it," And
this sentiment was received with applause.