The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1875-08-13

Il
Confdrnre in the United Stat-s-BeRd. EN-
pressed TO he Paid in Coin-Thr Question Of Re
| padiation- How Congress meant 10 Pay the Bonds
1 --buty Of Citizens in this Respect
To tie Eslisor efhe N J.. T,iJ,,B1:
SIR: Nomattrr what resolutions may
be adopted 10y political conventions for
party purposes, il is nmqnrSti nably true
that iIt. bonds of the United State, iS
sued during and immediately after tlI'.
laf.. civil war, most nf which are known
H. five twenties, we've oiT..Iei and SOLD
with the express understanding that they
were. Ia b.. paid, principal and Interest.
ia coin. They were subscribed for 10y
our citizens and taken from them 10y
foreigners with this understanding. Had
IL I,een otherwise, the r-brll;on would,
in all human probability, have been sue
cessful, for it must be borne in mind that
the contest between the government and
the Confederate States depended in its
results as much upon money and credit
as upon arms. II may be said, without
detraeting from the skill and gallantry
of the officers and soldiers of the Union
armies, who won for themselves and
their government imperishable renOwn,
that tie suppression of the rebellion was
| attributable no less to the superior linan-
cial strength than to the superior nu
| m0ricaI strength Of the North. II vic
tory, other things being equal, must side
Al
that keeps these battalions in the field.
| The remark has been attributed to Ma
poleOn that in wars between nations the
nation that can command the last dollar
must at last he the victor.
OBLIGATIONS TO GERMANY AND HoL-
LAND.
Ii may not be too much tO say that
the Union was ''saved by faith''-by the
confidence which was placed by our OWN
people and by foreigners in the assuran-
ces and pledges of the government speak
ing through its authorized representa-
tives. Although no foreign loan was
directly made, the ability of our citizens
to subscribe and pay for bonds which
were issued depended upon the market
which was opened for them in Europe
chiefly in Germany and Holland. The
people of the United States owe a debt
of gratitude TO the Germans and IiOl-
Ianders for the confidence they had in
our securities, while, with rare excep
tions. the investors in all the other Eu-
ropean markets regarded them with dis
trust. The dealers in United States
bonds in New York and other seaboard
cities know how important the German
and Holland markets were to us, in the
days of our greatest financial troubles.
The German and Holland purchasers of
our bonds saw that they were in the
usual form of national obligations that
they were payable in dollars-not like
the compound interest on the BIO
notes, in lawful money, hut In dollars,
and they took 1t for granted that Secre-
tary Chase, his immediate successors and
their agents, spoke by authority, when
they stated, with the full knowledge oil
Nllt IAfENNihF asiAfA W. w"
branches of the government, that by
dollars was meant not irredeemable
promises, but gold. Indeed, without
such assurances they would not have
supposed that bonds intended to he sold
in other countries as well as in the Uni
ted States could b payable in anything
else than coin, the only international
currency Of the world.
WHAT BoNns WE'RE EXI:REsSLl EAYABi.E
IN GOLD.
Fortunately it was not until the ne
cesSity for borrowing had ceased that
the statutes we're examined fer the pnr-
pose of GsceEtaining whether or not the
government could violate its faith with
out violating the law. BY this eXamin
alton It was discovered that the aet oil
March q, 1863, under which STa, 600, 600
of G per cent. hohds-a part of those
known as bonds of 1SS1-and the act oil
March 3, 1864 under which the ten
forty per cents. were issued, were the
only ones WHICH stated ekp 'essiy that
the bonds sued under thein should he
paid In colu, aud that all the other acts
under which bonds were issued during
the war, while they provided that the
interest should be paid IN coin, were 81
lent In regard to tic currency in which
the principal should be paid. Hence
the position was taken by some we'll
meaning persons, and othaF not we'll
meaning peIsoGS, that the government
might, under the sweeping provisions of
the legal tender acts, lawfully call la the
five-twenty bonds at any timo after five
wears from their date. and pay them in
Iegal-tender notes, no matter how de-
preciated these notes might be. Indeed
there are some prominent men among
our politicians fortunately the npmber
is very small aud daily hecOihing less)
who are brave enough to assert the
moral M well rs legal right OF Consre-s
TO repeal the act OF 1869, which pledges
| the faith of the nation to the payment
| of all of its bonds in coin, to call in the
Londs, winch hY their tenoc APE sabIect
to be called In, and pay them in legal
tender notes, although such payment
might neeesSitafe such further issue of
these notes as would make the entire
issue veil nj, D yoF!hiiesss. 4hlss would
be reputation, and cowardly repudi-
alton at that-repudiatiOn that would
not only make the AlHeriran name q re-
proach among the natiaps, bgt WHICH
would rob the people for the purpose of
robbina the R8ndhaldeFs. Il has been
unfortunate for the credit of the govern
ment, and consequently for the matured
interests of the tax payers in the United
States, that this question has ever been
raised. Itwould not, apprehend, have
been raised by sny tairinlnded psrsOns
il the facts and circumstances under
which the bonds we're issued had been
carefully examined, for such an examin-
alton would have shown them
THE BONDS TO BE fAip IL GOLD.
First-fhat the exhaustive discussions,
in the House and the Senate, of the acts
authorizing the issue of these bonds,
| IL .-..,.o ,,,nlran Of I,v oil ,pLo mn "; ;oi