The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1875-08-24
Contraction aud its COnSequea
cps.

gan, at Canal Dover, August 7, 1881
On the 14th Of January last they pass
ed a law through Congress entitled "An
act to provide for the resumption of spe
Gle payments "a lew which bears lie
on its face, for the law does not provide
that the banks shall redeem their paper in
specie; there is not the shadow Of such a
thing in its provisions. What, then, is
is this law? 1t provides that the Secre-
tary of the Treasury shall, ''as rapidly as
practicable" have coined ten, twenty five
and fifty cent pieces in silver with which
to redeem the fractional currency now
in circulation. The amount is forty odd
million dollars How much have they
redeemed? Not a dollar-not q dime -
Who among you has seen any of this sill
yer currency in circulation? Not one
living man. And vet more than six
months have elapsed since that law was
passed.
But suppose they did Issue this forty
millions change in specie; how long
would it be in circulation Six weeks
would dry up lhe last dime. Why? Be-
cause the men in power have by law de-
preciated the value of the paper money !;
they have prohibited it from performing
all the functions of money; they have
provided that paper money shall not be
received as money in the payment of
5000, 900, 900 paid at the Custom House
as tariff tax on imported goods; they
have required you to pay the bondholder
his interest in gold, and also require you
to receive paper interest from thSobond-
holder, should he owe you. 10 short, by
force Of law, paper monevis made less
valuable than specie, and were $4,000,
900 of specie put in circulation it would
at once be gobhled up by the bankers and
bondholders on speculation, and the
country would be left without small cur
rencv OF any kind.
What next does this law provide? In
word, without going through the details
of the bill, it provides for the issue of
S3S2, 900, 900 of new five per cent bonds
to be sold at par for gold, in order to sub
stitute that amount OF gold, as they pre-.
tend, for the greenbacks in circulation
Whcrei is the god to come from2 There
is only a100, 900, ,00oin the United States,
and thati m ostly owned by the govern
ment, and is used by the government to
pay gold interest to the bohdholders, and
this bondholder CELLS bis gold to the mef
chant who imports goods at premium OF
from l2to II per cent
Where then is this Sa@ 10000 of gold
to come from? From hu, ,pe9 for
the European States are forced to boy
gold, and have but little to spare. How,
then, can the greenbacks be withdrawn
from circulation2 IL can all be done by
the use of 100000, 900 gold, and when
1882, ,000,e00 OF greenbacks are with
drawn from circulation there will be let
in their stead only S100,O00,000 OF gold,
and the volume of currency will be re-
duced S200,000.00G
We are now paying to people in Eu
rope $50, 900, 900 or $50, 900, ,0G0 of gold
interest in semi annual payments. Be-
fore 1t would leave the country it would
be invested in the five per cent bonds
and through the process of exchanges
$100,000,000 Of gold would Withdraw
the entire S3S2,O00, ,000 of greenbacks
And do you doubt, my fellow citizens,
what would be the effect OF this further
reduction of the currency' Property
would be cold at one-fourth its value
Rolling mills, furnaces and workshops
would be closed. Our merchants would
be ruined and forced to make assign
ments. The owners OF mines would be
forced to stop work, and hundreds oi
thousand, OF men, depending upon
their daily lahar for their daily bread
would be thrown out of employment
And then in the midst OF this acca
mulated disaster the bondholder and the
banker, having control OF all the money
in the country, would buy up your prop
erty at twenty five cents on the dollar
and. as in England, the bopdholders ano
the landowners would be the selfsamt
men. And then in the midst of thi!
moral death, when the cry OF bungeI
and lamentation will be heard from ev
cry quarter. then the banker will taxi
further advantage Of this bill OF iDiquity
and claim to be specsl providence by
flooding the country with irredeemabl,
millions of bank paper. For, fellow
citizens, although the bill pretends t
provide for the withdrawal of ever,
dollar of greenbacks,it authorizes bank
to issue bank notes without limit, ant
without requiring single note to be re
deemed in coin.
I Here, then, in its deformity, is tn
hollow scheme of returning to speci
payments. Senator Sherman says tha
the volume of the currency should b
reduced until the paper dollar is on :.
par with the gold dollar, but he doe
not undertake to say what amount o
reduction that would require He doe
not fix the amount, because he know
full we'll that the paper money Of tn
country can never be on par with gol
until paper money is allowed to perforI
all the functions of money And I dc
nounce this so-called Resumption bill a
wicked scheme of robbery and plur
der.