The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1875-07-02
From the Cincinnati Commsr-iHI
GOV. ALIENS HARD MONEY RECOED,

| Alien on Tie financial question, would
they have dared TO nominate him as the
| paper money candidate! If Governor
Allen himself had possessed true cousis-
tency and independence, would he have
taken the nomination Of an irredeemable
ragInoney party! A metallic candidate
OH a soft money platform is sorry
spectacle
We propose to recall the days when
William Allen, now the candidate of the
irredeemable rag money party of Ohio,
thundered against the iniquity OF any
money but gold and silver
William Allen entered the Senate in
December, 1897, and in his first speech
in that hody Of any length he began with
the remarkable sentence: ''1fhis Govern
ment is but forty nine years old" This
was Oh the 10th of February, 1898, the
Senate having under discussion the IN
dependent Treasury Bill la the courss.
of his speech Senator Allen denounced
the paper-mouey system in the following
vigorous terms:
"By common consent, the whole civ
iliZed world had set apart Il particular
species of property as the representative
standard value of all other property.
Snch were precious metals, gold and sill
yer, which, after Receiving IA fixed form
and a standard public authority, had, by
way of eminence, been denOminated
money. When the Constitution was
adopted, commerce had supplied this
people with an amount of this money
equal to their necessities; and, in addi
ton to this, they had enioined it as "A
duty to their own Government TO adopt
these metals to the public use 10y regu
lating their form and value. This was
done, and, for time, all was we'll. But
from England the banking system was
transplanted unoa ou; 4I0rrs. by its
as,en' individuals We're enabled to with
draw from the pull lie use the whole me
tallie medium, and TO retain it ;ts n mo
nopoly in their own hands The mea;,s,
as well as the privilege, Of accomplishing
this object were conferred n gr:liuities
by arbitrary legislation. Under these
legislative acts, called charters, they SIS
snrued tbe name Of bgnks, proeeeJ9d to
H
due bills, which heing thus made 10y law
nominally equal to money, went forth to
an the void left in the community by the
withdrawal of the precious metals.
''Sueh was the fatal entrance of the
paper or banking system upon our sell.
Aud thus, sir, whist tke Consultation r''-
,iuiies Congress 10 coin Ihctallic money
fbr the iiee or the country, and to regu
late its value, the banks ars authorized
to annul the action of the GoVc-Illrnt,
ley vith,;raYng lhgt iiianrY nom the
uautiis1 aud substituting in It's stead a I:i-
per medium, whose value il is impossible
To regulate Every citizen has IA consti-
tutional right to demand gold and ST.
yer in payment of his debts because the
Gevernmen: is bound 10 .o.n these mt
ais fer the debtor; yat the banks have
made II impracticable for the creditQTta
exact, or for the dehtar (" pay anything
but fhprr. The Constitution seeks tO
srcur;. the people against taXati' II, cX-
cept with their own consent, for the uSe
of the Government, &i,i in i,rorDrJinn
to their representative influence; but th"
paper system ievies an enormous TAX up
on them against their will, in unequal
proportions, and fOi the exclusive use nG
the banks All perpetuities ar" forbid
d1u, IuuiIssst rdrpurit,uIi5 have aria''n
aInong us with power To renew and per
petnate themselves 10y the threat of pub
lie ruin AS the penalty Of their diseon-
tiuuance
May moi something analogous to the
''threitt Of public ruin bt, found in the
resolve of tile Ohio Democratic platform,
whigh iemqni5 that ':the volume of
currency he made and kept equal 10 the
wants of trade" under Il menace "f"dis
aster to the business of the country"
and threat, of general bankruptcy
and ruin!"
The William Allen of 1923 a.tGd and
ted with SiIas Wright, Robert 4. Wal
ker and Thomas II. Benton cod Bali
ion"l against the swindling device of pa
per money in every form. With yisor
and terscness of language worthy Of
William Cobbett, he drroWnlod thai
unconstitutional currency which had
been made to take the place of gold and
silver With incxorable logic, he traced
the financial pal.ie Of $50 and its
mournful train of disasters directly 10
the paper-money expansion. privilege,
paper and oppression lac declared.
''stand arrayed ON the one side, agaiHst
liberty. labor aud property on the 9th
err We MUST quote another salient
passage OH the Independent Treasury
bill:
''Sir, the privileges thus conferred up
on these combinations of men called
banks-the privilege of ofmonopolizing the
whole traffic in the precious metals-of
Withdrawing those metals from the Use
| of the public-as issuing their due bills
aS the sole currency Of the country-bi ills
which are but the counterfeit of the
money they purport to represent-bills
| which, for the most part, constitute Il
species OF credit founded, not like that
Of individuals, upon actual property, but
upon an arbitrary credit, created 10y acts
of arbitrary legislation, and forced upon
| the people as the representative of
things that do not eNist-the privilege
| OF monopoliEing the faculty of loaning
| money, of ioaning their credit as mon
ey, of compelling every citizen to eX-
change his for their credit, with n pre-
MUM for the exchange; OF increasing or
diminishing their loans at pleasure with
| out notice to the community-these
mighty privileges concentrate n mass of
power such as never existed in any other
country, and never can be Concentrated
in any other form than that of the paper
SYSTEM"
Senator Allen closed this signallY able
speech in defense of hard money against
irredeemahIe rags with some ringing
sentences, from which we select the
following:
'And now, sir, standing in my place,
and in the immediate presence OF the
American people, pronounce it as the
solemn eonTigtion OF my Judgment, that
this union, should it be effected-the
nnion of the banking or paper system
with the GOvernment-wiIl prostrate..the
liabilities of the country, and that this
prostration will continue until the in
born love of freedom, the peculiar in
| hgritanaa af fhis