The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1875-07-29

from the beginning to the end was made
by you, gentlemen, who are now clamor,
ing against "rag money" Laughter.
How came it in circulation? Did the
Democrats circulate it? Oh, no. A
Democratic voice was not heard in the
councils of the country when that i'm
mense volume of paper was issued, and
when the same Congress that issued it
wrote upon the back of it, this is legal
tender for all debts, and you must take
it, except in paying interest to the bond
holders and in the Custom-house. BY
this they made a discrimination in their
own currency; they impaired one faculty
to it and denied it another. They paid
their debts with it, and paid the farmers
with it when they bought any thing from
them during the war; they paid the SOL
diers with it; they paid pensions with it,
but they won't pay the bondholders with
it, although it was specially provided
that one class of bonds was to be paid in
it. Why is this?
The bondholders have a great advan-
tage in holding this immense amount OF
property, and at the same time paying
no taxes and getting their interest paid
in coin on it. But whatever the curren-
oy is in quality. and volume, it is their
work. not ours. If they call the issues
of the Government "rag money" whose
"rag money" is it? Didn't you. make it :?
Laughter. You made the ''rag mon
ey." Not one dollar of paper money in
the United States was manufactured by
Democrats. And yet these fellows are
making clamor as though we had i'm
posed upon the country all this rag
money" They are rapudiating their
own bantIng. They are trying to bring
their own spawn into contempt, and In
doing that they are doing good deal
more than they think they are doing.
Now, "rag money" as they call it, is
promise of the United States to pay.
That is all it is. A bond Of the United
States is a promise to pay; bond OF the
State of Ohio or the City of Cincinnati is
a promise to pay; all the railroad bonds
of the Republic are promises to pay.
They all stand upon the same foundation
of credit, and the man who undertakes
to disc1edit the notes of his Government
discredits the entire amount of our prl-
yate and corporation indebtedness as
we'll, as the individual notes of a people
who will not pay their public indebted
ness will be worth but little in the money
markets of the world.
There are ia the United States, includ-
ing all the bonded Indebtedness OF the
Union, of States, cities, towns. and rail
roads, about ten thousand millions OF
dollars, and all this vast sum hangs upon
the precise thread that sustains the green
backs and all the bank circulation of the
country. They are based upon the idea
of credit, and that is alone to be express
ed in it's fidelity to the institution that
issues that note or bond which it promises
to pay. They are all promissory notes;
they are all intertwined with each other,
they form an immense credit system IN
the United States and in every country
in the world that is civilized. You
would be surprised / presume, if [ were
to tell YOU that the whole trade OF the
British Empire from Canada to 1ndia-a
larger commerce than any country in the
world, old or young, ever had before-is
transacted upon credit; every dollar Of
it. Whenever these people commence
an assault upon the credit of the country,
called ereenbacks, they at the same time
commence an assault upon the entire
volume of this property that consists
solely in credit.
They talk about the Democratic party
being in favor Of repudiation. Let us
see how that matter is. Who talks of re-
pudiation Why these very men them
selves. They are sending word through
out all the stock markets of Europe that
the great party of the United States,
called the Democratic party. are IN favor
of Reputation. Well, now, if they could
get every body to believe that, what
would their bonds be worth, any of them?
Who put the idea of repudiation in the
mind of the world, or in the minds of the
American people? They did; nobody
else. Nobody else ever wanted to repu-
diate. If they choose to repudiate, they
will have to take all the consequences of
repudiation; we will not help them.
Thhev are making the biggest stride to-
ward repudiation that it is possible for a
deluded people to make. They are pre-
dieting it, and by predicting it they are
invoking it. Credit has political virgin
quality. 1t will not do to call its purity
in question. When it is once blighted,
it is gonv, and forever. These people
who are now trying to bring the entire
system of credit in the United States into
dishonor and disrepute are the men that
are undermining the whole system of
credit and inviting reputation. Ap-
plause.] If their bantling dies, it will be
from their own bad nursing. The Dem
ocratic party have no bantling of that
sort. The Democratic party have no an
tipathv to banks or stockholders, or any
class of men that own legitimate property
in this country; the Democratic party
have but one object; that object common
to the whole people. We don't intend to
allow stockholders, office-holders, Gov
ernment contractors and ring jobbing
men of the Republican party to take the
stock-iobbing interest, and the banking
interest, and office-holding interest, and
put it in power, to the exclusion of the
farmer, the laborer, the mechanic and all
portions of the community. 1t is not to
put this interest down; it is to prevent
that interest from putting all others
down, and usurping the entire Govern
ment of the country. That is what we
want.
When a Democrat is asked about what
kind of law he wants, his answer is
prompt and ready. He wants law for
all, that will protect all, that will dispense