Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1875-10-09

4
During the war the Government is
sued s2,100,000,000 in Governmen
notes; and this amount represents
about $500, 900, 900 in gold. This larg
amount of money furnished an ampl
medium of exchange for vast and di
yersifed trade and speculation, ant
every department of industry receives
powerful impetus, and attained t
high prosperity under the inspiration
of untrammeled finance.
Greenbacks were considered gooC
enough by all men, and while the
were exchangeable for gold at about 2,
for l, yet none doubted the integrity O
the circulation, or refused to receive i
10 the ordinary course of trade. The
holders of this vast sum of money made
haste to use it, as opportunity offered
for permanent or advantageous invest
ment Many railroads had by the de.
structive agencies of the war lost al
their cars, engines and bridges, aud the
interest on large bonded debt had
accumulated for five years, during
which they had earned nothing.
These roads, the holders of this
money, rebuilt and re-equipped, taking
mortgages on the roads as security for
their advancements. The South in all
its industries was PROSTATE and parti-
cularly was the Southern farmer. Here
again the holders of greenbacks came
to the rescue and through banks and
commission merchants, they loaned
the farmer means to reconstruct his
dilapidated farm and put it in opera
ton again, and these advancements
were again secured by mortgages.
Then again, many thousands anxious
to secure homes or enlarge their pos
sessions rushed forward, making large
purchases of property payable In say
one, two and three years, relying upon
the extraordinary profits of business to
meet these payments as they would fall
due, and expecting to pay in the then
prevailing and only circulating medium
of the country.
Such was the situation and what
was the result? 1t requires no fnan-
cial shrewdness to determine what the
creditors Of the nation and people
would have done if they had the power.
| ansWer-they would have drawn in
large amounts ofthe Governmeutnotes
and invested them in gold bearing and
interest paying bonds of the Govern
ment. Then with circulating me-
dunn reduced by this process to one
third its original amount, they would
have demanded of railroad companies,
farmers and purchasers of lands,
houses. etc.. payment of their debts in
the reduced aud thrice valuable cur
rency, and when policy so dictated they
would have foreclosed mortgages and
possessed the property, and if they had
among their rapacious dreams of plum
der dreams of power also, their fore
closures would have embraced particu-
larly these powerful engines of com
mercial domination railroads, and
thus they will have converted their
2,100, ,000, 900 into large proportion of
what they now have, viz. possession
and control of nearly all the leading
railroad lines Of the country, all the
gold bearing, non- taxable bonds of the
Government and claims upon the gen
eral Government, States, cities, coun-
ties and individuals aggregating fully
Sc, 700, 900, 600, and all this payable in
currency worth three times as much,
dollar for dollar, as that which the
debtor agreed to pay, and to. push their
schemes of rapacity to a climax they
would have added as final consum-
nation, measures of resumption of
specie payment
This is what the creditors would
have desired to do, and, behold, this is
what they have actually accomplished
down to one remaining finishing stroke,
resumption of specie payment. Of the
81, 100, ,000, 900 currency, about 81 200,
000, 900 have been retired, leaving now
outstanding about 800, 100000 Gov
ernment notes, together with about
1856, 600, 900 National bank notes OF in
the aggregate, $3.50, 900, 900 now in cir
culation, which stands in its relation
to gold as 100 to 1l2.
Now, under the supposition that the
retired Government notes have been
replaced with Government bonds, what
a stupendous speculation, at the ex-
pense of the people, has been consum-
mated under the operation of the ma
tional financial policyl The S2,l0O,-
900, 900 Government notes were worth
and cost the holders about $500, 900, 900
in gold. if bought at the ruling war
rates. Now, against this investment
they have 81, 200, 900 gold bearing
bonds, worth their face in gold, and
500, ,0G0 900 Government notes, worth
1915, 100000 in gold, panning out in
round numbers a clear profit of $685.
100000 in gold.
The grand aggregate debt is So, ,700,-
000, 900, so immense, so unmeasurable,
that, like things infinite, it reachesa and
spreads far past our finite powers or
conceptions. We drop the theme-its
payment is impossible. But come
down to the national debt of 81, ,200,-
100000. How, with all else we must
pay, of State, city, county and lndlvId-
ual indebtedness, are we to pay it, as
it is attempted, through existing laws,
and others proposed. that involve
specie payment?
The whole volume of specie in the
country is $166,000,00O. Now apply it
to the payment of this debt, and it
would reduce it but Z per cent, or if
applied to the payment of the interest
would meet it for little more than one
fiscal year. Then call in the annual
production of our mines, and we have
$50, 600 more. Now try to pay the
national debt in specie with this mar
gin. The amount of specie thus avail
able would IL ten years amount to
$560, 100000, while the interest on the
debt would amount to 81 200, 600, 600,
and the default in interest would be
over $500, 900. 600, with the principal
undiminished.
But there is another resource from
which the Government may draw the
gold required to meet its demands, and
this is duties on imports, and then there
is another process of payment that is
eminently popular with large capital
lists. Bonds, interest and principal,
payable in gold, are special objects of
their fancy and affection, and the pro-
ducing power of vastly extended and
fertile lands gives promise of the pay
ment of their vast debt under the laws
of trade and finance now in force.
Here now comes home to us, squared
fair. the key to the problem The pay.
ing power is the producing power, aud
the producing power is the soil and the
hardy filler thereof. Straight home to
us farmers comes the startling truth ;
that upon us, rests the dependence OF
the nations creditors for payment Of
their vast and ineonceivably immense
claim upon the country.
Well, if from US, payment OF this