The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1875-10-08
CONTRACTION NOT 4 REPUBLE
CAN POLICY.

/ CONTRACTION NOT i REPUBLE
CAN POLICY.
The Democratic Convention of Penn
sylvania distinctly charged the Republi-
I can .sarty wIth having contracted the
currency. Hon. Edward Mcpherson,
long the Clerk of the House of Repre-
sentatives, has been to the pains of
looking up the subject from the stand
point of the Congressional records. He
shows beyond controversy that the
charge is without foundation.
When the Republican party came in
to power, the currency question was
strictly State affair. There was no
national paper money of any kind.
The coin of the country was issued by
the United States, of course, and while
that was the only legal tender, it was
not much used in ordinary commercial
transactions. One of the first steps of
Congress was to levy a prohibitory tax
on State bank notes, and issue in their
stead greenbacks. But the volume of
currency was not diminished. On the
contrary, it was increased.
During the time when the governmant
was issuing bonds to prosecute the war,
Congress pledged the Government to
keep the volume OF greenDack currency
within the maximum limit of S400, ,0OO,-
900. Itmade no anti-contraction pledge,
That agreement was in the nature of a
contract, and not even law of Congress
could change it. Mere statutes of the
usual kind can be repealed, but con-
tracts cannot be annulled at the option
of one of the parties to it. From the
first the apprehension has been that the
currency might be unduly expanded,
and against that has a safeguard been
provided. For that precaution the
country is indebted to the Republican
party, but for no actual contraction has
the party any special responsibility.
The first step taken toward contrac-
ton Immediately followed the close of
the war. A resolution was adopted IA
voring a reduction of the volume of the
currency ''as speedily as practicable"
Mr.. Mcpherson says the vote on that
resolution stood 166 to 46, and of those
six negative votes only one was cast by
n Democrat. That first step was fol-
lowed by a second and final one in the
shape of an act of Congress. On the 9th
of April, 1866, a bill was passed which
authorized the retirement and cancella-
ton of so, 900, 900 within six months
and 81, ,OOO, 900 in any month thereafter.
"Upon this bill, " says cPherson, 'there
aoas but one Democratic cote in oppost-
tiOn. In the Senate, the negative vote
was exclusively Republican, both the
Pennsylvania Senators (Buckalew and
Cowan) voting in favor of it, with the
Democratic Senators generally"
BY virtue of the power vested in the
Secretary of the Treasury by that act,
Mr.. McCulloch reduced the greenbaek
circulation from S4OO, 900, 900 to $780,
900, 900. A subsequent Republican Sec
retary re-issued over half the bills retired.
In 1868 Congress took the back track,
forbidcing further contraction. That
step was taken on the motion of Re-
publican, and had the Democrats voted
for it, another resolution would have
been adopted authorizing and requiring
the Secretary to restore all the retired
greenbaeks to circulation. On the reso-
luton to stop contraction every Penn
sylvania Democrat voted nay, as did
majority of their political associates from
the other States.
The currency of the country is of two
kinds, greenbacks and national bank
paper. Congress has never sought to
contract the volume of bank note money.
On the contrary, the disposition has
been to encourage its increase. The
last Congress removed all restrictions,
destroying every legal vestige of monop-
oily in the banking business. There are
to-day no legislative restraints upon the
expansion of national bank currency.
Contraction has actually occurred, how
ever. The volume of national bank pa
per is indeed decreasing. but the cause
of it is as much beyond the control of
Congress as is the decrease in the
amount of railway construction now in
progress, as compared with two years
ago The supreme law of supply and
demand regulates the matter. Having
made banking free, Congress did in
its power to prevent contraction.
Tne truth is that the Republican party
has never aimed at resumption through
the ruinous policy of destroying paper
money, in whole or in part. A few in
dividuaIs have favored that method.
Professor Amasa Walker. for one, con-
tends that no other way is feasible, but
his position is untenable, and has never
been indOrsed by any Republican con-
vention. If any notice whatever has
been taken of the matter, the idea of
appreciating the paper money of the
country by lesSening the quantity of it,
has been Tepudiated by the Republican
party, the country over The contrac-
| tionists are those Democrats who favor
resumption, and at the same time de-
mand the abolition of the national banks.
| DLjc00o Jo1I1uaI