Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1875-09-09
Hon. n. Barrere's Opinion on the
Finance Question.
The Ohio Democratic Platform vs..
OId-FashiOned Democracy.
from the HiIIsboro Newsl
The rank Is but the guinea's stamp.
The mans the gowd for a'that,,

The rank is but the guinea's stamp, /
The mans the gowd, for athat.'' :
The above eouplet from Burns has alwavs e
been admired not only highly poetical and
beautiful, but as a noble sentiment descrip- t
tive of real manhood {
Whilst rank may give position and confer
privileges, yet II is intellectual abilities and
moral qualities, which alone stamp the noble
and worthy character, and fix and determine
the value of real manhood. Rank is nothing !
without nobility of character. When rank is
conferred upon worthy man, he can be more
useful, but when conferred upon a low, base
man, he is, and will continue to be, q low,
base man, with greater power to do mischief.
One of the Roman Emperors conferred upon
his favorite horse, the rank of First Consul
The horse could not take the rank of course,
bat the act of comforting the Office on him has
contributed more perhaps than anything else
to perpetuate the debasement and infamy of
the Emperor himself.
1 do not suppose that Burns was much of |
| fnancier, or ever troubled himself about cur |
rency or money questions. His thoughts were |
high and elevated, far above mere matters of
barter and exchange! His thoughts were on
the value of humanity and the worth of man
hood. His description of manhood is pow
/ erful statement of the difference between real
| and fictitious things, and making that appli-
| cation of his couplet above quoted, he had
much better idea of money and finance than
| the trainers of the present platform of the Ohio
! Democracy had, if the Interpretation of it by
! the Cincinnati Enquirer, Sam. Cary and Ew-
| ing, is the true one. What is their interpre
tation of the platform? It is this: that 'green-
/ backs' are better than gold and silver; that
they cost nothing; that they wanted in
greater abundance; and that Congress should
issue Just so many of them as the friends of
the party that happens to be in power may de-
| sire; that gold and silver shall no longer be
considered money, or thought of as currency,
or even as the basis of currency. Because these
gentlemen say, there is no real value in gold;
that its value as money is made by the stamp
of public authority put upon it; that it has no
| intrinsic value, in and of itself; that Bank
notes should be banished and all the circula-
tion of what we call money should be green
backs" That is, in plain and unambiguous
words, the Government of the United States
should, in the plenitude of its power, Danish
from circulation and use by the people, every
kind and description of what has heretofore
been called money, and in its stead make use
of the debts of the Government itself. That
is, that the Government shall convert its OaDn
debts into great Bank, to supply the people
with money!
When the debts ofindividuals become large,
and the debtors unable to meet them, by
our present law they are thrown into Bank
ruptcy. By the new financial notions, now
being taug ht our people, instead of throwing
debtors into Bankruptcy, they ought to be al
lowed to set up banks, and have for their cap
ital their debts! 1 have heard men, who
, were somewhat embarrassed financially, often
say, by way of badinage, that they were ''liy
ing on the interest of their debts.'' That
kind of banter and badinage is mild and tame
compared with the extravaganza of the notions
which Allen, Gary and Ewing are now urg
ing great party in great State to adopt:
That is, that they will know no money but
''greenbaeks,' /. e., Government debts. All
/ else is trash Away with it! And not only
Government debts, but debts which never
to be paid!
The whole scheme is so utterly ridiculous
} and preposterous, that it is difficult to speak
seriously about it. The whole scheme is based
f upon falsehood, and the supposed prejudice of
the poor against the rich, the capitalist
against the capitalist.
There can be such thing as mon ey, un-
less the thing or article, which may be used
for money. has an intrinsic value in itself.
Debasing the coin has been tried thousand
times, and in almost all countries, and always
without success. We have ourselves, as much
as twice, if not oftener, changed the value OF
our gold coin, rather the amoHnt of alloy
E that might be put into it, and that which was
stamped an Eagle afterward ad no more real
value than the actual pure metal it contained
Paper money is convenient, and in our coun-
try, and all other commercial nations, in mod
er n times, more or less of it is used, and from
. our mode and hadits of business, to US it may
be admitted to be indispensable. It has, how.
ever, no intrinsic value, in and of itself, moi
have the makers of it ever claimed for it that
il had. 1t merely represents value, and havin g
the quality of c0n0eTtibjLity it maintains cred
it and is good-not otherwise. The "green-
8 backs" themselves obtained credit, and have
made q satisfactory circulating medium be
cause they were issued upon the faith that
they would be redeemed a0ith coin at the earlies
practicable time, and because the Government
solemnly pledged to the people and the world
2 (for other nations were interested in thai
= pledge that at no time should the amount Of
''green backs" ever exceed $400 900 600, Take
f up all the outstanding bonds with ''green
backs;" yes, the third of them, and what viii
= they be worth? What will the honor and faitf
|, of the Government be worth?
But the expansionist says, that the Who'll
property in the nation is bound for them, anC
d enumerates and estimates the whole value o
the property in the country. The Government
{ of the United States has but little property o
! its own. 1t is at most Dut agent for tn
real property -hslders, and can, strictly anC
y legitimately, only levy and collect taxes TO
n the purpose of carrying on and managing tn
public business.
We have some public property, public build
q ings, navy yards, ships and other things
e considerable amount of public lands, out o
which the Government obtains some money
The public property is not comparatively verZ
L large. I deny that the Government owns tn
/ property ofthe people, or has any claim it
s. except to collect the necessary and prope
= revenues, to pay the expenses of carrying Of
y the public business. The Government has n
g claim on my indiyidual property, except fo
~ ~ proper taxes, nor has it any right to pledge o
W cucumber my farm, if I had one. The argu
ment, therefore, founded upon the wealth an
J. property of the people, is baseless and false.
~ The assertion that gold has no intrinsi
value, in itself, is directly in contravention c
)l all the ideas of mankind, from the beginning
n When it was first used for money, am nc
n prepared to say; but that it was used, an
priced as valuable and precious from the ear
liest times, we do know. We read of the gol
+, used in the Tabernacle, in the Temple and i
IS msking the sacred utensils. and of the effort
in made to obtain it. The sacred writers and th
teachers of the Church have, in all ages, whe
IL endeavoring to inculate pure doctrine and t
E. describe moral attainments frequently use th
RS words "gold" and ''fine gold" as indicatin
n purity, excellence briliancy, beauty and a.
most everything of aesthetic character. Eve
the Celestial City is described as 'spaved wit
gold"
All writers, sacred and profane, poetiea
f. and prosaic, to express the ideas of beauty, rt
fnement, excellence, goodness, richness, pur
lie ty, an6 the like, have given their represents
o tions in the simile of gold, pure gold, etc. Al
for example, such one has sterling cha
le acter, and lives according TO the "aOLdeR rule
IF That is, the rule given by our Savior for tt
= government of all his rational creatures. A
Ii, political economists think there is real Walt
G in it. The discovery, therefore, that the pre-
d" ious metals have no intrinsic value in the
a was left for the 18th century, IN the year
It. grace 1868, and was then accidentally disco
70 cred by Wash. Mclean, of the Cincinnati FL
: quirer, and is now the property of Gen. Car
= and his confreres who claim an interest in
C. I think Mclean is the discoverer, and has
n a right to the patent.
a But the most astounding and marvelo1
. thing in the new discovery is, that it is clair
eF ed to be Democratic doctrine taught by Je
nd ferson, Calhoun and jackson! Now it is Il
ls first time ever heard of a Democrat of u
,cr old school being in favor of National del
= for any purpose whatever, if it could possib
l. be avoided. 1t is true Jefferson, Calhoun al
,al jackson had to contend with the Nation
| dnhts of their time hut theu thong