Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1876-02-10

dHteCu ny tue 5ONSl hih@lLt, ~ IlS poSh-
ct and hands of the people, would
have Illuminated more effective warn
ings against disunion than ever were
uttered by Jackson, Clay or Webster.
Statesmen should recognize the
fact that gold is disintegrating and
centrifugal in its political tendencies,
for the simple reason that it increases
the relative power and influence of It's
owner just in proportion as all other
sorts of property and values are pros
trated by commercial collapse and by
war. A national debt is not in the
abstract national blessing, but both
economic and political wisdom favor
the funding of this debt at low rate
Of interest; and through bonds and a
currency based upon it, to bind the
nation together with the cords and CO.
hision of self interest, so that all men
shall feel that secession and dlsinte-
rgatlon will be individual poverty
and ruin.
But dropping the political, the ma
tional currency is equally available in
financial point of view. We must
know exactly what is meant by Gre
sumption" Everybody can now pay
his debtsin gold and silver fhe chooses
On the lst of January 1879, unless the
act of Congress is repealed, every
creditor will have the power to exact
gold and silver from his debtor, for
past as well as future debts This was
the law anterior to the greenback era.
We could predict without expert
ence, and it can be shown both by
reason and history that all our panlcs
that deserve the name, had their origen
in the inadequacy Of gold and silver to
| square all balances at the same instant
of time as Panic demands, and the
consequent sudden depreciation and
worthlessness of all paper currency,
not based upon the credit Of the gov
eminent Though a few dollars in
gold and silver might pay thousands
of debts, yet these metals have never
been coined in sufficient abundance
to supply but the smallest portion OF
the wants of commerce. The BUSH
ness of the people Of the United
States for the present century till the
greenback era, has been carried on
with currency which will not aver:
age more than so cents on the dol
lar in gold, perhaps not so much.
The old moneyed institutions would
redeem their bills for time, till they
succeed in introducing hundreds OF
thousands of dollars into circulation.
l n n
ton was impossible. The laboring
and industrial and producing classes,
merchants and mechanics, found
themselves suddenly swindled and
robbed with worthless promises to
pay in their hands, and they could
not discover the cause or authors OF
their ruins. Our greenbacks average
at least IS cents in gold on the dol
lar. We have thriven heretofore on
currency which was actually worth
less, or on the average worth but
little. The old bank currency was
good for little while but became
Suddenly and totally worthless on oul
hands. The discount Oh national cur
rency varies little from the average Of
Is per cent.
We remember the panic of 1878
: A single moneyed corporation, th(
Ohio Life and Trust company, sue
cumbcd to a run on it; it tottered,
struggled to right itself, tottered more
and fell with crash, and hundreds o
other moneyed institutions and mer-
camille houses and individuals tC
! .--L:.-i- . ----a- =: ! l.-9. ------- - CO.
with it into the gulph Of bankruptcy
! and they dragged others, and so tht
6 ruin became universal. Every
frightened creditor demanded his
money at the same moment. Unless
we have this simultaneous movement
!. the rush of the creditor upon the
throat VI the debtor, there can be nc
panic. Under the law as it then wa!
the creditor could exact gold anC
silver even if it took farm, a STOCK
! of goods, OF manufacture and all its
stock to pay a trihing demand
, These coins must come. The sheriff
franticaly cried for bidders. They
were few and cautious and gold rose
above other property higher than it
ever did above greenbacks. Blu
| worst of all it fed and hid itself
We called upon it as the Priests o
Baal called on their heartless Deity
of old, and we heard the taunts o.
old Elijah, "call upon your god, per
t haps he is journeying, Or pursuing.
+ or peradventpre lie s'eepeth and must
be awakod."
CURRENCY
In these years of profound peace
the people of Grant County will re
| member how all property fell. The
debtor had corn rotting in his field
g., he had cattle and hogs, tie ricl
annual produce Of his farm. lie
; wanted gold and silver, for these
alone would pay his debts Blu,
5 they were as securely hidden under
the punoheon floor of the miser OIL
in the vaults Of the millionaire as
if they had never been resurrected
from their native earth. President
Grant once remarked that in all pre-
yious panics before that so called OF
1871, the paper currency became
worthless. Why did not this fact
teach him the inestimable value OF
a currency not based on the solvency
f Of individuals or corporations, but on
. the credit of the nation? In truth the
breaking of the banks was not the
cause, but the certain and necessary
and mathematical result of stimuli
: taneous demand on all banks to re.
!
to pay in specie. The exclusive cur
renoy is too limited in quantity, be-
sides in times # panic gold and sill
yer are secret,G, boarded and disap-
! pear. They iHculcate 4 misery spirit
] an idoIatrous devotion, and they are
hidden by thef worshippers both in
peace and war, when needed most.
1t will appear the further we ex-
anime it, that gold and silver can