The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1876-02-10
The Fraud that Needs Investi-
CATION Most.

/ March Is, 1869, went into effect,
changing the 5 20 currency bonds
into gold bonds. Our commercial
prostration, industrial paralysis,
and real estate depression, may be
said to date from that iniquitous
and sweeping legislation to enrich
the Shylocks and jobbers who
planned that gold bond act in the
interest of foreign bondholders and
domestic usurers. These inwardly
chuckle at the misery of the people
and the stupidity of the masses
every time a gold coupon is clipped
from a gold bond in a gold bank
and the surplus re-invested in more
gold bonds to compound profit out
of the toll of the tax payer. By this
compounding, the national debt has
been doubled and the burdens Of
taxation proportionately increased,
with the withdrawal of capital from
the industries of the country by
means Of which the productive
classes earn their bread.
We have lost in annual products
since the beginning of the contrac-
tion policy in 1869, more than $500,
OOO,O a year, 81, 100000, 900 more
than the National debt during the
last seven years, and this whole loss
has been the result of an attempt
on the part of our Congress to turn
the $40 bonds into gold bonds.
Now. leaving entirely out of consid-
Grafton the question of hard or soft
money-contraction or imitation
resumption or repudiation-"rag-
baby" or ehonest" money-here is
an issue which ought not to be
clamored down by epithets or revi-
val of sectional animosities. 1t is
believed that this act of 1869 was a
job. Nay, it is positively asserted
at the seat of government. Mr..
Dom Piatt gave a personal history
of the passage of the act quite re-
Gently, claiming to have the best
evidence that it was a premeditated
Wall street design 10 depreciate the
currency and augment the value of
the bonds. Just before the passage
of the act he says that gentleman
well known to the world of stock
gamblers came into the room where
he was sitting and1nformed him ofan
opening through which good thing
might be secured, and when this
opening came to be explained, 1t ap-
peared in a resolution, carefully
prepared, that had been placed in
the hands of the chairman of the
Committee of Ways and Means, to
be offered on the first opportunity,
that pledged the Government to the
payment of the bonds in gold
"This," said he, twill send the
bonds up to par, and then, il
we can manage to make the Gov
ernment anticipate some of its in
debtedness, the bondholders will re
alize enormously" When asked
how it could be possible to pass {
bill making such a distinction in ia
vor of these bonds, originally bought
with greenbacks for mere song
when the country had twenty years
in which to redeem them, he was
told that nearly all the Congress
men in House and Senate had NOR
or less of these bonds, or sOould haU
them before the Vote a0as taken, anC
would come out of the transaction
millionaires. He was further tolC
that it would be rushed through un
der a patriotic cry of "no repudia
tion," the "plighted faith of tn
Government" ct cetera; "and thus,
adds Mr.. Piatt, 'the men who boas
so loudly of having saved our fla;
in its hour of peril, have used tina
flag TO cover just such infamies a
these
| Now, if these declarations ar
f true, is there not a good opening
2 here for investigation while the vir
} tuous fit is on the Government
2 Investigations of crooked whisk
e frauds are insignificant beside al
l enormity of this character. Tn
7 gentleman who prefers the charg
G is now within sight of the Whit
] House and the Capitol. He can n
doubt give the name of the gentle
1 man we'll known .to the world c
/ stock gamblers, and pehaps othe
i information which would enlighte
I a virtuous government and a plum
S dered people.
n The suspicion in the popula
n mind that there was somethin
wrong about that sweeping legisl;
tion is strengthened by such poir
f blank declarations as those mad
above, and it is suspected that th
p resumption law is akin to 1t in in
quity. Has not the Secretary car
blanche to issue as many bonds q
: may be deemed necessary to eal 7
q cut the provisions of the resumJ
= tion act? To purchase the gol
: witt which to redeem the non ii
n terest bearing greenbacks, interei
bearing bonds must be issued. III
- more bonds that are issued Il
% more rapid the depreciation Of a
! other properties. 1t is a confi,
! between the gold and bondholdin
= monopoly and the manuracturin
and commercial interests of tt
!, country The success of the Sh,
= locks viii be the ruin of the produ
! ing classes. If there is one evil