The workingman's advocate., 1876-07-15

When the committee learned the full
purport of the finding scheme proposed in
the Senate, they transmitted to the Senate,
and had published in the newspapers, a
protest, Of which the following Is a copy !:
PROCLAMATION No. 1.
SHERMAN's FUNDING BILL.
WAsHINGTo>, ID. O., Feb. 5, 1870.
To the Working-msn Of the UIitsd States:
We, the Undersigned official represen-
tatives of the National Labor Union, conn.,
posing upwards Of four million Of voters,
and i'll connection with whom are involved
the interests Of twenty-five million Of the
America people, invoke your attention to
a bill pending IN Congress, entitled San
act to authorize the funding and CONSOLE
dation Of the National debt to erte,td
banking facilities and establish specie pay
ment, )" introduced by Senator Sherman.
This bill converts the currency loan made
to the government at the rate Of hfty-tive
cents on the dollar INTO gold payment at
the rate of Sl.2 on the dollar.
1t will appear, if that mode of pay
ment Is adopted, there must be collected
from the producing classes, during the
lifetime of the bonds, and handed over to
the bOndholders in interest, the aggregate
sum Of over 80, 2Sl ,00O, 600, leaving the
principal, 81, 200, 900, 900, unpaid This
bill is skllfully drafted, and exhibits the
outcropping of the craft. If the craftsman
had 81 900, coo for his fee, it could not be
more dexteriously fitted for the nefarious
purpose. 1t must have had its birth out
side the walls Of the Capitol, for the feat
mr. pf has -,
delibly upon it, But, whoever is its auth
or, we pronounce the bill, in the language
currently used during the rebellion, pub
lie enemy.
Signed By the Committee
The report Of the committee appointed
Ly National Convention, was published
in February, 1870, and unanimously adop-
ted by the National Convention that as
sembled at Cincinnati i'll August, 1870.
The report and the convention that adopted
it, recommended that the law and contract
under which the $40 bonds had been is
sued, should remain AS 1t stood upon the
statute book, and the bonds be paid i'll ac-
cordance with the law and contract, and
inasmuch as the time had elapsed and that
the government had the right to make a
tender that the bonds be paid off, thereby
relieving the labor of the country from a
heavy tax to pay interest.
But notwithstanding the decided action
of the convention, representing the people
In their sovereign capacity and embodied
IN the protest of their committee upon the
financial question of the nation, the Con-
gress, the agents Of the sovereign people,
enacted the Sherman bill into a law that
was approved 14th July, 1870.
When the act Of July l4th was approx
ed, an additional issue Of six hundred mil
lion tokens of the sovereign power. put
upon any substance by Law Of Congress,
would have enabled the Treasurer and
Comptroller Of the Currency to give notice
to the holdere of the 5-20 bonds that, up-
on day to be fixed, the greepbacks would
be ready and rendered at the paying coun-
ter OF the bank parlor in the treasury
building. Such notice of being prepared
to make the tender, would from that day
have put an end to the debt and interest.
whether the holder Of the obligation ac-
cepted it or not.
But the act Of July 14th, 1870, requires
that the tender be made in Frankford.
E1AAAoSOANo AAoihONA S3 AAoHuOH ana OLn6r
European cities, not in greenbacks, not in
the gold eagles of America, but in the gold
coin Of European cities, and no tender is
binding upon the holder Of the obligation
for portion of the bonds until after the
lapse Of forty years.
The holders of the 5-20 bonds did not
ask Congress to change the original con
tract they were content, az well they NAV
be, to let it stand upon the record. Nor
did the people, whose labor pays the bonds.
pray for an alteration Of the original con-
tract.
The money rings argue that the Congress
being the representatives of the sovereign
people, are therefore the sovereign for the
time being. This is true in so far as the
representatives Of the sovereign confine
their action within the limits of the char
ter but the charter was made by the peo-
pie who are sovereign by virtue Of an in
herent right, and made for the guidance Of
the agents the people may appoint to trans
act their business. But the people were
not made for that charter; they possess in