Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1876-02-17

lst OF January, 1879, to pay all they
owe 10 specie, and pledge houses and
lands, personal and real estate, soul
and body, wives aud children, to the
accidental creditor, to enable him to
realize specie from the mortgage
The Mex Gao peonage is the penalty
of debts, and the absence Of goli TO
pay it. But shall we be Knocked and
deluded by the promise that in fact
gold will never be exgcted =? The
every day currency will be pap5r as
it has always been. Do we not know
what panics are; that in such PERIODS
the creditor does demand gold and
s!lver2 He will take nothing else.
Do we not know that these periodi-
cal cyclones visit ana desolate the
commercial world with a. much GER.
tainty as hurricanes sweep over the
equatorial regions, if hungry and
panic. stricken creditors are allowed
by law to exact specie alone and
make simultaneous rush on the
debtor class? We have passed through
more than one Of these days If jadg.
ment. The highway robber will let
you off with mere curse and a kick
if you have nothing 10 your purses
| but the relentless decree of the gold
law is, you must pay in gold, whether
gold is in existsnce or not; you must
| get 1t, you must create 1t, you must
find it, or steal it, or your property
is confscated. La theory and in fact
nobody is safe under such q system,
unless he sleeps at night with enough
of gold under his pillow to pay off
every debt he owes in the morning.
The necessities of the present age
demand range of freedom wider
than the disc OF SO gold coin. We
cannot SAT, " locate the business
world on the butt end of an inverted
pyramid whose apex rests on mug
get of the precious metal We can
not operate our railroads on so mar.
row q space; there we cannot erect
the warehouses and elevators that are
to receive and transfer the products OF
the Mississippi valley there we can
not build our manufactures, and EN-.
plOy these mechanical agencies that
have Invested men with power APP
preaching Omnipotenoe. On q base
80 narrow we cannot build such u
superstructure whose certain and
periodical overthrow causes a ruin
that involves the nation. and gives 8
shock that the world must feel.
Compare our business relations now
with those of 1878; the increase c,
our territory and population, the
dependence of one section and one
branch of industry upon another, Of
transportation on manufacture and
agriculture; of the merchant on the
farmer, of consumption upon produc-
ton, Of labor on capital. The aggre
gate of credit and indebtedness ex.
ceeds that of 1857 perhaps ten fold
, and moro. And why was the panic
of 1871 not the most destructive and
ruinous ever known in our history
1t was simply because we had s. cur
rency that the miser nor the million.
aire would not hoard away, and
which the law compelled the creditor
to take. And if we have been saved
from q ruin and sacrifices of property
and financial prostration that hal
a generation could hardly repair, we
must thank the gentle, friendly, PEG.
pie loving greenback.
One strong objection to specie, is
that it it generates misers and mig
} CARDS as naturally as Colorado sands
breed grasshoppers. Gold possesses
an inherent and hereditary fasoina.
: ton over the human mind that be.
| longs to no other created substance
, In all ages 1t has been real God oil
history, commanding homage not fol-
it's "purchasing power. this mod
ern phrase, but because it was sup
posed to possess kingly prerogative
to make its owner great, hcnored.
happy in spite of all earthly calamity
loss, gull! or shame. The Jew shut
up 10 the Holy City by the Roman
army, iOrs0ok the true God, swr How
ed his gold, and surrendered hmsoli
to his enemies. They discovered
the fraud and tore open his stomach
to fitch the secreted treasure. Hume
tells Us of an English King who re-
plenished his treasury by applying
his forceps 20 the teeth Of Shy lock
and he lost seven OF them before be
would surrender the secreted and
idolized dust.
If, unlike the ancient J9w,we have
not secreted goli IN our stomach, it
has worked its way deep into our
hearts All that we have been
taught in our infancy, all that we
have read in history or modern
speeches and legislation, prove that
the golden charm enchans and
crashes our souls as effeclualIy a.
the letters and manaclcs bound the
limbs of southern slaves. To eman-
cipate people from this humiiating
soul enfeebing, dehasing, paralyzing
vassalage is one of tho grsndest ad-
pances in modern civilization.
What the nation wants is this, a
currency that the creditor is COM
PEELED to receive 10 discharge OF al
debts, and Of such o character that
neither the millionaire will lock it up
through avarice, nor the miser
through idoIatry. Tho national cur
rency at present, and as long as it is a
legal tender, answers these ends ex
acily. Who ever heard of its being
hoard I'd? A roll of green backs would
rot and decay under an old punche0n
fl 30. They move as freely a. cur
rents in the atm osphece. as blood
circulates in the body. They Will
circulate despite of the crashing and
collapse of banks and brokers, if all
Wall street and it's bulls and bears
were swallowed up like Sodom and
Gpmorrah. They will buy, they viii
pay the laborer, they will encourage
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