Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1876-02-24

| y tell this House how they think jackson
| would have regarded the establishment of
great national paper money machine. to
De located for all time in the treasury. depart
ment, the bills of which shall have no pro-
VISION Tor their redemption, and the amount
OF those bills to be determined by major
lty vote In party caucus.
And then, after Jacksons veto MESSAGE
shall lave been diligently perused and in.
wardly dlgested by the Democratic advo-
Gates OF lrredeemable paper money, | will
ASK them II the present national bank sys-
TEN does not fully meet all of Jackson's
| OBJECTIONS, and II it is not indeed as near
| ly as the difference of time and circnrn-
stances will permit, such a system of
backing as Jackson indirectly commended
and as he professed himself ready TO sub
NIT plan for If Congress should desire it?
| Disclaiming, as | have done, any special
| championship of the national banks but
| merely referring to facts OF record, | would
De glad further to ask if the present sys-
ten, In its entire freedom from monopoly.
| being equally open to all; if in the abso-
lutte protection 1t affords to that innocent
third party, the bllholder, Ono man ever
having lost dollar by the bills of nation
al banks during the thirteen years the sys-
TEN has been in operation. whereas in the
preceding thirteen years the losses to the
4
ty millions of dollars if in that universal
credit attached to its bills, saving the peo-
pie all losses from exchange or discount
Wherever payment Is TO be made within the
! nlted States; II in its protection of the
rights of depositors; if in its strength and
so!vency in time of financial disaster: if in
It's subsection to taxation, both by the Gen.
eral and state Governments until it con
| ieosedIy pays heavier tax than anv other
species OF property; ii in its capacity to
measure by the unvarying law OF supply
and demand the precise amount OF circua-
| ton required by the wants Of trade,"-I
would be glad. | repeat, to ask any Demo-
cratic opponent OF the system il it does not
in each and all these features MI the ideal
requirement OF Il bank as iore> hadoScd by
jackson and II 1t does not indeed far tran
sceud any ideal Jackson had, In its free
dom Tor all 10 engage in il. in lis absolute
security to the public, and in lis singular
adaptation To act u a regulator of the cur
rcncy preventing undue expansion and uu-
due contraction with equal aud uuf:,liug
ctrIaitty, And adjusting itself at once to
The specie standard Whenever the Govern.
ment shall place its own notes at par with
coin?
Ii is urged By the opponents Of the bank
Ing system that the three huudrcd and
twenty millions OF bank circulution can be
supplied oy lcgal-tendcrs and the interest
on that amount o: bonds stopped, How:
Does any gentleman suppose that the
bonds owned by the banks, ard ON cruo.it
III the Treasury, will be exchanged for
legal tenders OF new aud inflated iS,u.y
Those bonds are payable, principal and in
terest, In gold; and. with tie present
amount OF lcgal-iendcr notes they are
worth ~ The market from Sl,lG To Sl.2j.
hstf h..t- -,
when you double the amount of lenal.rr,-
ders and postpone the dly OF .prci,. re-.
sunpton far beyond the vision oi propbct
or seer: Ana this enormous issue OF legal .
tenders TO take the place OF bauk-notc, i.
only the beginning Of the policy 10 be in. .
au.urdtcd. The wants OF trade NatI.I .
speedily demand another Issue FOR fLe rs
ecntIal nature of an rredcemablc currency /
Is that It has no limit til Il reaction i, born I
OF crushing disaster \ lesson IN ght be /
learned (by those willing to be tauUht bv \
tact and experience) from the course OF
events during the war. When we had one /
hundred and tiity millions of lcgal-tender
IN circulation, it stood Tor a long While /
nearly at par with gold. As the issue in .
creased IN amount the depreciation was .
very rapid and at the time we fixed the
lour hundred million limit, that whole vast
sum had less purchasing power in ex.
change for lands, or houses or mrrchan /
disc than the hundred and tiftv millions 4
mad tNo years before. la the spring of |
1862, sl5O,0O0,0OO of le9al-tender would |
buy in the market Sl4- 900, 900 in gold |
com. In June, 1864, S4OO 900 900 of leval- \
tender would buy only Sl4O. 900, 900 in gold .
coin.
And if we had not fixed the four-huudred /
million limit, but had gone on issuing AL I
ditional amounts according to the wants /
OF trade, as now argued and urged bv the !
modern Democratic hnancerS. the result .
would haye been that at each successive |
Imitation the purchasing power of the az
gregate mass would have been made less +
and the value of the whole would have
gone down, Down. till il reached that point /
OF utter Worthessness which SO many like /
experiments have reached before; aud the I
lesal-tender, with all its vast capacity for |
good in IL great national crisis would have |
taken lis place in history alongside of the |
French asslgnant and the Continental cur
rency. The -four hundred million limit hap
ply saved US that diretul experience and /
nj ohce caused the legal-tender to appre- |
ciate but, unwilling 10 learn by this strik- |
ing fact. the infationSts insist upon a |
scheme of expansion which would speedily |
raise the price OF bonds to Unprecedented /
figures, and by the time they should sue |
ceed IN purchasing those that now stand as |
security tor national bank circulation they
would have increased the national debt by |
countless millions, and instead of making
a saving for the Treasury they would end
by dcprving it of the eight millions of tax
annually paid by the banks and the peo-
pie would have lost the additional eight !
millions of local tax derived from the same
source.
| have not spoken of the confusion the
distress, the ruin that would result from
forcing twenty-One hundred banks sudden
ly to wind up their affairs with nearly a
thousand millions of dollars due them
which in some form must needs be liquid
ated and paid. The commercial fabric of
the country rests upon the bank credits,
and nothing short of financial lunacy could
demand their rude disturbance. Whoever
would strike down the banks, under the
delusion that they can be driven to sur
render their bonds foI inflated egal-ten-
ders, knows little OF The laws of finance
and still less of the laws OF human action.
Among the anomalies presented in the
currency discussion, Mr.. Chairman, is that
the West and the South should have so
large an element clamorous for initiation
or all sections interested in the specie
standard the West and the South stand
first. The great staples produced in those
VAST anu lcTtllt TtSlOHs, wheat. corn, uOuT,
beef, pork, hides, tobacco, hemp. cotton,
rice and sugar, are inevitably and peremp.
tOrily subjected to the gold standard when
sold. The prize of cottons sent to Lowell is
just MS much determined by the gold stand
ard as that which is exported to MaDches-
ter, and the breadstufis sold in New York
are daily equated with the prices OF the
Liverpool corn exchange. And SO of all
the other commodities. And yet we hear
representatives of the great interests that
are thus compelled to sell at gold prices.
resolute and determined in their demands
that they shall be allowed to purchase all
their supplies on the paper basis. When it
is remembered that the whole of the annu-
al crop In this country, reckoning all prod
ucts. reaches the enormous amount OF
three thousand millions on the gold basis
and that the surplus not consumed by the
producers is many hundreds of millions of
dollars. and that the value of the whole is
estimated by the gold standard, the farm-
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