Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1876-02-11


! Government and the prosperity OF the American
people are alike menaced by those who demand
the perpetuation Of an irredeemabe paper cur
rency. For more than two years the country has
been suffering from prostraton in business; conh-
dence returns but slowly; trade revives only par
| tally, and to-day, with capital unproductive and
| labor unemployed, we find ourselves in the midst
| of an agitation respecting the medium with which
business transactions shall be carried on. Until
this question is definitely adjusted it is idle to ex
pect that full measure Of prosperity to which me
| energies of our people and the resources OF the
land entitle US. In the way Of that adjustment,
one great section Of the Democratic party, possl-
=! bly, its controlling power, stubbornly stands to-day
| Tie Republicans, always true to the primal duty
of supporting the nations credit, have now cast
behind them all minor differences and dissensons
on the financial question, and have gradually con-
| soiidated their strength against imitation. The
| currency therefore, becomes Of necessity prom
inent political issue, and those Democrats who are
| in favor Of honest dealing by the government and
honest money for The people, may be compelled to
act as they did in that still grayer exigency when
| the existence of the Government itself was at
| stake.
| While this question should be approached in no
spirit of paitzan bitterness, it has yet become 50
| entangIed with party relations that NO intelligent
| discussion of il can be had without giving its ro-
litica history-and if that history bears severely
| on the Democratic party, its defenders must an
swer the facts and not quarrel with their presenta-
ton. Firmly attached TO one political party my
II,
1.cnt are as healthtu they are inevitable, still
| think there are questions about which parties
should agree never to dissgree-and OF these Is
the essential nature and value of the circulating
| medium. And it is a fact Of especial weight and
significance that up TO the paper money era, which
was precipitated upon us during the Rebel on, as
ONE of wars inexorable necessities, there never
was political party in this country that believed
in any other than the specie standard for our cur
rency. If there was any one principle that was
| rooted and grounded in the minds Of our earlier
statesmen, il was the evil of paper money, and no
| candid man Of any party can read the Constitution
of the United States and not be convinced that us
trainers intended 10 protect ard defend our people
| Fl ON the manifold pcrils of irredeemable cur
rency. Nathaniel Macon one OF the purest an i
| best of American statesmen, himself soldier Of
| the Revolution and member OF Congress contln-
uously during the administrations of our first six
| Presidents, embracing in all a period OF nearly
forty years expressed the whole truth when he de-
| cared in the Senate that "this was hard-money
Government, founded by hard-money men, who
had themselves seen and felt the evils OF paper
money, and meant TO save their posterity from 1t.
| To this uniform adherence TO the specie stand
ard the CT isis of the Rebellion forced an exception
| In January, 1862, with more than half million OF
| men in arms, with daily expenditure OF nearly
two millions of dollars, the Government suddenly
| found itself without money. Customs yielded but
little internal taxes had not yet been levied pub
| lie credit was feeble, if not parayzed our armles
| had met with one signal reverse and nowhere with
marked success, and mems minds were hiled VAIN
| gloom and apprehension. The one supreme need
| of the hour was money and money the Govern
| ment did not have. What, then should be done I
| rather, what could be done The ordinary Treas
urv note had been tried and failed, and those al
ready issued were discredited and below the value
of the bills of country banks. The Government in
this great and perous need promptly called to Its
| aid power never before exercised. 1t authorized
the issue Of one hundred and fifty millions of notes
and declared them 20 be a legal tender for all
,iip o.,A
| The ablest lawyers who sustained this measure
did not find warrant for It in the test Of the Con-
sttu,ion, but, like the late Senator Fessenden Of
my own State, placed it on the ground of "abso-
Lutte, overwhelming necessity" and that llustr-
Gus Senator declared that 'the necessity existing,
he had no hesitation" Indeed, sir, to hesitate was
| TO be lost for the danger was that if Congress
prolonged the debate on points of Constitutional
construction its deliberations might be interrupted
| by the sound of Rebel artillery on the opposite
shore of the Potomac. The Republican Senators
| and Representatives, therefore, dismissing all
doubts and casuistry, stood together for the coun-
try and if taunted as they were, by the Democracy
| and dsloyalty of that day, with violating the Con
| s,ution they pointed 10 that law which is older
| than Constitutions. Adopting the sentiment as
| they might have quoted the imputed language Of
John Milton, they believed that there is the law
of self-prese,v alton, written bv God himself
hearts there is the primal compact and bond of
society, not craven on stone, nor sealed with wax,
| nor put down on parchment, nor set forth IN any
| express form of words by men when OF old they
cahe together, but implied in the very act that
they so came together, pre-supposed IN all suose-
quent law, not TO be repealed by any authority,
not nvalidatcd by being omitted in any code, in
| asmuch as Fl Ola thence are all codes and all au-
thority."
But the promptings of patriotism, the pressure
of ssity, the 'despotism of duty" which thus
decided the course Of the Republicans failed to
influence the Democrats in Congress. Marshalled
and led by Mr. Pendeton, since become the great
advocate of initiation, the Democratic Representa-
uves voted in we'll nigh solid column against the
legal tender bill. Bankruptcy to the Treasury was
impending, eighty millions of unpaid requisitions
lay on the Secretary's desk; large part OF the
army had not received dollar for six months;
supplies were failing, recruiting haltcd the spnits
of the people dropped, while the Executive Depart
ment, charged with the conduct Of the war, urged
that critical campaigns, then in progress, would
necessarily end i'll disaster unless rell'f could be
afforded in this way. But Democratic console nces
were too tender, and Democratic scruples too in
tense at that time to permit such fearful inirac-
ton of the Constitution as the passage OF legal
tender bill, even to the Union of our Fathers
and thus preserve the Constitution ITSELF
The necessitie. Of the Government were so great
and expenditures so enormous, that another hun
dred and fifty millions of legal tender notes were
speedily called for and granted by Congress-,he
Democrats again voting under Mr.. Pendletons
lead against the measure. With varying fortunes
the last year of the was reached, with three
With the strain of our Public credit and the doubts
and vicssitudes Of the struggle, these notes had
fallen far below par in gold, and it became appar
ent to every clear-headed observer that the con-
tinued issue of legal tenders with no provision for
their redemption and no limit to their amount,
would utterly destroy the credit of the Govern
ment and involve the Union cause in :rretrievablc
disaster. But at that moment, the military situa-
tion, with its perils and its prospects, was such
that the Government must have money more rap
idly than the sale of bonds could furnish it, and
the danger was that the sale of bonds would be
stopped altogethe unless some definite limit could
be assigned to the issue of legal tender notes.
Accordingly, Congress sought, and successfully
sought, to accomplish both ends at the same time,
and they passed bill granting one hundred mil
lions additional legal tender circulation making
four hundred millions in all-and then incorpo-
| rated in the same law solemn assurance and
pledge that ''the total amount of United States
notes, issued and to be issued shall never exceed
four hundred millions of dollars" And to this
pledge every Democratic Senator and Representa-
tive assented, either actively or silently, as the
Journals of both Houses viii show. The subse-