Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1877-12-22

THE sPEEcH OF THE sEssroN.
Extracts from the speech OH the
Hon. Thomas Ewing on the bill
80 Repeal the Third Section
of the Resumption Law,
November 22, 1877.

- AeC kgEaAA tAaC SCCthOA
of the Resumption Law,
November 22, 1877.
| Mr.. SPEAKER: 1t is character.
tic of republican governments tha
| the epeople c0nfine etheirattention an
interest to one great question unit
it is thoroughly settled. For 81.
years preceding the war, nothing @
public interest was generally con
sidered but the slavery question
During the war, the means of it
! successful prosecution absorbed al
| attention. Since its close, the statu
of the negro race as components O
our political life, and the terms O
rehabilitation of the revolted States
| have been the controlling question
| in every campaign. Now that tn,
last of the Southern questions i:
happily settled by the triumph d
the Democratic principle of loca
self-goyernment, there loom up, al
paramount in importance and inter
est, the questions of the debt and
the currency.
Happy would it have been for the
people had they considered these
questions twelve years ago. They
would have been saved the infiiction
of five gigantic wrongs in their
finance policy. They would have
had a paper currency composed
solely of greenbacks, and have
avoided $3.50, GOO, 600 of unnecessary
bonded debt caused by dividing the
circulation with national banks-a
saving which would by this date
have equaled One-third of our ma
tional burden. They would not
have suffered the maladroit and
mischievOus funding in long bonds
of the 81 200, 900, 900 0finterest notes,
the chief part of which were legal
tenders and performed the double
office of investment and currency:
which were dispersed throughout
the country, and little felt as bur-
den because of the ebb and flow of
payments from the Treasury to the
people as interest, and from the
people back to the Treasury as taxes.
The funding of those notes largely
contracted the effective currency
just as our business wants were
immensely increased by the return
of the South to our industrial life:
and substituted for them a credit
system which occasioned the panic
of 1878.
So, too, the people had been awake
to these questions, the act of repudi
alton and extortion in 1869 would
never have become law, by which
$500, 600, 900 werein effect taken from
them and given to the bondholders
without consideration; nor the silver
swindle of 1873 and 1874 by which
we were deprived of the power to
pay our public debts in the coin of
the contract, the metal of which
America is the great producer; nor
the crOWning Villainy of the act of
1879, by which about ten thousand
millions of currency debts were
made payable in gold, by which the
great Wealth-producing classes are
being robbed of their accumulations
for the benefit of usurers, and our
and in the midst of the abundance
IF Gods bounties filled with the
,ries of hunger and despair.
Mr.. Speaker, in closing the debate
IN this bill | wish it to be under
'toOd as having no connection with |
he question whether the system of |
rec banking established by the re-
law shall stand or fall. |
The third section of that law re-
1ealed all the provisions of the ma
ional-currency act which limited /
he aggregate bank circulation to |
;354 ,000, 600, and which provided for /
he withdrawal and redistribution /
)ank currency. The repeal of that |
bird section now, will not revive |
hose provisions of limitation, with
--.:lI |
cave the bank system just where it /
low is, open to all in any locality !
Who may choose to establish banks |
If issue. This measure will merely |
top the redemption and destruction
If greenbacks, and the purchase and |
of coin for that pur-
pose. When it shall have been dis |
posed of, it will be for Congress to
determine whether the sovereign |
OrerOgative of furnishing the money |
If the people shall be exercised by |
he Government alone, or divided |
with private corporations.
/ do not wish to confound two |
wholly separate questions, one of !
which is before us and the other not;
md therefore shall not attempt in
he discussion of this bill to present |
he reasons which ten years ago led |
ne to the conviction that bank is
sues should be suppressed and the
whole paper circulation restored to |
he nation, to whom its advantages
belong. That issue will undOubted- |
y be presented by an appropriate
Iill at an early day.
VOLUME OF REDEEMABLE PAPER
DEPENDENT on AMOUNT OF COIN
IN THE COUNTRY.
Mr.. Speaker, no nation ever main
aimed redeemable paper currency
.qual to the volume of coin in the
country. France with 81 200, 900, 900
n coin according to the estimate of
Victor Bennett, and $1,000, 900, 900
Iccording to Mr.. Carey, has not yet
elt able to resume specie payments
m $491 100000 of paper. England
With 800, 100000 of coin can only
maintain redeemable paper cur
ency of about two hundred and
ixty millions. Before the war, we
lad two hundred and eighty-five
Millions of coin in the United States,
nd our banks never had a paper
irculatiOn in excess of two hundred
nd fifteen millions. The reason is
'bviOus when coin becomes actu-
lily current, two-thirds of its vol
Ime, at least, is absorbed by the
,eOple or boarded as reserves by
'anks of deposit only: and it is not
,Ossible for banks of issue or the
government to get control of over
or a fourth of the coin in
n the country as a redemption
und. Thus, before the war, the
'anks never held to exceed eighty
hree millions of the two hundred
nd eighty-five millions of coin in
he country. The British banks
lQld about one hundred and thirty
Millions of the seven hundred mill
Ons in Great Britain, and the Bank
# France holds four hundred and
millions of the twelve
millions of coin in France.
Hence, if our own experience and
hat of other nations are to guide us
0 permanent resumption, we must
Increase our coin, or cut down our
amer. or both. until thp amount of