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

books. while shutting their eyes 10
every lesson its history taught the
world. They are blind to the fact
that. while resumption was possible
in England, it is Wholly impossible
here. when she attempted resump-
tiOn the paper money to which her
values were adjusted was about
S232. DOC. 900: ours, seven hundred
and thirty-threc millions. She had
far more gold III the country than
we nave. All ne world owed her
we owe all the gOrld. The precious
metals flowed 10 her from every
land they flow Out from us at every
mort. With her small volume OF
naper money, her comparatively
large accumulation of coin, her SUI
Dreme command as the creditor, the
merchant and manufacturer of the
world, resumption might we'll have
seemed practie BILE to her statesmen.
With our large volume OF paper
money, our petty and diminishing
suDplv of coin, in our helpless situa-
tion a. the financial slave Of the
world, unable either to get or keep
coin as the foundation of redeema-
lie papef currency, the attempt at
forced resumption is theory or craft
run mad.
England carried through the
scheme of her theorists and usurers,
stripped her laboring class of their
homes and little accumulatiOns,
robbed debtors of their prOpert f.,
and suppressed with slaughter the
cries Of her starving wage-men. Our
theorists and uSurerS have a far more
Gigantic lob on hand. It's monstrOus
immortality and injustice are under
stood by the people, who VIII not
submit to be robbed and eslaVed by
il. The alliances of WoFkingmen
everywhere-their action in the late
electiOns-the civil connections OF
last spring-are but pOrtents OF a
coming storm. Look at the multi
tudes in the streets of our cities fast
being driven by hunger to despair /!
saw hundreds last summer dubbed
by policemen out of the parks in
New York at night-homele5s, starry
ing wOrkingmeni who had gone
there to find resting place on the
grass under plying sky / warn
YOU, this scheme has been pushed
lust as far as it car go. Stop! or the
spOliatiOn of the masses, accom-
Dlished and still threatened, may
arouse an avenging spirit which will
not be content with merely righting
wrongs.
NATIONAL HONOR.
But thegentlemanf from New y OTk
MIR. Chittendenl declares with great
Vehemence that the greenback was
originally merely debt payable on
a day not named that the reSump-
ton law made it payable January
/, 1879 and that TO repeal that law,
and change the day of payment so
fixed, is downright Reputation,
Mr.. Speaker, if the gentleman's
statement be true that the green
backs were payable on a day not
named, then they were payable on
demand Then the resumption act
pOstpOning payment four years was
an act of reputation, and to now re-
peal that act is to restore as far as
possible the original contract.
Hence, by his own logic, he was a
patriot when he voted against the
resumption law in 1875, and is now
a repudiatOr in sustaining it.
Ny colleague Mr.. Garfield says
the greenback was a forced loan.
DENY il. 1t was issued a. money ),
and solely because the people had
not enough coin or other safe cuTren-
cy with which to prosecute the bus
inesS of the war. / care not for the
form of the contract, but for its
meaning not for the letter, but the
spirit. 1t was and is only Il pledge
by the whole people to each success
siYe holder that il shall be money ;
the money of the Constitution and
law; the money of taxes, judgments
and contracts i'm the transactions of
domestic business and that the
function of money shall inhere in it
until considerations of Dtt6Iic interest
atone require its redemption i'm coin.
\ favOrite scheme of the bullion
iSts-thOse guardians of national
OnOr-recOmmended repeatedly by
Grants administration and the lead
ing reSumptiOnistS of this House,
has been and is to break this pledge
of national faith by destroying the
legal-tender character of the green
backs in the hands of the people.
They and they only are the repudi-
atOrs; while those advocating the
retention of the money, with all its
faculties unimpaired, respect alike
the obligations of national honor in
cured in its issue and the cOnside-
ratiOns of national interest which
demand its retention as the safest
and best possible currency.
Sir, the resumption law was trick
and a fraud Matched in the dark
its real purpose and effect concealed
from all but the initiated in the
mystery of money and put through
Congress without explanation or de-
bate, because its authors well knew
that the people would never consent
to increase the bonded debt or de-
stroy the greenback, and that if the
effect of the bill had been known il
would have been instantly strangled
ON this floor.
That law is itself q reputation oil
the compact by which the greenback
became the measure of all contracts
in the myriad transactions of do
mCStic business. 1t sought to de
strOy the greenback and to increase
by stealth the values of $4,000, 000,.
600 of contracts, public and private
measured by it. To repeal that law
and thus restore as far as possible
the just measure of those contracts
is demanded alike by the people t.
whom the greenbacks belong and by
every consideration of interest and
honor.
fla repeal of this law be repudia.
ton, as the gentleman from New
York Mr.. Chittendenl so loudly as.
sertS, who are the hapleSS sufferers
Not the people at large, for they hold
the money to-day and pay it out to,
morrow, and Il change in its pur.
chasing power Is not so instantaneous
stOaffect hand to hand transactions
Is it the few men who have boarded
greenbacks on the pledge of the law :
They diverted the money from the
uses for which il was issued and have
already made eNorbitant profit by
it. Is it not enough for them that
six dollars i'm greenbacks will now
buy ten dollars worth of labor Ol
property? Does justice or honor de
mand that we give the hOarders o
one or two hundred millions O
greenbacks the power to double oil
treble their wealth by purchasing
the peoples labor and property a
mere nominal prices, and that to ne
COmplish this the industries, the
n,rnnArtNr fln bar,v.ir,n-s .,f ln r,,.,.sl