Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1877-10-25

cfc WoTo uOiug Wuag tney CUuIu 10
prevent the bonds from being issued
or sold /; when abroad England was
putting her money in Confederate
bonds" and only Germany had faith
in the triumph of the Uuion arms |;
whom at home, the frenZied hostility
of an unpatriotic faction, to both the
financial and the war measures of
the Government was chief difficulty
in the way of the effective prosecu-
ton of the war, and the chief cause
of the depreciation of the national
credits. The bonds were taken large
ly from motives as purely patriotic
as that which prompted men to give
themselves or their sons to die on the
battle field. Many were taken by
the poorer classes; Mr.. Lincoln dwells
on this fact, in his message TO Coa-
grass, Imposing "peculiar obliga-
tions to economy 10 expenditures
and to energy in action" In those
days of wild speculation and rare OPP
portunity, there were abundant
methods for far more profitable in
vestments than in the obligations of
the Government. They were issued
as necessity, they were bought
largely by,those who fully appreciat-
cd the needs of the Government, and
it is great wrong-almost crime
TO class the public creditors of that
time as public enemies now. IF they
or others, had not came forward with
their money, either the Government
would have persisted, or survived,
not as the temple of liberty, purified
and reconsecrated, but only as a
monument of failure,a broken union,
a divided country, with standing
armies perpetually facing each other
along the line separating the slave
holders despotism from all that was
left of the proud republic foonded by
Washington and his associates. From
such disaster our Impoverished
financial system saved us, and every
patriot should join in the sentiment /:
"God bless both the government
which issued bonds for this holy pur-
pose and the people who bought
them"
WHY THE BONDS ARE NOT TAXED.
But it is said that while the pur-
pose is good for which the system
was devised, it contains many bad
features, advantageous to the rich
and both oppressive and unjust to
the laboring classes. First on the
list of this class of objections is the
cry that it has created "an untaxed
bondholdlng aristocracy," as if the
exemption of the United States
bonds were "new department. in
the financial hosiery of the country.
This charge is of the very essence of
falsehood or of ignorance. The gov.
eminent had repeatedly issued bonds
before the war, and they we're never
subject to taxation. They were
always exempted. The necessity
and Justice of this rule was estab-
lished more than fifty years ago by
the Supreme Court of the United
States, Chief Justice Marshall an
nouncing the decision in an elabo-
rate opinion. The soundness of his
conclusions no respectable law
yer or intelligent man will ques-
ton. The reasons for such exemp.
ton are these The government is
not expected to incur debts except in
exigonces when it's expenses are
greater than can be met by its avail
able revenues. To tax the bonds is
simply mode of reducing the inter-
est. For the government to tax them
would involve the absurdity of it's
paying out the interest and then COL
Letting back part of it. How much
better to make the interest as low as
possible at first, and avoid the ex-
penss of collecting the tax. Further
if it permitted states and municipal.
ties to tax its bonds they would have
a practical veto on its constitutional
right to borrow money. A State by
levying a high tax on such securities
could prevent their sale within it's
limits. Such power would be incon-
sistent with the sovereignty of the
National Government. Suppose it
had been possible by the municipal
authorities of New York city, notori-
ously in sympathy with the rebellion
during the war; it is extremely prob
able that by such taxation they
would have destroyed that market
for United States securities.
Whether this rule of exemption be
good or bad, it is one for which our
present financial legislation is not re-
sponsible. 1t is one which the fran
ers of our present system found al
ready established. It has it's origin in
the Constitution, and those who
charge Republican legislation with
creating an untaxed aristocracy of
bondholders are either ignorant OF
the laws and history of the country,
or they are demagogues seeking to
deceive and mislead the people.
THE CHARGE THAT THE BONDS WERE
ORIGINALLY PAYABLE IN GREENBACEs.
Another favorite charge of the
Greenback leaders is, that our inter.
est bearing debt was originally paya-
BILE in Greenbacks, that Congress af-
forwards repealed that law and
pledged their payment in gold. An
examination Of the statutes and the
decisions of the courts will show the
falsity of these assertions. The basis
of our present financial system is the
Legal tender Act of Feb. %, 1862.
1t authorized the first issue of legal
tender notes Greenbacks - and OF
$50 bonds. Upon these bonds the
National bank circulation is founded,
which, with Greenbacks, constitute
the chief currency of the country at
present. Now the Legal Tender Act
nowhere says, directly or indirectly,
that the bonds may be paid in legal
tender notes. IF the law can be SO
construed it must be some strained
inference drawn from other than its
express provisions. Such is the claim
and it is alleged that the clause of the
law making Greenbacks legal tender
for all debts public or private "except
| interest on fine nublie debt and duties