The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1877-12-07

ft shall be money; the money of the
taxes, judgments, and contracts, In the
transactions of domestic business and
that the function Of money shall in-,
here Ia iE until considerations OF pub
lie interest alone require It's Iedemp-
ton in coin. 5
A favorlte scheme of the bullIonists
those guardians of national honor
recommended repeatedly by Grants
administration and the leadiag resump-
tionists OF this House, has beer and is
to break this pledge of national faith
by destroying the legal tender charac-
ter of the greenbacks in the hands Of
the people. They and they only are
regulators; while those advocating
the retention of the money, with all its
faculties unimpared, respect alike the
obligations of national honor incurred
in its issue and the considerations of
national interest which demand It's re-
tention as the safest and best possible
currency. Es-s
Sir, this resumption was trick and
a fraud, Matched in the dark; its real
purpose and effect concealed from all
but the inflated in the mystery OF mon
ey; and put through congress without
explanation or debate, because its au-
rhOrs well knew tn at the people would
never consent to Increase the bonded
debt or destroy the greenback, and
that if the effect of the bill were known
1t would be instantly strangled on this
floor. ~ $50 ~ a ~
That law is itself population of
the compact by which the Sreenback
has become the measure of all con-
tracts in the myriad transactions of
domestic business. 1t sought TO de-
stroy thegreenback and to increase by
stealth the value of SIC, 700 600, 600 Of
contracts, public and private, meas
ured by it. To repeal that law and
thus restore as far as possible the just
measure of those contracts is demand
ed alike by the people to whom the
greenbacks belong and by every Con-
sideration ofinterest and honor.
If repeal of the law be Reputation,
as the gentleman from New York Mr..
Chittenden] SO loudly asserts, who are
the hapless sufferers Not the people
at large, for they hold the money to-
day, and pay il out tomorrow, and 8
change in the purchasing power is not
so instantaneous as to affect such hand
to hand ira nsactions. Is 1t the few
men who have boarded greenbRcks on
the law They diverted the money
from the uses for which 1t was issued
and have already made ezorbitant
profit by It. Is It not enough for them
that So will now buy go worth of la
Dor or property? Does justice or hon
or demand that we give the hoarcers
of one or two hundred millions OF
greenbacks the power to double or
treble their wealth by purchasing the
peoples labor and property at mere
nominal prices, and that to accomslIsh
this the industries, the property, the
happiness of the masses shall be Sacri-
feed.
No, sir; no public debt, however
clear or obligatory, would justify 6
sacrifice SO stupendous. In the Ian.
guage of Edmund Burke
1t is to the property of the citizen, anC
not to the demand of the creditor OF the
state, that the original faith of society II
pledged. The claim Of the citizen is pri
or in time, paramount in title, superior
in quality.
have no time, Mr.. Speaker, to re
ply to all the arguments on the othe
side, or to sound a tenth part of tn,
depths and shoals of this subject, which
is as boundless as the sea. No greater
question was ever presented to al
American Congress for action. /
|
the future, of three-fourths of the men
women and children of this land
Countless homes have already beeI
desolated by this robbery law. Thou
sands of men have been driven by it .
insanity or suicide. Hundreds of thou
sands have been cast down from com
potency to poverty. Millions hav
been deprived of that employment 70
their labor on which rest the hope an
dependence of their families. It
now too late to right these wrongs, bu
we may avert greater evils from tn
most OF these victims and from mil
lions more by the prompt action o
Congress and the President.
do not appeal to the money powe
which seeks its own aggraDdizemen
over the wrecked fortunes of the unwa
ry multitude-a power to which on
unhappy civil war gave birth, whicl
has grown SO enormous through uDjus
finance legislation, and now 'bestride
this narrow world like g Colossus !;
which subsized the press, the great or
gans of public opinion; which capt.
Yates statesmen and parties, and make
them its subservient tools; which vii
lilies and seeks to crush every publil
man who dares raise his voice agains
it. That power, in the flush and AFRO
gance of its enormous and i'll gotter
gains, has q heart of stone not to b.
touched by human sympathy or com
passion [ appeal to the masses; Il
their faithful Representatives of bott
parties on this floor; to ali who thIDE
the true aim of government is th'
greatest good of the greatest number
who believe there is a faith due to thu
people as well as to the holders of pub
lie securities and that whoever by
covert legislation changes the value o
contracts is as accused as he WHIT
moves bis neigkbor's land marks.
For twelve years past the financ,
policy of this country has been dictat
ed in Lombard street, and the peopl,
have been plundered by every fresI
enactment. They have suffered thu
fate of the giant CULVER tied down b.
the Lilliputians. Thank God, they ar
now about to arise, to burst the bond
their petty foes have fastened Oh then
sleeping, and to walk abroad again II
Isk -.