Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1877-10-06

say tA1dG III 4lblGsbN lildI li4hii OUElf
to be allowed to pay that debt will
that dollar. Therefore, shall vot
TO put it back / hope we will put i
back, and when we do l think tina
will be great stride toward bring
ing about resumption of specie pay
ment and setting the finance of the
country upon a solid basis; bu
whether we do or not, l plant my
self upon the position that this Gov
ernment issued its bonds and prom
ised to pay them in coin, actually
specifying silver as one, and the
men who bought the bonds knew
they could be paid either in gold Ol
silver. The State of Ohio issued
her bonds many of the cities issued
their bonds counties and townships
issued their bonds the people issued
eirpromissory notes and gave theiI
bonds every one of them had the
right to look at the statutes and say
"When this becomes due / can pay
it in silver coin," which, from the
time of Washington until this day
has been a legal tender great APP
plausel and no man and no commu-
nifty shall be deprived, with my
consent, of that privilege ["Good" ];
none at all. And, my friends, If it
had happened to turn the other way ;
if it had been gold that deprecated
instead of silver, we would have
heard these very same people who
are now clamoring against the re-
monetization ofsilver, insistingupon
their debts being paid in silver, and
that gold should be demonetized.
am not for gratifying them either
way. They took the risk and they
must stand by it. They have gone
regularly to work to depreciate sill
yer, and it is by their act that it has
been deprecated more than by any
increase in the production of that
metal. Let it be remonetized and
there will be no substantial reason
to complain of any injustice whether
a man is paid in silver or gold.
AND HERE is JUDGE WEST,
the Republican candidate for Gov
ernor (and the Cleveland platform
has the same squint). saying he is in
favor of silver, but that you ought
to put more silver in your dollar
that is the position if [ understand
it. Now look at it: You promised
to pay 100 silver dollars in 1878
gave your note for 100 silver dollars,
and could pay that note, as it then
stood, in silver dollars Of 4124 grains
each. Now comes Judge West and
the Republican Convention at Cleve-
land and say you ought to be COM
PEELED to pay in dollars of 420 or 430
grains each. II you are compelled
to do that, it will take more Of your
wheat to get them than it would
those of 4l24 grains. l would like
to know where is the honesty in
that? You purchased, and the man
was willing to sell to you and take
your promise of 500 of 4l28 grains
each in 1873. That was a bargain,
a perfectly fair bargain, and now
comes Judge West and these Re
publican sages up here at Cleveland
and say: "We will change that bar
gain we want to have that bargain
so that you shall not pay it in silver
dollars of 412! grains each, but of
420 or 430 grains each" say there
is no honesty in it, nor any good
policy in it. Why, we undervalue
silver now. Even the silver dollar
of the fathers was undervalued.
to the Coinage Act, and
before and since we have rated one
gold dollar as worth sixteen silver
dollars, that is, we make the rela-
ton between as sixteen to one and
yet the greatest silver nation in Eu-
rope, France, rates it at fifteen and
a half of silver to one of gOld-that
is, we give One-half dollar more of
silver to one of gold than the French
man does. And yet here are people
saying that is not enough; you
ought to give seventeen or eighteen
or nineteen silver dollars for one of
gold. / don't believe it at all. |
say there is no honesty or sound
policy in it. Now, my friends, to
close these remarks, which i know
have been somewhat scattering, let
me recapitulate. / have said that
the improvement and increased pro-
duction Of labOr-saving machinery
is one of the causes of our distressed
state. have said that taxation was
another cause, and / mentioned the
of the purchasing pow
9r of the dollar and the demonetiza-
ton of silver. Now, let me tell
you, if you will have
RELIEF FROM THIS STATE OF Az
FAIRS,
there are some things you must do.
You must require Congress i'm the
first place to set about revising the
tariff laws Of the United States.
Those laws are so shaped now that
we are deprived Of many and many
4 market which ought to be ours,
and would be ours, and would afford
a relief to our laborers engaged I'm
and agriculture if
these markets were opened. The
effect of this oppressive tariff law is
and will be, and must be, until it Is
to almost shut the doors
Of several countries to us which
ought to be opened to us, and which
would afford to us a market which,
if it had existed three years ago,
would have done more, perhaps,
than any thing else to relieve us Of
the distress we have been eXperien-
cling.
In the next place, you must set
your faces against this enormous
alone Federal taxa
ton, but the enormous taxation Of
the State, counties, cities and villa
ges. You must insist upon the taxes
being reduced to the very lowest
consistent with an efficient
public service; and, in order that
the taxes may be reduced, you must
insist that the reform must extend
further than pointed out by Sherman
in the Treasury Department and
Custom-hOuses and you must cease
TO pay, as it seems we have been
paying from one to two millions
to perfect idlers, and that I'm only
a few offices and perhaps tens and
tWenties Of millions if you could
take the whole country through.
You must stop all that, and must
get the expenses of Government,
Federal and State, down to the low
est notch consistent with the neces-
sites of the Government you must
get rid of any man who spends your
money extravagantly or uselessl y.
Then we may hope to be relieved
then we may hope to see good times,
and not only good times, but once
more have an honest Government.
CONCLUSION.
NV friends, ] thank you very
lxindIxy for having listened To me so