The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1877-11-03

hard money democrat, to show that the demo
cratic party IS soft money initiation party,
1 and believes in the doctrines of the greenback-
ers to a dot II is only few weeks ago since
the venerable editor read Alexander Campbell
and Fawcet Plumb out OF the democratic party
because of their decisions and hcrcsics ON tins
subject. Like other men who are insincere III
their professions, the Deacon frequently eX
poses his inconsistency, often blowing hot and
cold in the same breath-Ottd~a Rpubltcdn
As to the coarse vulgarity of the above we
are not accountable for Mr.. Cullcns taste, and
can stand it if he can AS this charge of in
consistency on the part of the FREE TRADER
on the grccnbaCk question, however, has been
made elsewhere, we may be justified in briefly
referring to it. The FREE TRADER has Ger
tainly during all the financial discussions Of
the last ten or twelve years never shown itself
an advocate of what is generally understood
to be mcant-(we have our doubts whether the
RepuJltcaa knows ,rhot it means) by Andrew
Jackson hard money democracy. Though it
would be hard to prove it, President Jackson
was generally supposed to he an advocate Of
an exclusively hard money currency-gold and
silver and no bank bills or other paper money
The editor of the FREE TRADER-though lay
| ing no claim to being chickcn-was too
young by score of years to take part in the
discussions Of those days, On the contrary
the FREE TRADER has always maintained that
well secured paper currency for general cir
cuation was Il necessity, and as grcenbacks
are the only perfectly secured currency Of that
kind this country ever had, the FREE TRADER
since about their first issue, has maintained
that there ought to be no other paper currency
In 1868 the FREE TRADER agreed with
Pendlcton that, as the 5-20 bonds were made
bv the law under which they were issued pay.
able in grccnbacks, the government, rs they
were then becoming due, ought to pay them
off in grcenbacks, and not, as the government
has done, in gold, bought at Il ruinous cost
Nor has the FREE TRADER ever ceased to de
nouncc rs piece Of gigantic rascality The So
called Schenck bill, by which the go bonds
were made payable in gold.
As the grccnbacks, when issued, were made
convertible into J-20 six per cent. bonds, the
FREE TRADER has always denounced the dis
honest legislation by which that convertible
quality was taken from them; and further, the
FREE TRADER has always insisted that that
quality should be restored to the greenback,
by making ii at all times convertible into a
government bond bearing a sufficient rate of
interest to make it worth par in gold and sill,
yer, which per cents now are, and when that
is done, specie payment will have come, for
the greenback at par with gold is specie pay,
ment, though the government may not have IL
dollar to redeem its greenbacks with and may
never pretend to redeem them, except in low
interest bonds, to take the place of bonds now
bearing higher rate of interest
Holding views like these and to this extent
the FREE TRADER has always been an earnest
advocate of greenbacks and honest money.
As such, of course, it never could have any
sympathy or liberation for the idiotic financial
schemes of Kellogg, Peter Cooper, kewanee
Smith, &c, proposing an unlimited issue or
greenbacks, based on an equally unlimited
issue of government or per cent. bonds, the
grecnbacks redeemable only in those bonds
and the bonds payable only in those greenbacks
IA grotesquc, bottomless, circular absurdty
that always needed only to be fairly stated to
excite ridicue and contempt in the minds of
all rational men And holding these views,
also, the FREE TRADER could not otherwise
than oppose and denounce as fraud and in
justice the resumption act of 1919, proposing
by foolish and wicked expenditure and a
merciless contraction TO procure enough gold
to take up and cancel the best currency this
country ever had and give us in place of il one
greatly its inferior.
This for the present, we hope is sufficient
to define the position Of the FREE TRADER
and to vindicate its consistency. 1t believes
that the great body of the socalled greenback-
ers and of the democrats of this county hold
substantially the same views, and TO that ex-
tent we are all grecnbackers If beyond that
there are greenbackcrs who hold to the KEEL
logg Cooper idocy, they are outside of our
pale and We neither claim or desire fellowship
with them.
And now having been thus explicit perhaps
the Republican, will favor us with its views on
a few moot questions. As it never loses an oc-
casiOn to dcnounce Pcndletonism, how does it
justify the antidotc to that ism, the Schenck
bill of 1869? Does the Republican support the
Sherman resumption act and advocate resump-
ton under it? Is it in favor of the canccla-
ton of the grcenbacks and the substitution of
national bank paper as our only paper curren-
would doubtless be great satisfaction to less
than million or so of people
On Tuesday President Hayes, with three
members of his cabinet and "a miscellaneous
assortment of family encumbranccs,' left
Washington on Il dcadhead mission Of " con.
ciliaton" to Richmond. The party were way
| laid and hailed for AN hour nt FrrdpriSk lurCr