The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1877-08-16


Of the Government Sir, II is q very res,
pectable class of gentlemen, but a class OF
men who are very sharp in all money |
transaction. They are not generally |
among the producing Classes-not among |
those who, by their skill and labor, make
the wealth Of the country but a class OF
men who have GcctVatlated wealth-men
who are willing to lend money 70 the
government If you will make the security
beyond all question, give them a high
rate Of interest, and make 1t payable IN
CON-"
THE BoNDHoLDERs' CONSPIRACY OF 1862
Other men in and out of Congress de-
nounCed the demand of the Shylocks to
have their interest paid in gold but the
money power was too strong to be resist
ed then and has so continued till now,
and gold interest was allowed, No man
supposed, nobody suggested that 1t ever
could be claimed that the principal OF
those bonds (the 20s) could be demand
ed in gold or silver coin; but to make as
surance doubly sure, Congress cause to
written on the back of each legal tender
note, that it was receivable at its face
value for all debts public and private, ex-
cept interest on the bonds and custom
dues. No man will deny that the princi-
pal of the bonds is public debt; being
80, it was of course payable in legal ten
der notes. Itis simply nonsense for any.
body now to contend otherwise. Yet the
first act of General Grants administration
was the act declaring that the principal
of all these bonds was payable in coin,
That act was voted for by nearly every
Radical in the House and Senate, and
did not receive single Democratic vote
in either. That WAS the most Infamous
act ever passed by Congress. Itconvert-
ed domestic debt which could then be
paid in currency which would remain
here, as five years had run from the date
of the issue of most of the bonds, into a
foreign one it added, without considera-
ton, and against law and justice, at least
S5O0.00O.000 to the debt of the country, a
SUM larger than the whole cost of main
tanning all the departments of the Gov.
ernment. and all its debts entire for the
first twenty eight years of its existence
or from the first Inauguration of General
Washington to the Inauguration of Mr.
Monroe, including all the expenditures
ofthe war with Great Britain, from 1872
to 1916. twas rushed through with all
the evidences of "a carefully pre-Concerted
conspiracy, before the Speaker had ap'
pointed any of the Committees; under
the gag, no man being allowed to open
his mouth in the House of Representa-
tives, and it passed both Houses, and was
signed by General Grant in lead than a
week after the time it was suggested. 1t
was simply an act of plumber, worse than
highway robbery; there the victim has
some chance to resist, in that case we
have none. 1t ought to have hurled
Grants Administration and all connect
ed with it from place and power.
The acquiescence of the people in it
emboldened them to pass the subsequent
acts of a like nature, which have brought
us to our present condition. In 1869 the
bondholders of Europe and America
knew that they had a Congress which
belonged to them. A body ofmen known
as carpet baggers had been placed in
Congress by Congress under ReConstruc'
ton Acts, which reduced eleven States
to the most abject satrapies. They were
called Representatives of the Southern
States and people, but were notso in any
proper sense; they were the most malig-
nant enemies and the most INSCRIPTIONS
vilifers of the people for whom they pro-
fessed to act-simply the agents of the
Eastern monopolists and the hired tools
of capitalists. By their presence in Con-
gress, New England and the Eastern
monopolies had double representation,
and the South was forced to aid in her
own degradation and in the destruction
of the interest of the general taxpayers,
especially in the great agricultural re-
gions West of the Alleghanies and South
of Mason and Dixon's line. Thank God
they are almost extinct in American poll
tics. May we never see their like again.
| believe that the act of March IS, 1869,
is unconstitutional and therefore null and
void.
Congress in 1869 had no power
to declare the meaning of previ-
GUS acts. All declaratory legislation is
void. 1t is the perogative of the courts
to determine and declare the meaning
of legislative acts, and it was clearly out
side of the constitutional power of Con-
gress to take from the people either
$500, 10000, or any other amount of mon
ey, and give it without pretense of con-
sideration to the bondholder. l have
introduced several bills for its repeal but
have always been met with the cry that
the faith of the nation was pledged by
that act to the payment of the bonds in
coin. / deny that any Congress can
pledge any future Congress by any act,
and l specially deny that the representa-
tiyes of the people are under any sort of
obligation to any body to maintain such
a measure as that passed, as it was, by a
Congress filled with bogus representatives
an act conceived in sin and brought
forth in iniquity. One fraud successfully
accomplished paves the way for others.
It was seen in few years that silver was
becoming more abundant
THE DOUBLE STANDARD.
England, the great creditor country,
had adopted the single gold standard
Prussia and other continental nations
we're about to make the experiment
Prussia followed Immediately. Our own
mines we're adding largely to our silver
product, and the legal tender quality ol
The silver dollar, which had been main.
tanned from the formation of the Gov.
ernment, had to be got clear Of, or the
bondholders would cease to reap the
benefit they had received and were de
termined to continue, from the coin bill
of 1862 an open effort to demonetize the
silver dollar would have failed. Tht
Republicans who met at Cincinnati il
MAY, 1872, and exposed and denounced
the schemes of General Grant and hi
retainers would have joined the Demo
Gratis in opposing it. Other means haC
to be resorted to. The European ant
American agents of the bondholder
found q ready ally in Samuel Hooper, o
Massachusetts,. Chairman of the Commit
tee on Coinage; who. by fraud, chicaner
and falsehood, stole the bill demonetiz
ing it through Congress SO clandestinel