The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1877-10-20
PENDLETON.

field the senator from Ohio permanently TO oc
cupv John Sherman's seat promises to be Geo
II Pendleton. There is probably not another
man in the nation whose elevation to that pc
sition will be more distasteful as well to the
bloody shirt fraternity as to the Hayes repub
licans and the whole Wall street speculator
banker, broker and bulionist brood.
And this affords an opportunity to remark
that certainly among all the living ones there
is not statesman or eminent man in the coun
try who, within the last ten or fifteen years
has been more ruthlessly lied about than this
same Geo II. Pendleton. No man in con
gress, during the war, voted more uniformly
and persistently for every efficient measure TO
support the armies in the field and to enable
the government to prosecute the war with Wig
or than he, and yet so perseveringly ana re-
lentlessly was his course beled by the repub-
lican press that to this day many honest though
of course ignorant republicans believe that in
his whole course in congress during the war
he was the verest copperhead and southern
sympathizcr.
But with even greater malignity and men
dacity if possible, has he been pursued Tor
holding certain alleged financial views. There
is not bullionist organ but to this day froths
over at the mere mention of Pcndletons name,
and swears that of all botlomless initiation and
swindling paper money schemes ever proposed,
even the widest vagarics of Peter Cooper,
Lyollor,, IJo,tnn opI Enwopnn Smith orp in.
nocence itself compared to the scheme of Mr..
Pendleton. And now what was the scheme
which to this day is sneeringly and opprobrl-
ously referred to as "Pendletonism: 1t was
this: In 1861, when it was proposed by Mr..
Pendeton, there were about $40O,OOO,OOO OF
greenbacks in circulation and S30O,OOO,O 600 OF
national bank bills. At the same time the
government had out $1,5OO,0OO,OOO of $40
bonds. bearing per cent interest, about to fall
due. As these bonds by the law under which
they were issued were payable in greenbacks,
Mr.. Pendleton proposed that the national bank
bills should be withdrawn, and that IN lieu of
them $300000,000 Of grecnbacks should be
issued, and with them $30O,00O,OOO of the $50
bonds taken up and retired, thus saving to the
Country $1s,060,000 year in gold interest on
the national debt When the $50 bonds were
issued they were bought and paid for in green
backs worth 40 to 80 cents on the dollar.
When Pendeton made his proposition the
greenbacks were worth ~ cts. on the dollar
The bondholder would thus get back, besides
interest in gold at the rate of nearly l2 per
annum, $4,000 for every $4,000 he had paid
for his bonds. ~
This was, in all its bigness and litteness,
bulkincss and minutest detail, the famous
Pendeton financial scheme. 1t involved no
infiation-no currency expansion to the extent
of dolIar--no bad faith to the bondholder-
nothing in the re,notest degree to impair tho
credit or honor of the government--nothing,
in short, but what was financially judicious,
wise, business.like and honest-,just what every
reputable business man would have done in
his private affairs under like circumstances.
But Wall street was full bent on an enormous
steal in the matter of the $50 bonds, and the
whole brood Of congressman and republican
leaders had an interest in it. They had determin-
ed that the $40 bonds, which had cost less than
so cts on the dollar five years before, must now
be paid dollar for dollar in gold And they set
up with one accord the most deafening howl
ever heard in this land against Pendleton and
his 'swindling schcme!" The din of that
howl-mxed with bloody shirt arpegglos and
southern outrage solfeggios-was so effective
at the time as to bury the democratic party in
1868 under a mountain of mendaciy, and TO
give the brood Of treasury robbers unrestrain-
led license for the next ten years, which they
have used without measure stint or mercy at
"A cost of hundreds of millions to the people
Pendleton in the L. 3. Senate will yet see
the day when he will be able to turn the Ia
bes on his maligners and prosecutors, ana II
will be but human if he deals with them as
mercilessly as they dealt with him,