The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1878-01-24
iWAsHINGroN.s january Is.


and form into a moneyed .aristocracy.
It may be. that this latterialternatiYe is
TO. overtake u.s.. There are dark and
| plentiful omens in our recent history in:
dicating such a conclusion, and there is
a numerous and powerful class in our
midst. who believe, q as Alexander Ham
ilton declared, that the British Govern
ment on this. as we'll as ON other points,
is the best ever devised by the wisdom Of
man. Those entertaining this opinion
have thus. far triumphed:in the financial
legislation of the United States, and the
time has now arrived when their;Victo-
ries must be- ere7ersed, 'ortthis govern
ment will, soon9tcease to 'be Republican
and this people be no longer free. 'ii.'t9
He argued that to- great extent our
whole financial system is an organized
crime against;nth laboringi taxpaying
men and women. ofSthei United States,
and those who thoughty as he did, that q
great financial reform lis demanded In
order to secure,sthe people from slavery
in fact, if not in name, were denounced.
| He spoke of nnholy avarice having its
.strongholds, and privileged classes hay
ing entrenched themselves, andssaid bhis
plea of good faith now so loud in our
ears, has been-invoked in behalf ofevery
wick kednesS. ever cursed the world.
He then spoke of theeacts Of February
25, 1862, as the beginning ofour bonded
debt. The precious metals were found
to be unequal to the emergency OF war.
Specie payments were abandoned, as soon
as the hour of trial came, and gold and
silver covered in the rear, while the
legalrtender dollar went to the front with
the flag, and stayed there. He was
amongst those who doubted ,our right to
issue it, bnt.experience had shown it (all
things considered) the best money that
ever circulated on American soil. He
argued that by this! act, and. by sim
liar Legislation at subsequent periods,
every bond issued5tby 4the government
which did inot6on its face stipulate for
payment sins coin, ,;lwas, made, payable by
the express words4of law in legal-tender
notes. He.quoted from the, language Of
the late Thaddeus Stevens to the effect
that even the payment of,the; interest on
bonds in coin was an odieus and unjust
discrimination in favor of the, bond
holder: He also quoted from the. speech
es of Senator Sherman to show, that he
expressed the opinion that the bonds
were payable in legal tenders. The
speaker characterized the acts of Con-
gress proposing to pay the bonds in coin
as the beginning Of reputation. The
present Secretary of the Treasury was
the chief of the repudiators, foremost
among the giolators OF, contract, and "a
leader among those who have in, no in
stance Kept the good faith of the Govern
ment with its own people q moment after
they found that bad faith would bring
them richer gains. s'.'; > i'A2t'
Mr.. Voorhees, commented at some
length on. the act of 1859 to pay, sthe
bonds in coin, and said that in some
countries the habit prevailed of building
cairn, apple of stones, to mark the spot
where some tragic event had happened.
81. let American taxpayers, whenever
the act of 1869 is cited, each cast a stone
upon it to mark the place in American
history where reputation began, and
where the rights of the people were mer-
cilessly and treacherously. slaughtered:
He next commented ION the refunding
act of July 18th, 1870, and said that it
was brought in to aid in the false asser-
ton of the act of 1869, that our whole
bonded debt was payable in coin. he
argued that both Of these acts were
framed in the interest Of the bondholders,
and under their dictation. But even
under these acts the bends were payable
with either gold or. silver coin, and not
payable with gold alone. -
Mr., Voorhees, then spoke at some
length in regard to the advantage of sill
yer coin, and said that the silver dollar
came to us with the birth Of our govern
ment. 1t was devised as a unit OF value
by Thomas Jefferson, and adopted by
Congress in the days of, Washington,
Hamilton and Morris. It stood as hon
ored as gold through every storm that
beat upon this government. 1t is asso-
ciated with all our developments, our
strength, our growth, and our glory. He
then spoke of the act of 1873 demonet-
izing silver, and said it was passed with
out note OF, warning to the: American
people that their fayorite coin was about
to be destroyed as money. Its enact
ment was as completely unknown to the
people, and indeed to o.four-ffths of Con
gress itself. as the presence of burglar
in a house at midnight to it's sleeping
Inmates. He argued that the silver dol
liar was. eliminated from our money sys.
tenn under cover of. false pretences, and
that silver had not failed in its functions
as a specie basis any more than gold
Of the entire trading and commercial
populations of the whole earth, 696, ,25O,-
600, more have silver alone as their
standard of values, and transact all etheil
business upon it as q specie basis than
those who have gold alone for similar
purposes, and 54,200,000 more people
use silver alone than use gold and silver
both as their metallic currency. Ne
ferring to the specie resumption act Of
January II, 1875, he said that an attempt
to force the resumption of specie pay.
ments with gold and silver both as oul
metallic basis would be a cruel failure al
this time. He spoke of the great shrink
age in values arising from the shrinkage
Of money in circulation, and said it va:
the immediate cause of that genera
bankruptcy and ruin which now fill the
land. If the policy of this government
has been to infict the greatest misery OF
the greatest number its success has" beer
complete. He was not all inhationist il
any sense that would disturb the true in
terests of trade and commerce. During
the whole four years of 1868, 1864, 1866
and 1866, when the volume Of our cur
rency averaged over thousand millions
the business failures of the entire coun
try reached only 2,167, less in numbe
than occurred in any three months of tn
year just closed. During the periot
+ which is now stigmatized as one of in
aation, the windows of business house
were not darkened, and business men dit
not go as mourners about the streets
: The laborer did not go home withou
bread to his wife and children. Helples