Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1878-10-25

OF currency to the varying wants of business
1t should be done by providing that the gov
eminent shall i'll all the principal cities receive
ON speciel deposit legal tender and issue
Therefore five per cent interest bearing certi-
ficates, payable on demand at the place of
issue. The legal tenders so placed with the
government on special deposit should not be
used, but the same held for return when de-
manded by the depositor. The system should
be applied to the present volume of currency
OF 500, ZOO, 900 when the national currency
is withdrawn with legal tenders substituted in
its place. 1t cannot well be done until legal
tender notes are substituted for national bank
currency. To do it while we have national
bank currency redeemable in legal tenders.
would be Withdrawing from circulation the
only currency available to redeem the notes of
the national banks, and for the reserve which
by law they are obliged to keep on hand
Practically, we now have 800, O0O 900 in
paper money, including legal tenders and ma
tlonal bank notes. If Congress should deem
that amount sufficient for the business of
the country, let it be legal tenders. Let any
further issue of legal tenders be contingent
upon its necessity to pay the matured and
maturing currency debt, including the 500
bonds.
Notwithstanding your very able and lawyer
like argument upon the duty of the govern
ment to pay the five-twenties, both principal
and interest in gold, you will permit me to
say that my opinion is not in the least
changed in regard to it. l am still of the
opinion that it is not only the right, but that
it is the duty of Congress to pay all the debts
of the United States made since the passage
of the legal tender act, at maturity, in lawful
m ha hoe haa 10 he
law to pay the debt in coin. 1t is not a ques-
ton of what some agent of the treasury has
said, or even what the secretary has said, but
it is question what the law says. 1t is not
in the power of any agent of the treasury, to
commit the government to what the govern
ment has not committed itself by law.
At the time the acts of Congress were
passed, authorizing the ive-twenty bonds, I
do not believe that any one thought that the
five-twenties were payable in coin. But many
people did think that within five years the
government would pay coin, and it is equally
true that many did not think SO. But all
thought that when the war closed, if the gov
eminent was successful, that at some time be-
tween the five years and twenty years, speci-
fed in the acts, that the government would
be able to convert those bonds into long
loan at a low rate of interest. And now by
prudent and economical use of the resources
of the country, the credit of the government
would be so improved that these bonds could
be converted into long four per cent coin
loan, free from taxation. By substituting le-
gal tender for national bank notes and using
the gold and greenbacks now lying idle in the
treasury, the interest bearing debt could be
reduced five hundred million dollars. With
that reduction of the debt, having the interest
bearing debt eight hundred millions, and that
funded in long loan at a low rate of interest,
we could hope for an early return to specie
payments.
Instead of economizing our resources we
give an annual gratuity of eighteen millions
year in gold, equivalent to twenty-five million
dollars in currency, to the banks. We make
no effort to reduce the amount of the national
debt or the interest on it. Instead of that,
some of our public men are endeavoring to
prove that the 5-20s are payable in gold and
make our people believe that the true way to
improve our credit is to add largely to our OBJ
legations, by promising to pay gold, when We
now are only liable to pay lawful money, and
to make them believe that, interest and honor
alike demand that the bondholders should be
paid gold for the currency lent to the govern
ment when it was worth only forty or fifty
cents in gold. For five years the bondholder
ms SOlu HIS BOlu COupuuS dt ouo uuuulou duu
fifty or two hundred and fifty, and reinvested
in five twenties, and during all this time his
bonds being exempt from all taxation, heavy
as it was in consequence of the war;
This, after all, is question between our
citizens, except so far as our bonds are held
abroad and that is supposed not to exceed five
hundred millions in amount. Therefore, it
should be settled with reference to the rights
and interests of all classes of our people,
But comparatively few of those who hold
bonds, hold them in such amount that their
interests so far as these questions are con-
cerned do not accord with the interests of
the great mass of the taxpayers. Those who
have large amounts of bonds and have in
vested their money in them for the special
purpose of avoiding their just and equal
share of taxation, can well afford to submit to
such legislation as is for the public good.
The whole country cheerfully accepted the le-
gal tender act, although much injustice and
suffering was caused by it, and we are still
suffering from its effects But you will say
that the legal tender act was a war measure.
SO it was, and so are these bonds the result of
the war, and greatly increased in amount by
being paid for in deprecated currency.
In the end all the burdens for the support
of government and for the support of non
producers fall upon the producing labor of
the country That class of people do not ask
Congress to be generous to them, nor to do
any injustice to the bondholders, nor to repu-
diate any contract made with them. They
are willing that the fortunate possessors of
this untaxed wealth should be paid all that
they can legally claim. But they insist that
kIio &c NJ t;noa ubap tho ,1aorla ora ctt farino