New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1878-10-19

| simply OF fact. 1t is simply question OF
whether it is so or not, and undertake to
say flat on the day the panic struck this
country, the eighteenth of September,
| 1873, five years ago, there was larger
paper circulation in the country that day
than there has been at any time since the
war closed, with the exception of very
few months in 1867; and if there had been
any virtue in q paper circulation to save
us from any financial troubles, we should
never have been placed in that condition.
l know that the argument proceeds on
this that the seven-thirty bonds that were
circulating in the country, they say were
used as money and were made legal tender,
and these were retired The old com
pound interest notes, which were circu-
lsting to the amount of one hundred and
eighty millions, were retired and that in
this way the government contracted the
currency TO $500, 10000 Well, now,
any gentleman here who ever handled
compound interest note or seven-thirty
note knows very well that they never cir
culated as money. Any man knows that
an Understanding security can not cir
culate as money, because as the interest
accumul.tes the holders will not part with
them. But am perfectly willing, for the
sake of argument, to grant what these
| R6ut1tlltu btys Luhb UuebS were I6LlTSQ-
They were because the government had
promised that they should be converted
\ into long bonds, and the promise was
kept. And if any gentleman of the
greenback persuasion is greatly troubled
by the contraction of the currency
that resulted from that, let me say,
for his consolation that every one of
those bonds which has been paid by the
government is here tonight. They are
all among us. There never has been a
time since the war closed when so
large proportion of the United
States bonds we're among the American
people as to night. [Applause.l They
have been coming home from abroad in
tens of millions and hundreds of millions,
and they are here. They are here as four,
four and half or five per cents. and these
bonds are just as good for currency and
for payment OF debts as were the seven
thirties or the compound interest notes.
But this whole idea is an absurdity.
These notes never circulated as money.
never in the world. They are to-day Just
as much, and ii the United States were to
take take account of Its money tonight,
according to the Greenback way of cal
culating, it would foot up two thousand
three hundred and ninety millions of cur
rency.
hold in my hands the currency of the
United States. hold in one hand money,
and III the other currency. That is money
[holding up gold piecel; it has been
money q long time. [Lsughter.l If any
gentleman knows any history Of literature
that existed very long before that was
spoken of, he is better read than am.
Moses didn't manage to get any reference
to it in the first chapter of Genesis, but he
brought it in to the second. Laughter. ]
He said: ''The gold of the land of Havilah
was good" daughter
1t was not bit better than the gold of
the land of California. 1t is the same, and
silver is its younger brother; belongs to
the same family. They are permanent
forms of money, have existed for hundreds
of years, for thousands of years, and will
exist for thousands of years to come.
Applause The Toledo platform en-
tirely abolishes this from the list of valu-
able things in exchange. They say they
want one form of legal tender, and only
one, and that paper. They had rather
have the paper than the gold, according
to the Toledo platform. [ wish 1 could
see one of the most intense disciples,
strongest in the faith of the Toledo plat
form, Offered by his debtor behind the
door thousand dollars in bills or thou
sand in coin. He would make your hair
stand on end with the rapidity with which
he would grab the coin. Loud laughter
and applause One of the theories is that
this derives its whole value from the
stamp
Why, if you had that gold stamped by
the poorest government in the world it is
Just as good AS that stamped by the
United States. [Applause.1 You trade
between Boston and the river La Plata a
good deal. You send out cargoes to Rio
Janeiro and Buenos Ayres. You will take
in exchange the gold of that country
Win you take their greenbacks? Laugh
ter. Buenos Ayres ought to be the very
paradise of Greenbackers. Their notes are
only worth two and half cents on a dol
lar. Loud laughter.l Their gold is just
as good as the gold of the United States,
Loud applause
When we come to stamps; the United
States stamps this paper, and it says on
the face that the United States will pay
the bearer ten dollars. Now, mark you,
it does not say the United States will pay
the bearer ION demand" They tried that,
as said at the outset of my remarks, at the
beginning of the war, and they found that
the government of the United States might
not De ADAo 10 pay on demand 30 IN Is
suing this paper they do not say "on de-
mand, but on the faith and honor of q
great people the United States will pay
the bearer. There is good deal of force
in the way that is said. When you give
me note you say you will 'promise" to
pay. The United States don't say they
promise to pay, but they say they will,
[applausel, and they reserve to themselves
the right to say when. In the month of
January, 1875, they said that four years
from that time, on the first day of Janu-
airy, 1879, any man who held one of their
obligations could go to any sub-treasury
of the United States and get his money if
he wanted to. Applause Then, of
course, the minute you can get it you
don't want it. The argument on the other
side is that this is a very fair promise.
Why, they say that the Republicans boast
that they have got two hundred millions
10 coin; and, they say, there is three hun
bred and forty-six millions of greeenbacks.
How in the world are you going TO redeem
three hundred and forty-six millions in
greenbacks with two hundred millions in
gold? That wise argument proceeds on
the assumption that every man in the
United States will be at the Treasury
doors on New Years day next with his lit