Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1878-02-02

'NANS ~ OO4 hSSH3 Va AhNA
ana, Makes a Demand
for it.
Justice for the People as Well as for
the BOndhOld6rs.
An Exhaustive Review of the
Whole Subject.
In the senate, few days since, Mr..
Matthews gave way TO Senator Voorhees,
in order that he might address that body
on resolution submitted by him before
the holidays, declaring it OF the highest
Importance that tfe financial credit of
the government be maintained. In or
der to do 50, the government itself, in
all its departments, should, in good faith,
keep all its contracts and Obligations
entered into with its own citizens.
Mr.. Voorhees, said the agitation of the
question OF finance will never cease un.
til the people are satisfied that the vast
debt is in process of extinction on prin-
ciples Of justice TO tax paying labor, or
until, on the other hand, they are subiu-
gated into silent submission, and The
government itself becomes a moneyed
aristOcracy. DenuuciatiOn is now the
principal weapon used by those who are
ranged on the side of grasping wealth.
There is no epithet, however base, that
is net in daily use against all who ven.
ture to believe, as do, that to great
extent our whole financial system is or
ganzed crime against the labOring, tax
paying men and women Of the United
States, The great plea of the present
hour for the continuation OF wrong and
injustice is that good faith requires it,
Those who, finding a monstr0us evil i'm.
bedded in the laws Of their country.
seek to eradicate it by peaceful legisla.
ton, are at once, and with the utmost
fury, assaulted az yiolatols of public
faith, enemies OF the national honor,
and worse, il possible, than common
swndlers This plea, SO loud now in
our ears, has been invoked in behalf Of
every wickedness that has ever cursed
the world. The usurper invokes it to
protect the throne he has stolen as soon
as he is seated. The tyrant invokes it to
shelter his prerogatiye, and his nobility
in turn invoke it in order to live in ease
and spendor off the labor Of others.
Mr. VOORHEES, reviewed the financial
legislation since 1862, ard said expert
ence had shown the legal tender to be the
best money that eyel circulated. Every
government bond which did not on its
face stipulate payment in coin was made
payable by the express words of the law
in legal tender notes. This enactment
guaranteed to the American people the
right to pay three lourths of the national
debt in national currency. 1t was the
law of contract when all the 20 bonds,
amounting to over III 800, 900, GOO, were
purchased from the government by bond
holders and paid for in this currency at
par when it was quoted at from 40 to 60
per cent. below par in coin. Every one
understood the law to be as have stated
it at the time Of its passage in fact, the
great struggle then was whether even the
interest on the bonds have mentioned
should be paid in coin. No one
in debate made the slightest pre-
tense or intimati0n that the princi-
pal Of the bonds was payable in
coin. Daring the full term of seven
eycntful years that followed there is not
platform of either political party in any
state in the union which makes such an
assertion.
Mr.. VOORHEES, alluded to Secretary
Shcrman's letter of 1868, favoring the
payment OF bonds in the same kind of
money as bought them, and his subse-
quent action in procuring the passage Of
an act for the payment Of bonds in coin,
which he said was open repudiati0n as a
solemn contract, and fastened an extor.
ton of not less than $500, 600, 600 on the
staggering industries of the country as
the speculative profits of the operation.
In the whole financial history OF the civ.
iIized world 10 parallel can be found to
this audaciOus deed of broken faith,
deliberate treachery to the people, aud
national dishonesty, 1t stands out by
itself, towering high above all common
frauds, aud dwalting them III comparison
with its own vast proportions. j. will
bear the names OF those who enacted it
to distant generations amidst the gfoans,
curses, and lamentations OF those who
toll on land and sea, and more deeply
sngrayen than any other name will be
forever found that of the secretary of the
treasury, rs the author of what be him
self said constituted the twOlold crime of
repudiation and extoruou.
Mr. Voorhees,, in support OF his posi-,
ton, quoted the language OF Senator
Morton in 1869, as follows: " A comb.
nation Of ockjObbers, as destitute of
conscience as pira,es and inspired alone
by greed for money, successfully thun-
dered at these doors, and finally drove
this government into the most stupen.
dous act of bad faith and legalized rob
berry ever practiCed upon any people
since the dawn of history"
He next took up the funding act Of
1870, charging il was the offspring Of an
apprehension that the work of repudia.
ting the contract for the payment OF the
500 bonds might not be quite complete
Thus it was providedtbat an issueot new
coin bonds should be made in place of
the original ones. The amount saved in
interest is triaing when compared with
the loss by the whole transaction,
Mr.. Voorhees, then argued that by the
laws OF March, 1869, and July, 1870,
bonds outstanding and afterwards to be
issued were payable in coin, not in gold
alone, nor in silver alone, but in coin
lie quoted Mr.. Sherman in 1869 as
explicitly favoring this view.
Mr.. Voorhees, commented at some
length on the passage of the law Of
February y, 1873, which he said doomed
the dollar of our fathers, and Its enact
ment was as completely unknown to the
people, and indeed 10 f0ur-fifths of con
gress itself, as the presence of a burglar
in house at midnight to its sleeping
inmates The silver dollar was elimina-
ted from our money system under the
cover of false pretense.
Mr.. Voorhees, proceeded to show that,
Of the entire trading and commercial
populations of the earth, more than four
times as many people have chosen silver
as have chosen gold, and more than five
times as many nave chosen silver as have
chosen gold and silver together. The
laboring classes desire money to be
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