New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1878-09-28

claim 70 have made discovery Of the
greatest possible importance; aud I want
10 say for them, If their discovery X what
they beiieYe it to be, 1t Is the most import
ant discovery ever announced 70 mortal
man on The subject Of finance; and / wish
to treat them With all the fairness Of GET
ting their own problem, their own prOpos
eilion, from themselves. They claim TO
have discovered that there is no longer any
room for the old notion that the United
States has believed in for q hundred years;
that everybody believed in IN 1862 and
1S65-the notion that there ought to be
value behind paper money. They claim
that money is in itself q creature of law;
that nothing but law can create it; and
that, as law can create it, it can create it
out Of whatever it pleases, and make that
money which il declares to be money.
Let US give them the full benefit Of this
declaration. They declare that as the
Creator said Let there be light, and there
was light, SO sovereign government may
say, .'Let this piece Of paper be money,
and it win be money" [Applause. Let
the republic pronounce its fat over q
piece of paper and that becomes money,
and hehSe they call it tsfiat money! Now,
as to Sllat they shall do with the fat
A4OuCyg avs W INV 4nuCA lIcY hAlnlA U1tNQ VI
it, they are not agreed Let It be remem-
beEed that the remains Of the old Green
back party Of 1876 that made Pomeroy
their chief and manager; let 1t be remefn-
bered that they themselves had organized
in the United States 1890 clubs Green
back clubs-who held the doctrine have
Just described, and also declare that all
the interest-bearing debt Of the United
States is crime against the people, ought
instantly to be paid in this Eat money, and
if the holders viii not take it for the fat
money then every bank in the United
States shall be burned and the obligation
settled by fire. ICries Of 'tNoiV and APP
plause.1 Now that, fellow citizens, is the
doctrine advocated to-day by $500 organ
lied political clubs in the United States.
Now another set of men do not 20 so
fer. They say we are not SO clear about
fat money, but we do say that we will
break down the order established by Lin
coin that the money Of the country shall
be geared on the laws Of value and the
laws OF trade, to be supplied by the au-
tomato operations Of the laws Of trade.
We will break that all down; we viii abol-
ish the national banks Iapplause]; we win
issue in their place three hundred and
twenty-four more millions Of the green
e. =
backs, such as we now have-6nd that
want to say to you, is the demand Of
Democratic party OF the State Of OHIO.
Applause and Kisses. II is the demand
Of the Democratic party in almost, if not
every, State west OF the Hudson river, west
of New York. Let us get the propositions
before rs, gentlemen, before we debate
them. That, say, is the proposition Of
the great mass of the Democracy west Of
the Hudson river. Now, as q sort of CEN
ter around which many Of these doctrines
reyolve read you a statement, and / take
your time to read it SO that I may misrep-
resent nobody from q speech made in
Congress on the 9Th day of February last,
perhaps the most intelligent and logical
form Of the statement that has been made
by anybody in the United States. read:
1.-THE American system of finance demands
these things: demand that dollar shall
shall be issued by the government alone in
the exercise of its high prerogatives and
constitutional power. want that dollar
stamped upon some convenient and cheap
material Of the least possible intrinsic
value, so that neither its wear nor its de-
struetion will be any loss to the govern
ment issuing it. [Laughter.l I also de-
sire the dollar to be made of such material
for the purpose that it shall never be ex-
ported or desirable to carry out of the
country. Laughter. Framing an Ameri-
can system Of finance, don't propose to
/ adapt it TO the wants of any other nation,
and especially the Chinese, who are nearly
one-ouarter Of the world. Laughtersl
Fifth, desire that dollar SO issued shall
never be redeemed. see no more reason
| why the unit of values should be redeemed
or redeemable than that the yardstick with
/ which measure my cloth, or the quar-
| with which / measure my milk, should be
redeemed. Laughter
That, fellow citizens, is perhaps the
most succinct statement Of the new sys
tenn Of American finance that now steps
into the arena to confront the ideas that
have been expressing, and that was pu
forward by Benjamin f. Butler Of Massa
ehusetts. ICheers and applause.l Now
fellow citizens, let us give this subject |
fair consideration. As I said little whil'
ago, il the doctrines laid down In what
have read, and what have stated. be true
if they be based on sound principles, ther
they are the most important discovery il
finance that the centuries have ever known
and l want to adopt them, you ought i
adopt them, every man in the world ough
to adopt them If they be true. Let n
meet them with the fairness Of seeker
after truth. Now the FIRST question I pu
to this proposition, or to these PROPOSE
tons, is this: Can the government Of th'
United States by an act Of law create rea
money! If 1t can, all this may be 0
value.
There were three things our fathers pu
into the Constitution which they eyidenil
believed Congress could do. They sAiS
Congress shall have the power to fix th
standard of weights and measures, and 4
coin money, end declare tho value. 3
money when coined. Let rs stop for
moment and try to get down 70 these fun
damental ideas. What can Congress d
about a stan dagd Of measurasf CAN'T ercat
measures? v hat IS q standard Of measure
It is something which measures call ex
tension, length, breadth Or height. VIII
made extension9 Did Congress create IL
Did human law invent ~ Extension Is
power Of the elements which belong to th
universe. IS Independent Of hpna
laws as the stars above the earth are inds
pendent Of il Applause. Can you con
ceive Of such thiEg as Legislature eri
ating length unless, indeAa length <
session. Laughter.
This Is what the Law can do. ltcn
take something that has length and ntn
I It a yard; Il can separate that into ihrI
equal parts and call each part foot;
separate that into twelve eqVa PAM an
4. Il.