Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1878-10-17

OF couU, UUU.UCU
Here is sample on grand and
relentless scale, of what the Nation
ais and the initiation wing of the
Democratic party are advocating.
During the panic of 1873 the Sec.
rotary of the U. s. Treasury reissu-
ed $4,000, 900 of legal tenders held
in reserve when he had better have
added another $40. 900, 900 of reserves
to them. His imitation rather ag-
gravated than relieved the disorder.
If it were claimed that the amount
| issued was not large enough, the eff
forts of Law, in France, demonstra-
| ted what would have been tho effect
of the same policy on larger scale.
Henri Smith in his history of
France thus describes the despo.ic
| efforts to resurrect public credit al
ready killed by imitation:
Law employed everything in de-
Tense of this system. He attacked
the men who monopolized the specie
and cbstrncted its circulation.
He justified the compulsory currency
OF notes, and the prohibition to keep
specie. because the rotes were secur-
ed, either in specie or in shares, the
value of which was certain. p. 90.
Violent fluctuations in the price of
specie were made to occur, or in
modern parlence, tho gold market
was bulled and beared' alternately
by an arbitrary and despotic king,
while liberty Of action was entirely
destroyed. Henri Martin says
"July 30.-Tbe silver mark was
| raised to 120 francs, then reduced
October 16 to 60 francs, the gold in
proportion.'-Vol. 3. z, 60.
October Cit was forbidden, un.
der penalty of death to quit France
| without a passport until the 1st of
January 81.
Bancroft describes the situation
and rebukes the Nationals and the
imitation wing of the Democratic
party OF the present day by
holding up to them, in the history of
another country, a wonderful exam
pie of what would occur if their own
vehement arguments now were to
prevail. He writes:
"Confidence disappeared, and in
May bankruptcy was declared, which
reduced the value of bank notes by q
moiety. When men are greatly in
the wrong, especially when they
have embarked their fortune in thoir
error, they willfulIy resist light. So
it had been with the French people ;
they remained faithful to their delu-
sion till France was impoverished,
public and private credit subverted,
the income of capitalists annihilated,
and labor left without employ ent,
while In the midst of universal
wretchedness q few wary specula-
tors gloried in the unjust acquisition
of immense Wealth.. 357.
| Weighty words, indeed, of the his
torian of our country. What di-
rect application they have to the in
| flationists of the present day, who,
being in debt, bankrupt, desperate,
being greatly in the aorong'-having
embarked their fortune intheir error,
wilfully resist the light and clamor
! for an increase of that imitation which
is now causing 80 much trouble.
| The results of this stupendons pro-
ject to pay off the national debt in
bank bill is thus described by Henri
Martin:
"Law had left in chaos that France
which he had undertaken to render
so rich and prosperous the kingdom
disorganised; the currency more com.
pletely paralyzed than in September,
l7l5; frightful mass of discredited
paper encumbering everything the
gold and silver confined in few
hands all the works stopped: pro
visions monopolized or inaccessible by
their priced dreary dpakening from
a dazsling dream."--p. SO.
| The reflections of Bancroft upon
the scheme of Law are so full of warn.
ing and so weighty that nothing can
be added to strengthen them:
"Such was the issue of Laws cele.
brated system, which left to the world
lesson the world was slow to learn
that the enlargement of the circulation
quickens industry so long only as the
enlargement continues, for prices then
rise and every kind of labor is remun
Grated; that, when this increase
springs from artificial causes, it must
meet with check, and be followed
by areaction that, when the reaction
begins, the remunerating prices de-
cline, labor fails to find an equivalent
and each evil opposite to the previous
advantages ensues: that therefore,
every artificial expansion Of the curren-
cy every expansion resting on credit
alone, is source Of confusion and III.
innate loss to community, and brings
benefits to none but those who are
skillfal In foreseeing and in pro6ting
by fluctuation. Up 357. a
| To return to specie was as sudden,
and by means as despotic, as the eff,
forts to prevent the collapse, which
not even despotic power was able to
avoid. Martin says:
"The credit system and the paper
currency were condemned to death
| by the very power that had sustained
.hem with so much violence. PIP. 60,
| "The Government extricated itself
from the old expedients--violence
and bad faith. 1t became bankrupt
--p. SO.
So it is that extremes meet. Des-
potism and Democracy, each allie
selfish ignorant, and lawless, both end
in reputation. The despotism Of
France driven to it by its own acts,
and the Democracy of America clam.
oring for policy that would inevita-
bly, lead it there.
1t is unnecessary to add anything
to these impressive lessons that histo-
lIy holds up as warning. No argu-
ments are necessary to strengthen
facts which could not be more re-
markably pertinent to refute the false
principle for which the imitation De-
mocracy is just now contending had
they been purposely enacted for our
instruction at the present time.
CHAMPAIGN, I'll October 8, 1878.