Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1878-03-23
SHERMAN IN THE LONDON
MONEY MARKET.

We have Just received the London
Economist of March I'd, in which
journal appears an article which
calls for grave attention in this
country. The title of this paper is
"American Credit" and the author
of it in temperate language discusses
the silver bill, then first known to
be law, in reference to the contracts
made by this Government with the
purchasers Of our bonds. We will
say that the article is throughout |
temporarily expressed, and will
take this opportunity to say more;
that the articles in the respectable
London papers, even where they |
differ with us, are uniformity tenn
perate and respectful in their lam
guage, and that they frequently even
correct the vulgar denunciatiOns of
the New York gold men when they
fling at us their vituperative vocab-
uIary of epithets, calling us repudi-
ators, swindlers, defalcators and
what not. Our defenders in Lom-
bard street are Englishmen, our
traducers Americans-at least they
do business in New York, which is
not always the same thing. How
ever, the purport of the article in
the Economist is to examine the
question whether the American
bonds are by contract payable in
silver, and the author comes to a
negative conclusion; not, we must
admit, without strong grounds for
doing so. But then he grounds his
conclusion not upon the contract
which the people of this country by
Congressional legislation author
lied, but upon the contract which
the Secretary of the Treasury and
his agents in London actually did
make wholly without the authority
of Congress. To put the matter
plainly, John Sherman being au-
thOrized by Congress to transact his
loans in European markets on
strictly expressed conditions, in the
teeth of this ongressional authority
negotiated them on widely different
conditions. The offense is so serious,
and so gravely compromises the
credit and honor of this nation, that
we feel compelled to give in close
detail the argument of the EconO-
mist and the official documents on
which it is grounded.
The documents mainly quoted in
the English paper are the prospect
uses" published by the American
fiscal agents when they were
placing their loan in the English
money market. Here is the first of
them:
$4,000, 900 UNITED STATES GOVERN
NIENr ) PER CENT. FUNDED LOAN.
Principal redeemable at par, after
LIST May, 1881, in United States gold
coin; interest payable quarterly, in
United States gold coin, and both
principal and interest exempt from
taxation, whether under Federal,
State, municipal, or local authority.
AS authorized by Acts of Congress,
approved July 18th, 1870, and JAN
uary Doth, 1871.
Now the bonds for this first loan
were issued before the coinage act
of 1878 and the fraudulent revision
of 1874, by which the standard silver
dollar was first forbidden to be
coined and then deprived of its legal
tender character it was cOnse-
quently at that time as much a legal
tender then as gold was for all sums,
and the act which authorized the
issue of these bonds declared them
payable in coin which was legal
tender at the date of the act, namely,
July 18th, 1870. No word of gold
coin was specified in that act, and
we have in a former paper shown,
we think, cOnclusively that in the
intention of those who enacted it,
silver was as lawful a tender in liq-
uidatiOn as gold. At the risk OF
being tedious we will repeat here
the argument we made i'm January
of the present year:
The act of July II, 1870, which
authorized the issuance of the 1910
bonds (by which alone the bonds OF
the nation became payable in coin
at alb, was preceded by a declara-
tory act GSth March, 1869, on which
the act of 1870 was avOwedly based.
The declaatory act of 1869, i'm fact,
bore the same relation to the en-
abling act of 1870 as Mr.. Stanley
Matthews declaratOry resolutions
bear to Mr.. BANDS silver bill
now before Congress. To make
il quite certain that when in these
two measures coin is spoken of,
il means both gold and silver
coin, we here give the first clause OF
the act of 1869:
"Hhe faith of the United States is
sOlemnly pledged to the payment
in coin or its equivalent, of all the
obligations of the United States not
bearing interest known as United
States notes, and of all the interest.
bearing obligations of the United
States, except in cases where the
law authorizing the issue of any
such obligations has expressly pro
Vided that the same may be paid in
lawful money or other currency
than gold and silver"
Here, then, are two classes of ma.
tiOnal obligations recognized, and
only two; one class payable in coin,
and the other in "other currency
than gold and silver" How can
the inference be escaped that the
coin I'm which the first are payable
is both gold and silver? So obvious
does this inference seem TO us that
il has been matter of surprise to
us that none of the advocates of re.
mOnetization have grounded their
arguments upon the text of this de-
claratory bill, but have preferred to
argue by inference from the words
of the act of 1870. Not but what
the argument from the words of the
latter bill was equally conclusive,
only i'm the former case it was more
direct.
Thus we see that Mr.. Sherman