The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1878-01-24
OUR NATIONAL FINANCES.
extracts from speech of senator vo

Extracts FROM Speech of Senator voor
bees, Jan. Is, 1S7S.
| Senator VOORHEES, said: The agitation OF III
/ Question of finance will never cease until It'll,
/ people are satisfied that the vast debt ISL
process OF extinction, upon the principleso
JUSTICE TO TAX PAYING LABOR.
BenanciatioTlfs now the principal .weap0i
used by those WHO are ranged on the SIDE g
grasping wealth. THERE'S 40 epithet, how.
ever base, sc IS not in daily use against al
who venture tebeliexe, as do, that to grea
extentour Whole financial System is ap'er
9enfzed crime-agaiDSt the laboriHg tax pay
ing men and womenl of tile United States
Tic great. plea of the present Hour forth,
continuation of wrong and injustice is fsa
good faith. requires iiR These who, finding
INDUSTRIOUS evils imbedded ia the laws of theil
COUNTY,, Wish to er;sdieate itby peaceful leg
islation, are at once.ap d witkthe utmost hrs
assaulted as violators of public faith
enemies of national honor, and worse, if pos
sible, than common swindlers. This plea, SC
lalf o. very wfdkedneSS that ever cursed
tiieAworfd. INC usurper invoices ITO protect
the throne he has stolen as soon as he is
seated 4he tyrant inyokes il tQ'shelter his
prerogatiye and his nobility in turn invoke it
IN order 20 hive in ease and splendorof OF the
Mr.. voorhees, reviewed the financial legis-
lation since, ls62, and said that experience
had shown legal tie ders to be the best mon
ey that ever GIRO dated. Every q oF eminent
DOnu winch ulu not on It's iace
STIMULATE PAYMENT IN COIN,
was made payable by the express words of
the law in legal slender notes. This enact
ment guaranteed to the American people the
right to pay three-fourths of the national
debt in national currency. Ii was the law at
the time of the contract, when ali $50 bonds,
amounting to over Si,500 0o0, coo, were pur
chased from the Government by bondholders
ana paidlfO in this currency mt par when it
was quoted mt from 40 to 60 per cent. below
i'm coin ENnPIYr one nndnrSfnn1 the law N
he as ! have stated it Mt the time of its pass
age. 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 pretense or init
nation that the principal of bonds was paya-
bic in coin.l During the full term of seven
form of either political party in any State
in the Union which makes such au assertion.
MIR. Voorhees, alluded to 5l1 80 tuuaf RI
- SECRETARY sHERMAN's LETTER
of 6s, favoring the payment of bonds in the
same kind of money as bought them, and his
subsequent action in procuring the passage
of the act for the payment of bonds in coin,
which he said was an open reputation of a
solemn contract, and fastened an extortion
of not less than 100000 900 on the staggering
industries of the country as speculative prof
its of the operation. In the whole financial
history of the civilized world no parallel can
be found to this audacious deed of broken
faith and deliberate treachery to the people
and national dishonesty II stands.out by IL
self, owering high above all connnionfraud
and dwarfing them in comparison with its
own vast proportions. twill bear the names
Of those who enacted it distant generations
amidst the groanS, curses and lamentations
Of those who toll ON land and on sea, and
more deeply engraven. than any other name
viii be forever found that of the Secretary of
he Treasury, as author, What he himself
said constituted the two fold crime of repu-
liation and eXtortion- y .-.f. u D. -.....t ...'
Mr.. Voorhees,, in support of his position,
a 90 n Morton N
500, as follows; 4" A combination of stock
obbers as destitute of conscience as pirates,
ind inspired alone by greed for money, sue
,essfully Numbered at these doors and finally
deceived this Government into the most stu
1endous act of bad faith and legalized rob
1ery ever practiced upon any people since
he dawn of history" ID IA 81 ss-5l-.p
He next took up the
FUNDING ACT OF 1870,
;barging it was the offspring of apprehen-
don that the york of repudiatiug the con-
,e uuite complete Thus-it wasAprovitfed for
he issue of new coin. bonds in the place of
he original ones. The amount saved in in
crest is trif1ing, when compared with the
oss by the whole transaction Mr.. voorhees,
hen argued that by the laws of March, 1863,
md July, 1870, bonds outstanding and after
Yards to be issued were payable in coin-not
N gold alone, nor in silver alone, but in coin. |
lie quoted Senator Sherman in 1859 as eX- |
,licitly favoring this view. giH7I - lf.E
Mr.. Voorhees, commented at some length on
he passage of the law of February IL, 1873,
Which, he said, .s- .-a-.l 1873 Era.i afrsN !
DOOMED THE DOLLAR OF OUR FATHERS,
nd its enactment was as completely I'M !
,nown tothe people, and, indeed, to four
fths OF Congress itself as the presence of a !
uiglar in house at midnight to its sleeping |
inmates. The silver dollar was elimidated |
rom our money system under cover OF false |
retepse. Mr., No9l1hees proceeded to show |
hat of the entire tratkng and commercial |
opulation of The earth, more than four times |
5 Inany.peopIe have chosen ssilver las have !
hosen gold and more than 1--WE times as
many have chosen silver as have chosen gold !
nd silver together The laboring class de- |
ire money to be plentiful, while those who /
yish to fasten their idle wealth on the pro- |
uctions of labor clamor for scarce and dear |
money. It was in the interest of the latter |
owerfuI class that silver was demonetized. |
He referred to the act of January II, "a, for |
he resumption of specie payments, and said |
he law of February ,lS, taking away silver
airy, lS7b, liking the day-now less than a |
ear-in advances when greenbackS SHAH also /
e4-ish,s are IH .'ia id.f 20 r'i ~ lieN
'-i TWIN MONSTERS OF EVIL = h7E |
ORR. of the same parentage and linked to- /
ether for the destruction of all money save |
old. He wildly portrayed the effect of such /
egislation upon business ana labor he
ry l. 1879, and attributed the vast shrinkage |
q the value of property and the universe
istress to the policy of contraction, and said
hat during four years when the vOlpme of |
averaged one thousand millions,
he business failures of the entire country
.ached only 2,I67, less in number than oc-
nrred in any three months of the year Just
osed. DuI1ngthe period W Inch is now stig-
latiZed as one of imitation, the windows of
ttsinesS houses were not darkened, and bust
ess men did not go as mourners about the
reefs. Thelaborer did not go home with
ut bread for his wife and children. Help
So 10 iliiuns dbl, mot COW er and tremble rat the
pproach OF winter for lack of food and shell
r. The public peace was not broken by ri
sin resi stance ito starvation wages. The
)urts were not principally occupied in en-
,rcing collections, forecfosing mortgages, /
rdering sheriff's sales, or i'm Furnishing the
estitute and outcast. s-s1rtHH ,r1inf I
Tlie speaker next turned bis attention to
ri .s.ii FErHE NATIONAL BANKS,
nd said the system of national banking now
1 use is theamost elaborate stnd complete
sheme for making people-pay tribute to
Balth in ordeipto obtaipsa circulating me
bun eve 7, lSnsNh in the htaneiaL listeg of
lesworl a. There il nota doll Ar in the hands :
& the spsep q an whichSthey liaSe-haGpaia a 1
TX for the privilege of having it put i'll cir
ulationi by the Governments The national 4