Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1878-03-21

sis of which he was capable nv statement
that they have been so recognized by the
leading men at that time and by the courts
he challenges me to find any such decision of
any court In the United States or of any State
court, and he completes the vehement denial
by Esaying that if any one in 1862 had called
the greenhacks ssforced loan, the statement
would have been denounced as the Kissing of
the veEomous copperhead. "Now mark how
plain : tale shall put him down., On the 4th
OF December 1862, the then Secretary of the
Treasury, the late Chief Justice of the Uni
ted States, said, on page II of the Finance
Report, sthattwhen receipts do not equal the
expenditures the Government may create a
debt IN small notes, and these notes may be
used as currency, This is the way in which
The existing currency of the United States is
supplied. That portion of the expenditure
not met BY the revenue or by loans has been
met by the issue of these notes. Debt in this
form has been submitted for debt 10 other
forms.
Did anybody hiss Secretary Chase in 1862
as "venomous copperhead'' for saying that
the greenbacks were debt?
More than this. A venerable gentlemen
from Massachusetts-Mr Thomas-when the
legal tender bill was under debate and about
TO pass, said he "regarded the Legal .tcuder
clause in The bill as in the nature Of forced
loan.o quote from page n of SpauIding's
Financial History of the War. Here are the
very words that the gentleman turns upon me
with such vehemence for using vet Thomas
was not Kissed as "copperhead" for the ut
terance.
He holds that the Greenback is not debt
but is money, the peoples money, and he de-
he'd me 10 find any respectable court which
calls the greenback ssforced loan" l refer
HIM TO the court of appeals of The State of
New York, p Barbour, 10 Smith,. and read
from the decision of the presiding Justice Of
that Court, rendered in 1868, these words,
page 522, in the case Of the Metropolitan Bank
vs. Pan Dyke.
The issuing and paying out Of Treasury notes
That is in 1868, remember
may be a forced loan to the Government.
Call the issueing of these Treasury not es borrow
ing money ora forced loan, aud the quality, making
them receivable in payment Of all debts, enhances
their value and enables the government to realize
rom Them greater amount Of supplies.
refer him also TO a decision rendered also
in 1868 by the Supreme Court of New York
IN The case OF Hague VS.. Powers, 80 Barbour
There is probably not a government in Europe
which has not been compelled in time OF war ma
tionai distress TO suspend specie payment and make
forced loans OF the people by making pape: promises
to pay in some form lawful money and legal tender
in payment of debts Money being mr.
indispensable agent and necessary to carry such bow
ers into elect the power is implied to command OBJ.
tain and secure it by any practical means known or
practicea among civilized nations and that the is
sue OF Treasury notes. makes them legal tender in
payment OF debts, is a proper and lawful means to
that end, process of borrowing from people OIL
making from them forced loan to meet the govern.
ment necessities, aud is entirely within tho legti-
mate power OF Congress, as the sovereign legislative
authority Of the nation.
refer the gentleman also TO case in 49
N. H. reports, 434, where the same express
ion is used. Now what will the gentleman
say to his taunting challange to produce any,
thing from any OF the courts anywhere cali
ing 1t forced loan?
But Go not need to go into the courts of
The states TO answer the gentleman's chali-
ange. read from the opinion of our Supreme
Court in the case of Banks Us. Supervisors,
Wallace, 30, where the Chief Justice, deliv-
erlng The unanimous opinion of the court,
says:
These notes obligations of the United States
Their name imports obligation, Every one of them
on its face an engagement to pay to the bear
10 pay dollar and the dollar intended is the coined
dollar OF the United States certain quantity in
weight and neness of gold or silver authenticated
such by the stamp Of the government.
But the gentleman may say this was before
he decision which affir med the validity of the
egal-tender law. l will read from the Legal
Tender cases, IL Wallace, in the argument of
which you, Mr.. Chairman, Mr.. Potter, bore
10 honorable part.
Inc fcaG Il he 4.
court, said, on page 553-and / wish this re-
rendered in answer to another point made
alter in the gentleman's speech
We do not rest their validity upon the as 'ertion
hat their emission is coinage any regulation of
he value of money, nor do we assert that Congress
nay make anything which has value money.
hat we do assert is the Governments promise to
Talue to tbs representative thereof.
1t il, then, mistake to regard the legal-tender
cts as either fixing standard OF values making
hat money which has no intrinsic value
Mr.. Justice bradley says in the same case,
,ages 560,56l:
This power is entirely distinct from the power of
dining money and regu Hating the value thereof.
1t is Incidental to the power of borrowing
money. 1t is the pledge of the nation
! credit. 1t is promise by the government to pay
dollars; it is not an attempt to make dollars, The
tandard OF value is not changed. The government
imply demands that its credit shall be accepted and
eceived by the public and private creditors during
he present exigency
Every government has right to demand this when
Is existence is at Stake. 1t ia an in
rect way Of compelling the owner of property to
end 1t to the Government; he is forced to rely on
he national credit
Is not there forced loan I?
He is forced to rely upon the national credit, No
snpposes that these certificates or notes are new
II to be paid that the day of specie payment is new
wi hans
hey may pass their ultimate destiny is to be paid
Now, Mr.. Speaker, if the greenback was
lot promise to be kept, debt - a compul-
ory debt "a forced loan to be paid, then
hese are declarations of the Supreme Court
which have no meaning. leave the gentle.
nan 10 wrestle with the courts.
The gentleman says misrepresent his crit.
cism OF Mr.. McCulloch, late Secretary of
he Treasury; and to my utter establishment
he stopped to comment on the fact that 8 aid
le quoted three lines from McCulloch's arti-
lie In the North American Review, while he
avs he quoted fourteen! I had not the adj
'anfage OF the gentleman's printed speech
when spoke but remember about the length
If what he read and upon whi~h he first COM
nented, and that it appeared to De about three
ines. Now, this morning l had the curiosity
0 examine his speech, and in his printed
peech, which appeared after the speech /
made, It IS Just two lines and a.half, 10 be &C.
urate! The passage in controversy is this:
The late Secretary said: "Ali the great finan-
ial troubles which have occurred in the Uni
ed States, have been the result of the pleth
IRA OF paper money and the crisis has al.
ways been reached when its volume was the
argest." And it was for this statement that
he gentleman from Pennsylvania denounced
lin as "conspicuously ignorant or conspicu-
,usly mendaclous." / expressed the opinion
hat the Secretary was entirely right, that II
vas simply the naked truth that all the great
rises in this country had been preceded by
nhation or paper currency in some form
,r another
The gentleman now gets over all that by
aying MIR. McCulloch had no business to use
he term paper money" for the reason that
mere mad never been any paper money in the
country until the legal tender was adopted !;
hat before that there were only bank notes,
which were not money. And so, for this use
# word to which the gentleman attaches a
peculiar meaning of his own, he denounccs the
ate Secretary as ignorant or mendacious.
with the Secretary not only in the
ruth he asserted but also in his use of the
vord. The whole world has used the word
to describe the various paper
that America has had from the be-
,inning until now. And yet the gentleman
avs that but for this misrepresentation Of his
peech he would have made no reply to my
peech Behold on what a slender thread
lang all our destinies.
He assails my opinion that we need not en-
= national but an international currency