The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1878-10-01
experiments with Fla, Money.

. IL UOUeTHOT w OOuJ OTU.-malCO wv,
the great traveller Of the middle ages, tells
us the story OF Kublai Khan, who issued the
Asiatic greenback. He made every man
take it in payment Of debt and in exchange
for whatever property the mighty Khan
desired. He went even further than my
Greenback friends would go, for when any
body refused to take his paper-his Asiatic
fat money-the Khan Of Tartary very gen.
erously cut the poor mans throat. laugh
teri But when Kublai Khan died then also
died his paper-money, and there was bank
ruptcy even in Tartary. [Applause.]
So, too. Louis, the spendthrift, ruler OF
France. at the instance Of John Law, him
SELF q gambler and libertine, fleeing from
punishment in England, made the first pa
per-moncy OF France, and based it on the
Mississippi scheme. The bubble seemed
for time to be real. Prices mounted to
the skies. There were imitation and appa-
rent prosperity, and then the scheme broke
and the penalty was paid. For the grand
SON OF Louis died on the headman's block.
1t was that paper-money which more de-
bauched and demoralized France than all
the other ipstrumentalities that led to the
reign OF terror. [Applause.]
Then there came another instance. When
the mob seized the Government OF France.
when the guillotine was the tribune from
which French orators spoke, and the exc
cutioner'S death.cart ratified through the
blood.stained streets OF Paris, again France
printed paper-money. She clothed it with
full legal-tender quality. She thrust men
into prison, and sent men 10 the guillotine
who would not take it. But at last the end
came even then. Such end forever comes.
The bubble broke. Paris and France were
bankrupt-drunk with initiation and crazed
with blood.
Law and order had to come again. Even
more than all the causes contributing to the
establishment OF the First Empire under
the First Napoleon were the paper dSSignat
money and the paper nandat money OF the
French Revolution. Down went their
dreams OF paper wealth, and up rose the
Empire, solemn and grim, behind them.
lApplause.]
There came another instance in our own
history-ouly hundred and odd years ago.
The COLONY Of Massachusetts made paper
money, and clothed it with legal-tender
quality by force of law. The men Of New
England went further. They decreed the
price at which men might sell their pro-
duce and the prices that labor should re-
ceiye, and they made it a penal offence for
any one to refuse to take their paper issues.
My own State OF New York tried to do
the same thing.
The Continental Congress also did it.
They printed the greenbacks Of the Reyolu-
ton. They forced them into circulation.
They gave them quality to pay old debt.
They could not give them quality to pay Tor
new debt except at such price ms the seller
would take. And so the issue OF the Con-
tinental currency mounted to the skies. So
gold and silver were driven from the coun-
try. So bankruptcy came, and the land was
stricken with sorrow from one end to the
other. [Applause.]
Shall it be: that now--noW, when a kind
Providence has given us victory over re-
sbeliion; now, when all sections OF the land
are returning to their allegiance; now,
when the spindles Of New England and the
FORCES of Ohio may look forward to profit
able market in the future-shall it be now
that we are to go back to the sorrow and
shame and loss OF inflation? ["No, NosJ
Shall we, in the midstzof blessings, with
the price OF honesty in our hands-shall we
nowltsrn back and trytto make money out
of soap.bubbles, money out OF tmoonshine?
r. Shall we not rather ssay g In the old
paths OF the fathers, Who decreed that
money shall be OF gold and silver, ne will
walk. AS we were loyal in the day Of bat
tie, we will be .honestin the time Of peace.
Weswill deserve prosperity. We will build
our industry on the sure foundation OF
money that shnll be money the wide world
oyer.'' lApplause.l {.