Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1878-01-19
VOORHEES, GREAT sPEECm.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 10, 1878.
VOORHEES, GREAT sPEECM.
The mantle Of Morton did not fall
upon unworthy shoulders. The great
speech of Senator Voorhees, stamps
him as M of the very first Of Ameri-
can statesmen. Less than q month In
the Senate of the United States, he has
shown himself to be more than the
peer of any man occupying a seat in
that august body. Not for twenty
years has q speech so able and ex.
haustive of the subject treated echoed
from those walls. It is something re-
markable in the history Of the Senate,
too, that . new member should have
succeeded in captivating his hearers
and so profoundly impressing the
country as to the general soundness of
his views on the vital issues Of the day.
He was especially severe on Mr.. Sher-
man. now Secretary Of the Treasury.
As late as 1868 this man Sherman
claimed that every dollar of the
national debt was legally payable in
greenbacks. More recently, however,
he has become the slave of the bond
holders and gold ring. In the course
Of his speech, Mr.. VOORHEES, intro
duced the annexed letter to show how
the Secretary of the Treasury stood on
these financial questions but q few
year since:
UNITED STATES CHAMBER,
WASHINGTON, March %, 1868.
DEAR SIR: l was glad to receive
your letter. My personal interests are
the same as yours, but, like you, l do
not intend 10 be influenced by them.
My construction of the law is the re
suit of careful examination, and ]
am quite sure an impartial court
would confirm 1t If the Ease should be
tried before q court. / send you my
views as fully stated in a speech. Your
idea that we propose to repudiate or
violate y promise when we offer to re-
deem the "priDcipal" in legal tenders
Is erroneous. / think the ~bondholder
violates his promise when he refuses
to take the same kind of money he
paid for the bonds. If the case Is
to he tested by law, l am right; if it is
to be tested by Jay Cookies advertise
ments, / am wrong. / hate repudia
ton or anything like 1t, but we ought
not to be deferred from what is right
for fear of undeserved epiiheis. II,
under the law as it stands, the holders
Of 5 EOS can only be paid in gold, the
bondholder can demand only the kind
of money he paid. then he is a Repaid.
ator and extortioner TO demand money
more valuable than he gave.
Truly yours,
JOHN SHERMAN.
This communication is in response
to one soliciting Mr.. Sherman's views
upon the kind of money in which the
5 20 bonds are payable, but it must ap.
ply to all. MIR. Sherman then admit.
ted that the 5-20s could be legally paid
in the kind of money for which they
were bonght-deprecisted g~reenbacks.
He drew the bill. passed in 1869, defin-
ing that all the bonds issued to that
date were lawfully payable in gold and
silver. This was a concession to the
bondholder not originally contemplate
ed. But within the past two or three
Years both Edmunds and Sherman
have discovered that to preserve the
Governments faith and honor it is
necessary to declare that ''coin" means
'gold" only. And men who insist
that the Act of 1869, drawn by Mr..
Sherman himself, and supported by
Mr.. Edmunds, shall stand, are de.
nounced by its author as conspiring
to violate q solemly executed contract.