The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1878-10-04

FREE-EvILs OF ENFORCED RESUMPTION
--ARRAIGNMENT OF REPUBLICANIsM.
At Greensburg, Wednesday evening of
last week, Senator Dill spoke 70 large and
enthusiastic audience on the financial issue.
and discussed it with degree of ability
and candor that commanded tue hearty
approval of his friends His bold declara-
ton in favor of the honest payment of all
debts, public and private his Genunciation
of reputation in every form, even under
color of law, and his mastery defense of
the constitutional standard of money as the
only rock of safety for government and
people, elected the most enthusiastic re-
sponses from his hearers and his protest
against the arbitrary regulation OF the vol
ume of currency by Presidents or Cabinet
officers or by the capricious views of Con-
gress was received with universal favor.
His review of the resumption policy OF Sec
retary Sherman gave the clearest compre-
hensOn OF the question to all, and when he
exposed the needless enlargement OF the
debt and the contraction of currency to
compel resumption, when the whole bust
ness energies Of the country are Frustrated,
he startled his audience with the conclu-
siveness of his reasoning on the subject
The speech throughout was listened to with
the most profound interest, and did more
to settle the views of this community on
the money question than anything that has
beer presented TO them. The following is
an abstract of the financial part of his
speech
He had no glittering and flexible platitudes
to offer about honest money and the honest
payments of private debts and the honest
maintenance of the national faith-platitudes
Mhich Couiu oe as plhusiolS Iuterpreteu hilke
The solvent citizen, or the government, he said,
that does not pay debts, according to the terms
a he r4pr he. al II fprlf
nical pleading, no cunning sOphiStry, can even
government is Its very life, and he who would
destroy il by reputation, however indirect, Is
as much its foe as he who ieVies war against ii :;
and the private citizen. who has the ability to
paw, can in no way within the lines of integrity
repudiatc his debts or any part of them, even
II II we're possible TO do II under color of law
Ours is government of law, and justice and
equity are the leading attributes OF our laws.
The constitution, to which the Democracy has
ever bowed with reverence, has fixed gold and
silver as the standard money OF the Union, and
IT is in accord with the accepted theory OF the
civilized governments of the world From that
standard there can be no departure without
violence to law and destruction to public faith
ahu puDlc ana private prOsperltNi put the
standard money Is not now, never has been ana
never viii be the chief circulating medium or
a country so varied in its pursuits as is ours.
Paper currency is indispensable in all countries,
ana more Indispensable mere than IN any other
haJton because OF the great er lndlElnual cI.crEy
ana THRIFT OF our people. In no other national
lty do the people so generally possess and so
lrcely use money IN thcir Orhlnary ways OF ne
as In the United States, and in no other nation
atty IS wealth So widely ditIused and 50 tickle
IN us smiles as here, where intelligence y Inn
tied TO no class and honor and fortune are open
TO all. y larger volume of money in proportion
10 pOpulattOn Is, therefore, needed IN TINS cOun-
try more than in any other, and il should be lin
tied solely by the wants of legitimate business,
and not by the arbitrary decree of "a president
q secretary of the treasury by the Gibbs
andihows of political tides in Congress. AlIsuch
regulations OF the volume of currency stamp
uncertainty upon our financial policy and par
alyze industry by ceaseleSs distrust. We have
seen a president arbitrarily aud law lessy dire ct
the issue of millions of CURRENCY when a tiuan-
cial panic threatened the defeat OF the party
that happened to rule at the time; aud when
one executive can do so without accountable
ty, What may not a future president or minister
or the treasury do to promote or hinder the
prosperity OF the nation as cupldlty or ambition
In my Judgment there is but one sound rule
by which To regulate the currency of the cUun-
try. 1t is to maintain il as equal in value with
gold aud silver, the constitutional standard OF
money; to maintain the simplest and cheapest
chHnnels through which il can reach legitimate
trade. and limit il solely by the legitimate de-
maud5 Os the business interests of the country.
lrredcemabie paper IS a lie upon its face, Tor
all money contains on its face the promise to
pay, and il is as poison to healthy industry; but
redeemablc currency, maintained at equal val
ue vii n the constitutional standard OF the ma
ton should be accessible in such volume as the
varying wants OF trade require 1he volume
or currency should he Dey Ond-the control of
gamblers and spectators, such as have depress-
ed all values IN u day by locking up money, and
npyOnd the mower OF partisan OfhciaiS to en-
plOy IL factor in political camp;tig NJ. at the
cost OF the STABILITY ana trust OF business
There times in the history OF all ma tions
W hich SOrciy Try the people and severely test
fixed laws OF public sal cty, and such calamItOus
tides are readily seized upon by the reckless and
the corrupt 10 lnaugurate reign OF license in
pace OF the reign OF law hut. however cX-
haustively the extreme powers of governments
must be employed 10 preserve government MS
the foundation or order and prosperity, the
snncttty of ordained authority cannot be sur
rendered without teaching universal contempt
Ot law. The suspension OF specie pay mentS has
become supreme necessity at one period or
another in the history of every nation, but the
laws and the people have adjusted themselves
To II until the restoration o. prosperous indus
try and healthy trace restored rcsum ptiOn just
a body prOstrated by disease is restored by
patiently aiding nature to effect a cure. Eng
land suspended specie payments for nearly
quarter Of a century to recover from the ex-
hauStiOE OF her war for the overthrow or Ma.
pOleOn. There Secretary Sherm0ns in
those days also, who believed that they could,
by resumption law. hasten and enforce
sumption; but they had to recede from their
own folly repeal their own statutes aDc finally
when they did force resumption but little in
advance OF its attainment by the natural laws
OF trade, they gave England her bittpresf ,.un
OF misfortune. There, as here, resumption was
embarrassed and delayed by the efforts of am
bilious leaders to win the laurelS OF specie pay
ments, and there, as hero, the Increased distress
OF the people was the result. We have in ODE.
dience to supreme necessity, suspended specie
payments and accepted irredeema bic paper for
sixteen years as the price OF saving the Union
from dismemberment, In the meantime the
been affirmed by the highest judicial tribunal
OF the republic, and to its Interpretation OF the
ltw all must bow. The necessities of war gave
us the national greenback currency il now
commands the unqualified favor of the people
of dispute. 1t is cOnfeSSedly the best currency
the nation and the states have ever had, and il
is now one of the ineffaceable features of our
financial system.
When war ceased, leaving us with a large
volume OF irredeemable currency among the
people, il became the duty OF the government
to do as England did bring about resum pt ion
by the natural laws of trade, and await its COM
ing in such manner as would bring no needless
shock to business disturbance in the chan
nels of industry. With the bOundlesS resources
OfGthe country, with the exceptional energy OF
our people, With the most fruitful crops from
year to year, with every element necessary to
bring about resumption without serious de-
preston OF business, we have had the most
sw weepinK embarrassment and bankruptcy as
the logical fruits of financial tinkers and pO-
Utica! brokers who speculated the woes of
the people. Enforced contraction of the cur
rency and now enforced resumption have made
broken fortunes, widespread idioness in place
OF requitec labor, terrible want in the midst OF
plenty and given the country the disorder that
Is the growth of despair. These evils, which
now affiict the nation more profoundly tina
even war itself, are not the offspring of neces-
slty. II they were the legitimate price of the
preservation of our free institutions they could
5e endured; but they are the causeesS sorrows
which come from abused authority and from
the most profiigate administration of munici-