The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1878-01-31

| !, JUSTICE.
80 sis 81 8--5 Esso aza
Senator Voorhees,, Of Indi-
ana, Makes a Demand
for it, - y.....5 9.s.3 =,
Justice for the People as Well as for
rs4,t the BendhOldsrs. nut- IS
An Exhaustive Review of the
Whole Subject. fl..-
In the senate, few days since, Mr..
Matthews gave way 20 Senator Voorhees,
in order that he might address that body
on resolution submitted by him before
the holidays, declaring it of the highest
Importance that the financial credit of
the government be maintained. In or
der to do so, the government itself, in
all its depart ments, should, in good faith,
keep all its contracts and obligations
entered into with its own citizens.
Mr.. voorhees, said the agitation of the
I'll the people are satisfied that the vast
debt is in process of extinction on prin-
ciPles of justice TO tax paying labor, or
until, on the other hand, they are subiu-
gated into silent submission, and the
government itself becomes a moneyed
aristocTacy. Denunciation is now the
principal weapon used by those who are
ranged on the side of grasping wealth.
There is no epithet, however base, that
is net in daily use against all who ven
ture to believe, as do, that to a great
extent our whole financial system is or
ganized crime against the laboring, tax
paying men and women of the United
States. The great plea of the present
hour for the continuation of wrong and
injustice is that good faith requires it.
Those who, finding monstrous evil inn
bedded in the laws of their country,
seek to eradicate it by peaceful legisla-
tion, are at once, and with the utmost
fury, assaulted as viOlatOIs of public
faith, enemies OF the national honor,
and worse, if possible, than common
swindlers. This pies, so loud now in
our ears, has been invoked in behalf of
every wickedness that has ever cursed
the world. The usurper inyokes it to
protect the throne he has stolen as soon
as he is seated. The tyrant inVokes it to
shelter his prerogative, and his nobility
in turn invoke it IN order to live in ease
and splendor off the labor of others.
Mr.. voorhees, reviewed the financial
legislation since 1862, and said expert
ence ha0 shown the legal tender to be the
best mcney that ever circulated. Eyerv
government bond which did not on its
face stipulate payment in coin was made
payable by the express words of the law
in legal tender notes. This enactment
guaranteed to the American people the
right TO pay three fourths of the national
debt in national currency. 1t was the
law of contract when all the $40 bonds,
amounting to over 81 500, ,000, 600, were
purchased from the government by bond
holders and paid for in this currency at
par. when 1t was quoted at from 40 to so
per. cent. below par in coin. Every one
understood the law to be as have stated
it at the time of its passage in fact, the
great struggle then was whether even the
interest on the bonds / have mentioned
should be paid in coin. No one
i'm debate made the slightest pre-
tense or iHtimation that the princi-
pal of the bonds was payable in
coin. During the full term of seven
eventful years that followed there is not
a platform of either political party in any
state in the union which makes such an.
assertion.
Mr.. Voorhees, alluded to Secretary
Sherman's letter of 1868, favoring the
payment of bonds in the same kind of
money as bought them, and his subse-
Quent action in procuring the passage of
an act for the payment of bonds in coin,
which he said was open reputation as a
solemn contract, and fastened an extor-
tion of not less than $500, 900. 900 on the
staggering industries of the country as
the speculative profits Of the operation.
In the whole financial history OF the civ
ilized world no parallel can be found to
this audacious deed OF broken faith,
deliberate treachery to the people, and
national dishonesty. It stands out by
itself, towering high above all common
frauds, and dlyarfng them in comparison
with its own vast proportions. 1t will
bear the names OF those who enacted it
to distant generations amidst the grOans,
curses, and lamentations of those who
toll on land and sea, and more deeply
engrayen than any other name will be
forever found that of the secretary of the
treasury, as the author 0f what he him
self said constituted the twofOld crime of
repudiation and extortIOn. q
Mr.. VOORHEES,, in support Of his posi-
ton, quoted the language of Senator
Morton in 1869, as follows: A combi-
nation of stockjobbers, as destitute of
conscience as pira.es, and inspired alone
by greed for money, successfully thun-
dered at these doors, and finally drove
this government into the most stupen-
dous act of bad iaith and legalized rob-
berry ever practiced upon any people
r,f hs=4Crrr
He next took up the funding act o.
1870, charging it wss the offtpring of an
apprehension that the work of repudia-
ting the contract for the payment of the
5-20 bonds might not be quite complete
Thus it was provided that an issueof new
coin bonds should be made in place of
the original ones. The amount saved in
interest is trihing when compared with
the ltes by the whole transaction.
Mr.. Voorhees, then argued that by the
laws of March, 1869, and July, 1870,
bonds outstanding and afterwards to be
issued were payable in coin, not in gold
alone, nor in silver alone, but in coin,
lie quoted Mr.. Sherman in 1869 as
Iexplicitiy favoriDg this view.
Mr.. VOORHEES, commented at some
| length on the passage of the Law 81
February II, 1873, which he said doomed
the dollar of our fathers, and It's enact
ment was as completely unknown 70 the
people. and indeed to four-ffths of con
eress itself. as the presence of 9 burglar
| in a house at midnight to its sleeping
| inmates. The silver dollar was elimina-
| ted from our money system under the
cover of false preteDse.
Mr.. voorhees, proceeded to show that,
of the entire trading and commercial
populations of the earth, more than four
tines as many people have chosen silver
as have chosen gold. and more than i've