The anti-monopolist. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1874-1878, 1878-10-24
BAD FINANCIAL LEGISLATION"

charges or the GreenDack advocates
in regard to the swindling ''Coin act
of 1859 are fully sustained by the
paper (which shines for all" W.
looked at the title page of the paper
twice to satisfy ourselves that We
were not reading one of our Green
back exchanges. The Sun is very
bitter upholder of the hard money
faith, but is shrewd enough not tt
argue wholly against the facts. Dur
ing the silver discussion it admitted
that under the law it would be Just tc
pay the bonds in silver dollars oil
Az IL grains each, and bused it's op
position 20 the silver bill on the
ground of expediency. Mr.. Dana has
very large constituency of intelli
gent readers, and he has to be very
careful in defending the specie re.
sumption fallacy. He does not care
to be rated as a shallow reasOner after
winning the reputation of being the
ablest journalist in the United States.
The same arguments which appear
in this Sun article to show how out
rageOusly the people have been swim
died are not new to the readers of the
Union, but we will quote the main
points in order to emphasize what we
have said. Says the Sun:
Undoubtedly the whole financial
legislation and the executive admin
istration were in the interest of what
is called the money power and the
bondholder. The $50 bonds, by the
terms Of the law authorizing their
issue. were payable in greenbacks,
and were sold on an average at sixty
cents on the dollar. The interest
only was payable in gold. When the
proposition was first mOOted to raise
these bonds to the gold standard,
Thaddeus Stevens declared in the
House OF Representatives:
81 would vote for no such swindle
upon the taxpayers of this country. l
would vote for no such specula.ions in
favor of the large bondholders, the
millionaires who took advantage of
our folly in granting them coin pay
mentS of interest" =,
And John Sherman, in his letter of
March 20. 1868, went still further
He wrote:
''Your idea is that we propose to
repudiate OF violate a promise when
we offer to redeem the principal in
legal tenders. l hate repudia-
ton, or anything like it, but we ought
not to be deferred from doing what is
right 10y fear of undeserved epithets. :"
eff the bondholder can legally de-
mand only the kind Of money he paid,
then he is a repudiator and extor-
TONER to demand money more valua-
, bic than he gave"
The Sun then proceeds to show that
in few months after these emphatic
declarations were made by the re.
spective chairman of the Senate and
House Finance Committees, congress
passed an 'act to strengthen the pub.
lie credit and this was the first bill
signel by Grant rs President. 1.-The
law provided that the currency in.
debtedness of the country should be
payable in coin. and it added nearly
five hundred millions to the public
debt. which went into the pockets of
the bondhOlderS, and had to be added
TO the then existing Burdens on the
taxpayers
That act was an iniQuity which no
plausible pretences have paliated, and
1t was driven through the House
without debate. under the gag of the
previous question, which served to
confirm the belief that ring of cap
ltallsts stood behind the bill, who
knew that such scheme would not
bear discussion. The Senate finished
the work quickly, and the patriots
who proSpered by Addition, Division
and Silence went on their way rejoic-
ing. Ten days after the passage of
this law a proposition was offered in
the House to tax the bonds, which
the Republicans defeated by a unani-
nous vote on the record.
The Sun next proceeds to demon
strate that the above act of iniQuity
was followed by others. 1t says:
Mr.. Boutwell, at that time was Sec
rotary of the treasury and he became
possessed of the false idea that the
people who had borne the brunt of
the civil war and had made the great.
est sacrifices to preserve the Union,
should also pay off the enormous debt
which had necessarily been piled up
IN four years of desperate strife. To
carry out this policy, it was indispen
sable that taxation on imports aid by
internal revenue should be kept up to
the highest point. Hence the pres
sure was constantly applied, not only
to meet the redemption of bonds
twenty years before thep became due.
but indirectly to support great mo-
nopolies, protected by a ring tariff
from which the greater part Of the
public revenue was extorted.
Besides these oppressive taxes. the
reports of the treasury show that it
cost nearly a hundred millions of dol
lars To give effect to Mr.. Boutwell's
scheme of reducing the public debt
from the close or the war forward.
Here are the official figures:
Premiums paid on bonds eNtin-
guished -...... $50, .3s. is. 30
skNlehseS Oh the public loSns., s., s5s, itc 81
Rounding Of the debt. ~. -. 1851 ,Sse 81
All this vast expenditure was made
in the interest OF hondholjers, who.
under the law creating the debt.
lave 10 legal claim whatever to re-
esiva n 1ollar in svssi1 nr silver The