The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1878-09-25
Ghe 9a.ilg Arsns.
nocK ISLAND. ..1LLrKors
concluded from second page. J

sis2i@ tConcluded from second page.
pretty plenty, when men would pay $500
for meal OF Victuals without grumbIing.
1t would seem that the continental cur
rency was Stamped with the sovereignty
of the nation" as effectually as any fat
money could be. Says the American
'Cyclopedia: Legal-tender acts of the
most stringent character were adopted
by congress and the colonies, and subse-
fquently by the states. When the bills
began 10 depreciate, notwithstanding the
tender acts, congress resolved that they
fought to pass current IN all payments,
trade, and dealings, and be deemed
sequal in value to the same nominal sums
in Spanish dollars, and that persons who
refused to take them on such terms of
equality ought to be regarded as enemies
of the United States, whom the local au-
'thorities should punish, with ''forfeitures
and other penalties. Congress took upon
itself further to scold the people for their
want of confidence, 'and to assure them in
language which sounds as though it might
have proceeded from the lips of Ben But
Ter, that the monev-it was giving them was
s'the only kind which cannot make to itself
wings and fly away. 1t remains with US,
it will not forsake us, tits always ready at
hand for the purposes of commerce, and
every industrious man can find il" Mr..
Pelatiah Webster, one of the statesmen OF
the revolution, in 1871 wrote as follows
concerning the state of things in I779:
| The people of the states at that time had
| been worried aud fretted, disappointed
and put out of humor by so many tender
acts, limitations of prices, and other com
'pulsory methods to force value into paper
| money, and compel the circulation of it
and by so many vain funding schemes
| declarations of promises, all which issued
| from congress, but died under the most
| jealous efforts to put them into operation
and effect, that their patience was ex
'hausted." 1t would seem, from Mr.. Web
| sters testimony, that no effort was spared
and that continental currency did no
differ materially from the fat money nov
proposed, excepting in that its create
added promises to fats. We all know tina
the fats were impotent, and promises wer
broken. E.
1t also appears from the testimony 0
Mr.. Phillips that Mr.. Ben Butler was nc
the first TO discover that the oontinenta
currency distributed the. expenses OF tn
war among the people. Mr.. Philips tell
US that 1T was said to operate as tax; a
Ia most equal tax, because it acted in pro
portion to the amount held. The rio
lssuffered largely on their vast sums; tn
needy but slightly on their scanty phi
'tances." And so, when the whole wa
repudiated, no body lost anything. Blu
Mr.. Phillips adds: How fallacious thes
: 'reasonings, with which the congress an
the people solaced themselves. are, mu:
, be apparent. Poor consolation it was
those who had been beggared, confdin
in the honor and in the honesty OF the
country, to hear that their ruin had mere
been gradual tax; to know that frel
the operation of tender laws. their prope
'ty had been taken away and given /
others; to see the wealth accumulate
| by the dishonest multitudes of contracto
and the many deirauders of that unhapT
! period, and to feel that it had been plu
'dered from their own Golfers for the a
t. 'grandizement of such people, Mr.. Butt
will say that it served these "gold-bugi
q right to beggar them, and that Mr.. Phi
, lips shows himself an odious ari
tocrat when he expresses sympathy vi
Them But Mr. Phillips has the heai
;. llessness to quote letter written by la
= in 1779, saying that hor father had ID
her competence six years before, viii
: her guardian had invested in real estate,b
which he then proposed to pay her in I
per. That is a case which doesn't go
support Mr.. Buffers statement about
distribution of the expenses of the war.
Mr., PeIatiah Webster agrees with N
E, Phillips. His testimony concerning t
paper is: I'VE have suffered more frt
: this cause than from every other cause
Cd calamity. 1t has. killed more men, pe
let 'vaded and corrupted the choicest intere
of the country more and done more
Justice than even the arms and articles
our enemy And further: 1T has
luted the equity Of our laws, -. +. c
= 'rupted the justice of our public admir-
tration. destroyed the fortunes of tho
- lands who had most confidence in it, en-
waited the trade, husbandry and manut
lures of the country, and gone far to
'stroy the morality of our people.
In view of the history of eontineI
money. and of the opinions concerning i
g tthose who were intelligent witnesses
: and sufferers from its effects, people b
right to think strange things of the
Buffers who assure us that nothing bl
. ton,..-ora;oco1 Got - nnnaGaaru IN orde