The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1878-02-22


extra session to reduce taxes in order to
prev ent the accumulation of an inconVe-
nient surplus in the treasury.
/ am ready to meet here aud eYery-
where any comparison between the vague
shadowy and unsubStautiaI afterborn ex
pectations ana understandings of the
holders of bonds promising coin that
they be paid In gold as against the eQuit-
able and lawful claim of my constituents,
that one of the money metals of the Con-
shall not be striker down after
they have crossed a continent to explore
for it, and devoted their lives and for
tunes to its development and production.
i confront the charge that they seek an
unjust addition of ten per cent. to the
value of silver by its reconciliation
per cent. Of their just earnings by its de-
monetiZation shall no longer be persisted |
in. When they embarked in the buSi-
ness of silver mining they hal every |
right To expect and understand thxt il
would continue to be money. as il had al |
ways been a. far back as history and t. IL |
diLIon goes. They had no reason 10 BE /
lieYe that it would be denied use AS mon |
ey, to which II has been cOnsecrated by |
the unwriIIen law of al ages, and IL
which 1t was dedicated by the COnsIitu-
ton of the United States.
Has the recently formed expectations
OF the bondholders to be paid in gold any
oundation in equity or antiquity COM
parable to the right of the miner of the
Pacific coast to expect that silver would
continue to enjoy Its ancient franchise
coinage? The bondholders have invested
their money upon a contract embodied in
law which was q constructive notice to
them OF its terms. Direct notice was also
given them by the law itself, bieng refer
red to on the face OF each bond, together
with the terms on which they are by that
law made payable. The bondholders'
right to faithful performance of this
contract Is as earnestly insisted upon by
the advocates of this bill as by Its oppo-
nents. The miners have not only invest
ed their money, but have risked health
and life upon the faith of the then exist
ing law. which was q solemn pledge to
them that the precious metals We're both
tocontinue to be used as money. The
bondholder asks that laws shall be con-
tinued in force which were enacted after
his contract was made, and which charged
! Its terms to his advantage, and to the dis
advantage of the nation, and especially
OF the silver men, whose industry it
threatens to destroy. The miner asks
that the Constitution shall be observed,
and that the law under which his indus
| try was organized and upon which it
| was founded shall be restored. These
two demands are Incompatible with each
other. To the impartial judgment of the
| American people
THE MINERS SUBMIT THEIR COMPARE
TIVE EQUITY.
Prizes in mining are few, failures many.
but there is always hope enough to in
spire continued efforts; there is always
doubt enough to check undue expansion.
A comparatively small number have
! aached the plane of success, while many
nave { Inted and fallen by the way. Shall
those who are now hopefully tOiling be
punished for the successes of the few
No Drawer or harder men ever courted
| fortune by the straightforward road of
toll, sacrifice, and privatiOn. President
| Lincoln, in one of his messages to Con-
gress, declared them worthy, not merely
of the ordinary protection of law and JUS
| tlce, but of extraordinary" measures of
| encouragement. The mining regions of
| this country frown with the most forbid
| ding aspects of nature. In his restless
| wandSrings in search of precious metals,
the miner sees no stately forests, no smil-
| ing lawns, no luscious fruits, to enchant
| the senses or soothe the mind; but it is in
| torrid valleys and on bare peaks and
trackless mountains that gold and silver
are sought, and only occasionally 70 ind.
| In the search the miner leaves behind
him every luxury OF life, every conve-
| ntence of comfort, and every necessity OF
growth. The metal which the silver
miner seeks to obtain is not, as usual in
| gold mining, gathered from alIuVial sands
| by unskilled labor. 1t can only be wrench
ed from its embraces of adamant by eX-
| hausting labor; it can only be separated
from its baser surroundings by expensive
machinery and the efforts of patient
science. No dollar of gold or silver OBJ
| tanned by mining has ever involved the
robbing of one man by another, but has
been fairly won
| In A STRUGGLE BETWEEN THE RUDE
FORCES OF NATURE AND THE DAUNT-
LESS ENERGY OF MAN,
and was an addition to the wealth of the
| human race.
My constituents have rights as sacred
as those OF the national creditor. 1t is my
| high duty and privilege to defend them
on this floor, and L shall make no apology
| for the ardor and persistency with which
1 discharge this duty and exercise this
privilege. Does anybody doubt that the
Senators from Massachusetts, would rise
with indignation If anybody should sttg-
matize7 as sblubber gamblers, whalebone
spectators. and members of an ''oil ring''
| the bronZed whalemen of Nantucket and
| New Bedford, who, when fortune has ia
VOred, bring safely into port the wealth
which they have not obtained by wreck
ing railroads or by watering railroad
| stocks, or by puts and calls, and short
| corners in stocks, but which they have
created by struggling with cold, darkess,
| storm, the ice foes Of arctic seas? And why
| should L restrain my indignation when l
hear the stigmatIzing epithet of bonanza
| swindle-s" applied to my constituents,
who are to day toiling in gloomy passages
ncdIS S3OOO 4OoG DOLO~
the surface Of the earth, away from the
cheering light of day, in an industry
which is believed to pay less profit upon
the average than any other known to man
do not shrink from comparison of the
ways and methods of the acquisition of
wealth in the mining industry OF the Pa
citic coast, with the ways and methods of
| its acquisition anywhere, and least OF all,
| with the ways and methods of Wall street,
where these attacks upon my constituents
m fufE Jha a
Amasa, cart thou In health, my broth
erP' and E'so he smote him in the fifth
Ftb." The journals which use these cpl
thetS seem to be very SOlicitous concern
ing the national honor, and, while tender
ly 1nquiring as to its health,
DEAL DEADLY SLABS LIKE THESE.
In this country national honor has never
restore the ancient money In which eVerv
national bond is promised to be paid. II
IL is in danger of being furnished it is
| from the charge Of the opposing faction
| that majority of the States of this Union
| are inately dishonest. Let the old press
| Of this country not forget that while pow
er usually hegets Intolerance, it always
begets resistance. 1t is hoastfulIy declar.
ed that capital is now organized at last,
and we shall see whether Congress will
dare fly in its face" How long is 1t since
| the shareholders of this country, inLoXi.
Gated by the long possession Of absolute
sway, declared that cotton was king, and
that grass should grow on the streets OF
| northern cities il its royal prerogatives
\ were interfered with. The southern men
who now hear me know that it was arro-
gsnce, together with irresponsible power,
the dominating spirit engendered by sIav-
cry, that provoked and preci plated the
revolution which DESTROYED It.
Are the same people who carried that
revolution through fire and blood on the
bayonets Of 5000, 900 Of men likely to be
patient under the taunt that their chosen
representatives, sitting here under the
dome Of this capitol, dare not fly in the
face Of the organized
MoNEY.LENDERs AND BoND-HoI DERs
OF this country Thank God, and the
Declaration OF Independence, and the pa.
Heht heroism that made it q VItaliz ed
force, and the Constitution that crystal
lized IL into law, the people OF this coun-
try are furnished with better method of
righting wrongs and asserting rights than
| resort to arms, and, with not less resoIu-
| ton and enthg siasm than wars against
oppression inspire, will they, in peaceful
methods and under the forms of law,
trample under foot any power that seeks,
| through corruption or Intimidation, to en-.
trench itself in this citadel of their liber.
ties. They will see to it that this remains
popular government in fact IS well as IN
name, and, ia spite Of the craft and the
cunning Wiles of the wicked. that their