Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1878-10-09
Ex-Governor WOOdfOrd on Fiat
Money.

Moro,o Polo, the great traveller Of
the middle ages, tells US the story of
Kublar Khan. who issued the Asiatic
greenback. He made every man take
it in payment of debt aud in exchange
for whatever property the mighty
Khan desired. He went even further
than my greenback friends would go,
for when any body refused to take his
paper-Lis Asiatic fat money--the
Khan of Tartary very generously cut
the poor mans throat, Laughter.
But when Kublai Khan died, then al
SO died his paper money, and there
was bankruptcy even in Tartary.
Applause. h
So, too, Louis, the splendthrifr ruler
of France, at the instance of John Law,
himself gambler and libertine, fleeing
from punishment in England, made the
first paper money of France, and based
it on the Mississippi scheme. The
bubble seemed for time to be real.
Prices mounted to the skies These
were iufaton and apparant prosperity,
ard then the scheme broke and the
penalty, was paid For the grandson
of Louis died on the headman's block.
1t was that paper money which more
debauched and denoralized France
than all the other nstrumentaities es
that led to the reign of terror Tap
plause.
Then there came another instance.
When the mob seized the Government
of France, when the guillotine was the
tribune from which the French ora
ators spoke, and the executioner's
death-cart ratified through blood stain
ed streets of Paris, again France print
ed paper money. She clothed it with
full legaltender quality. She thrust
men into prison, and sent to the gull
loiine who would not take it. But at
last lhe end came even then. Such
end forever comes. The bubble broke
Paris and France were bankrupt;
drunk with initiation and crazed with
blood ...-.
Law and order had to come again.
Even more than all the causes contri-
buting to the establishm ment of the First
Empire under the First Napoleon we're
the paper assigaat and the paper man
dat money -Erencn nevoIutrUu.
Down went their dreams of paper
wealth and up rose the Empire, solemn
and grim, behind them. Applause.]
There came another instance in our
own history-only hundred and odd
years ago. The colony of Massachu
setts made paper money, and clothed
it with legal tender quality by force of
law. The men of New England went
further. They decreed the price at
which men might sell their produce,
and the prices that labor should re-
ceive, and they made it penal offense
for any one to refuse to take their pa
per issues. ..... a.-
My own State of New York tried to
do the same thing. aam 5
The Continental Congress also did
it. They printed the gseenbacks of
the Revolution. They forced them
into circulation. They gave them
quality to pay old debts. They could
not give them quality to pay for new
debts except at such price as the sell
ler would take. And so the issue of
the Continental currency mounted to
the skies. So gold and silver were
driven from the country So bank.
ruptcy came; and the land was strick-
en- with sorrow from one end to the
other. Applause. N 1a..a#a.a
Shall it be that now-now, when
kind Providence has given US victory
over rebellion now, when all sect
ions of the land are returning to their
allegiance; now, when the spindles of
New England and the forges of Ohio
may look forward to a profitable mar
ket in the tuture-shall it be now
that we are to 60 back to the sorrow
and shame and loss Of imitation? reno,
no."] ~.m
Shall we, in the midst Of blessings,
with the price of honesty in our hands
shall we now turn back and try to
make money out of soap bubbles, mon.
ey out of moonshine? .s..4r !
Shall we not rather say: ''In the
old paths of the fathers who decreed
that money shall be of gold and silver,
We will walk. AS we were loyal in
the day Of battle, we will be honest in
the time Of peace. We will deserve
prosperity. We will build our indus
try on the sure foundation of money
that shall be money the wide world |
over" [Applause.]