Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1878-08-15
john sherman's Official Statement
Tnat there has been No Contrac-
tion OF the Currency, Not True.

ZION OF the Currency. Not True.
BLooxIScros, Aug 8, 1873.
Editor GRANT COUNTY HhRALb;--
| am solicited to answer John Sher.
mans official statement, as TO the
amount Of currency in circulation
from 1862 to 1878, and published in
yoar issue of August lst (if allowed
the use of your coiumns), as am de-
sired to answer through the HERALD.
sas@ 4 "A 9. 4 So'Aa Gro w. LEE.
The inter- ocean of August lst
says. cit is in our opinion the high
est folly for the opponents Of the Ma
tional Greenback party to deny facts
SO well established as the contraction
of the currency" And it further says:
IF that party cannot be defeated by
fair and honest statements of truth,
then it better be allowed to win"
The greenbacks were first issued
to such public creditors as had fur
nished the government with labor,
services and munitions of war. Full
two thousand millions were issued for
these purposes. As it went to the
people the government printed this
solemn pledge upon it: "This note
is legal tender at its face value for
all debts, public and private, except
duties on imports and interest on the
public debt" From the first issue in
1861, to the close of the war, the
government paid nothing but green
backs. Whenever it exhausted the
issue authorized by law, it borrowed
the greenbacks back again for bonds
until another issue was authorized.
The scheme to contract the currency
was inaugurated by Hugh McCulloch
which scheme became a law by act of
April IL, 1866. The law authorized
the secretary of the treasury at his
discretion to receive any treasury
notes or other obligations money
issued by any and all acts of Con-
gress, whether bearing interest or not
for bonds of any description, author
lied by the act to which this is an
amendment, and TO dispose of bonds
authorized by said act of Congress
to such an amount, and in such a
manner, and at such rates, as he may
think proper, for legal tender or for
treasury notes, certificates, or GER
tificates of deposit, or other repre-
sentatives of value, which have been
or may be hereafter issued under act
of Congress. All of these different
descriptions of Indebtedness were is
sued in the shape of greenbacks, were
passed from hand to hand as such,
were used in large business transac-
tons, we're held as reserves in banks,
and went to make up the great vol
ume of currency in circulation, which
this bill was intended to contract, re.
tire and cancel Our bonded debt,
except 60 millions we owed at the
commencement of the war, is green
backs withdrawn from circulation
among the people, burned up or mac
Grated into pulp. Section 5ls4 of the
Revised Statutes, act of June %,
1874, reads" Such notes as shall be
surrendered to be Cancelled shall be
destroyed, by maceration instead of
burning to ashes, in the presence of
four persons. The bankruptcy of
over SO thousand business firms, the
deprecated values of all rural and
urban property, the deprecated val
ues of farm and manufactured pro
ducts, the robbing of labor Of its re-
ward, the producing OF tramps, beg
gary and starvation, are some of the
fruits Of this hellish scheme of con-
traction, commenced by McCulloch,
who filled the bill TO the satisfaction
of the Shylocks, and John Sherman
is his legal successor, and equally &C.
ceptable to the non-tax-paying million
aires, traitor to the people, an
enemy in the hands of foreign enc
mics, tool of usurers, worker of
what may prove a general ruin of the
people. The Inter Ocean of August
lst refutes this official document of
John Sherman's, and in doing so it
says it has given figures that cannot
be successfully disputed, and produces
table compiled from official SOURCES
as it appears in the volume called
"Gold and Debt" published some two
years ago in Chicago, which exhibits
the currency of all kinds outstanding
from 1865 to 1866, and the Inter-
Ocean adds the amount per capita for
1877 as $14, while "Gold aud Debt "
gives us in 1866 $5o.76, and the
circulating medium for that year as
one billion eight hundred and three
millions seven hundred and two thou
sand seven hundred and twenty-six
dollars, in 1865. G. W. l..