Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1878-10-22
-sTAUNroN SPECTATOR AND GENERAL ADVERTISER.

crease the number of Treasury notes. in.
definitely, and still make them o Legal
tender for all debts.
| Common sense must teach every man,
and experience has proved, that as
you increase the quantity of paper
money in circulation, you diminish its
purchasing power. The present amount
of Treasury notes is 1868, All, O1O. If you
double this amount, without adding to
the production and business, of the c0un-
| try, the purchasing power of the notes
will be reduced one half. So, if YOU
quadruple the quantity, you will reduce
the purchasing power to one fourth, or
25 cents in the dollar! Then, if Con-
gress shall make these deprecated notes
legal tenders, every debtor can pa, off
his debts, with currency worth but
one fourth of the present money or in
other words, he can get rid of his debt hy
paying Is cents on the dollar! This is,
| in effect, confiscatiOn, in the hands of
the creditor, of three fourths of every
debt due to him! Trust funds set apart
for widows and orphans, will be reduced
to one fourth of their present value the
man who has bought your farm, or
house and lot, can pay you for them, in
currency, ppminally the same in amount
that be Contracted to pay, but which, in
fact, is worth but one fourth of the
amount which he owes you.
The people cannot have forgotten
their experience in regard to Confederate
money. Do they want to repeat the ex
pertinent in that kind If currency? l
fancy not. But II they do. then let
them give countenance to the greenback
fallacy, and flood the country with the
notes of irresponsible State bank which
will not passlffty miles from their PLACE
of issue.
Bad as the Confederate money was,
the Confederate Congress even undre the
pressure of great civil war, never dar-
ed to make Confederate notes a legal
tender. Nobody was compelled to re-
ceive them unless he chose to do so.
But the avowed purpose Of the Green
back party, is, not only to dilute the
currency until its real value will not be
more than 20 or 25 cents in the dollar,
but also to compel everybody to receive
it as if it were worth dollar The in
one. 1t is reputation disguised under q
very flimsy veil. =
A dehased and fuctuating currency
ors, or brokers, shavers and others who
deal in money, and make large profits by
their traffic. But it will not suit steady
going farmers, and real men of business
and the laboring man. When the far
mer sells his wheat or corn, or the labor
ing man does his days work. he wants
the price of his grain or the wages of
his labor, in gold or silver dollars or in
notes which he can, at his pleasure,
convert into gold and silver dollars.
Every dollar of paper money issued
ought to be the true representa-, i've of
gold and silver which is the onlf con-
stitutiOnal money. 1t is not o itself
money. but it is the representative of
money just as the receipt of the miller
or the warehouse man, is not wheat or |
merchandise, but the representative of
those commodities. When you present
such receipt to the miller or the ware
houseman, he is bound to deliver to
you the wheat or merchandise, specifi-
ed in the receipt. So all legitamate pa
per money should be the representation |
of SO much gold and silver, and enable |
the holder to demand its delivery on |
presentation to the Bank or government
which issued it.
And other kind Of paper money is not
the representative Of actual value-gold
and silver-but fictitions substitute for
value.
AS far back as history or tradition go,
and silver have been adopted as the
standard of value. All commodities are
measured in value by that standard.
The commerce of the world is regulated
by it. The old testament tells Us that
gold and silver were the standards of
value in the days of NJ oses and of the Ru-
lers of Israel who followed him. The
new testament informs us, that the price
paid to Judas IscariOt for the BETRAYAL
OF our Saviour was-30 pieces of silver?
Let us then not attempt to he wiser
than the rest of mankind. Let us hold
on tothe measure of value which has been
through all ages and by all
nations as the safest and least liable to
iuctuation.
Washington Jefferson, Madison, Mason
Lee and other great men of the revolu-
tionary era have conourred in denounc
ing any other measure of value as delu-
5ive and fraudulent, and in later days
Clay, Calhoun, Webster. Benton, Silas
Wright McDuffie and hosts ofother great
men have promulgated similar opin-
Ions.
Through much tribulation, we have
now brought our currency to healthy
condition. Greenbacks and Bank notes
are now within a fraction of being equal
to gold. On the 18th Januai y next they
will be exchangeable, at the pleasure of
required more than ten wears, to accom-
plish this most desirable end. 1t has
cost tremendous sacrifices to accomplish
it. Why then should we reverse our
policy now, when every thing indicates
q speedy revival Of husinesa aud the
advent Of new era of prosperity? Let
agitation cease Let us have some sta
bility in our legislation Business is
first accommodating itselfto the present
of things and my advice would
be 'let will enough alope!"
What we want is, not more currency,
but more industry, more economy, more
and better tillage of our fields, more d.
versifcatiop the products ofour farms
more enterprise in the Development of
our mines, more industry in working up
our raw material-fewer McCawbers
waiting for something to turn up and
more stout hearts and strong arms to
utilize the blessings which Benefcient
Providence has lavished on us in such |
boundless profusion.
[ have been closely associated with |
the Conservative party of Virginia from
its organization to the present hour. I
had the honor of presiding over the
great convention of 1900 delegates. of the
best men in Virginia, which assembled
in Richmond. shortly after the close of
the war and called this great party into
existence. l have folio we'd its fortunes
with unfailing interest and fidelity from
that time to the present have honoredit
as the champion of our rights and the
faithful guardian:of the best interests of
our State. But Notwithstanding the at
tachment and gratitude which have al
ways felt, and still feel for it, have no