The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1878-05-08

I
neart may long Tor what il conceives TO be q
great good, yet there may be sacrifices so hor-
r1Dle required ia its pursuit that they would
render that Good an unmixed evil. The re-
sumption OF specie payments has been pro-
claimed the height OF American statesman
snip ard yet TO attain 10 the prosperity of the
country has been trodden into the dust and
battered out Of all shape and recOgnftiOn
MIthln the last three months, as have shown,
the pursuit of this pol .cy has rendered impos-
SlDle the payment OF nearly n hundred mil
hons OF debts. The poverty the desclatiOn,
the lnulScrlOaDle private SOrTOws of families
winch these fixtures have cost can never be
eSplated; nor viii the policy which caused
them, with its track of ruined lives ever be for
COTTON or forgiven by the American people.
Ine SerE1le castles OF the East Insiies with a
blind and ignorant faith, WORSHIP the Jugger-
naut, and feel no resentment when mangied
and crushed by their hideous deity N Is nor
so, nor Will IL ever be, with the American peO-
pie They will not worship at a cruel, heart
less Shrine. They Will rather teach their chill
dreE and their children children to execrate
the authors of their misfortunes. Heretofore
there has always been strong traditi0nary
Sentlu ent In the American mind in favor of a
circulation based on gold and silver, but
henceforward that idea will be so deeply and
painfully associated with bankruptcy, pow
erty, unemployed labor, and begging tramps
that II Will take fifty years of the most favor
able experience to restore the former belief on
tins subject. An education on the subject af
finances has been impressed upon the Ameri-
can people during the last five years as fright
full in the memory which il has left as tine EN-
braces of nightmare.
Men and women think fast and take long
and rapid strides in opinion when crowded by
engender revolutions and breed the fierce dis
orders OF the world unless they are controlled
by measures of relief and pacificatiOn.
We are met, however, at this time by those
who oppose the repeal of The resumption act
with the fact that our paper circulation is
quoted in the money markets at only a small
fraction below par in gold. T0is is held up to
us as practical resumption. The money power
turning Its back upon the ruin it has wrought,
and ignoring the wide spread suffering il has
C a
last reached the destination for which
II mas caused SO many millions to
water their bread with tears. Ii is
true that the le@al-tender United
States note, known as the greenback dollar
partly by reason of its contraction in amount,
ana iar more by reason OF the confidence
which the people have in it as money, has
forced itself, in the face OF caiumny and fixed
hostility on the part of the government, TO a
substantial equality with gold This is not the
result of any financial statesmanship.
1t has taken place In spite of policy direct
ly adverse TO IL. IL is simply the result of a
public opinion upholding a currency which
this government has assailed with discredit
from the hour OF its creation. Its quoted value
to-day, in that little den OF gamblers known
as the gold room, in Wall street, rests To no
extent at all upon the fact or supposed fact,
that the holders OF ii are able or desire to OBJ
tain specie in exchange Does that noisy mob
in a room in New York, where gold Is never
seen, wnere money Oh any KIND Is purely an
puts and calls signifies only words and not
things-does this mob fix the value of our
frOm hand to hand among toe plain farmers,
mechanics, merchants and traders OF the en-
tire country? 1T is well known by the people
that Its functions and services money i'm
their midst DO not depend upon the ability
OF government TO redeem IL with coin,
nor do they want it redeemed.
OF the S347 600 oflegal nder note circulation
this government could not redeem S50,0O0,OO0
within a weeks notice. What then, has
brought paper currency for which there is
now practically no specie basis up to par with
specie? / can answer. 1t is because public
opinion has forced this government, step by
step, TO treat its own currency with respect,
with fairness and with honor. It is owing TO
that public sentiment which has been for
years past, urging, and at last with the prom
Use of success, that the government shall re-
ceive the money il has authorized to circulate
among the people for all its own debts, dues
and obligations, except in the face of an
press stipulation to the coOtraTy.
Sir, in point OF fact there never was the
slig0 test reason in justice why the paper cir
culation OF this country should have become
deprecated. When the legal tender note was
first authorized as money, if we had said il
was good money, and by our acts convinced
main aimed an equality with the precious
metals from the beginning. This has been the
history of other governments, and il would
have been our history il capital had been
capable of a single throb of patriotism when il
was called on to assist in the preservation OF
the Union. II money had volunteered as the
soldier did, or il tempting brides, in the shape
OF gigantic SpeculatiOns, had not been neceS-
sary to win its support, the evils which have
since befallen us would never have been
known. Had the act of February, 1862, which
authorized the first issue of bonds and of legal
tender notes become law in the form in
which II passed the house of representatives,
the depreciation of American currency never
would have taken place. IJ has been in our
power ever since TO cure tins eVI.
There has not been n day from the creation of
the United States note as circulating medium
to this hour when that note would not have
been placed at par by a law requiring the gov
eminent TO receive it for government dues
All this was pointed out with overwhelming
force by Thaddeus stevens, then chairman of
ways and means in the Souse. Sir curious
spectacle is presented in this connection.
With what clamorous cutlery the great capt.
talistS have aSSaiied deprecated currency
No language has been sufficiently bitter or
contemptuous with which to stignnatize and
cover it with shame. No wholesale slaughter
of popular int rests has been too great in Or0er
to get rid of 1t. And yet the very men who
now vox the air with their loud and incessant
com plants and demand such crushing sacri-
fees of the people are solely and exclusively
Responsible for the fact that we have had "A
deprecated currency at all. They alone of all
the world demanded that this government
should dishonor its own currency. When in
1872 the act creating our bonded system OF
debt and the means 10 pay ii had passed the
house. making principal and interest payable
in United States legal tender notes, and had
been returned with the senate amendment
fixing the payment of the interest IN coin, Mr..
stevens at once fastened the responsibility
and its consequences where they belonged and
drew a picture OF uuhallowed greed which has
never been disputed. On that occasion he
said.
81 have "A melancholylforeboding that we are
about to consummate a cunnlngly devised
scheme which viii carry great injury and great
loss to all classes of people throughout the
Union, except one. With my colleague, be-
lieve no act of legislation of this government
was hailed with as much delight throughout
the whole length ami breadth of this Union
by every class of people without any excep-
ton as the bill which was passed and sent to
the senate. Congratulations from all classes,
merchants, traders, manufacturers, mechanics
and labOrers. poured in upon from all quar-
tiers. The boards of trade from Boston, New
York, st Louis, Philadelphia, Cincinnati,
Louisville, Chicago and Milwaukee, approved
its provisions and urged its passage as il was.
/ have dispatch from the chamber OF COM
merce of Cincinnati, sent to the secretary OF
the treasury. and by him to me, urging the
speedy passage of the bill as il passed the
house. IL is true there was doleful sound
came up from the caverns of the bullion bT0k-
ers, ana from the saloons of associated bank
ers. Their cashiers and agents We're soon on
the ground, and persuaded the senate with but
little delibetation to mangle and destroy what
il haC cost the house months to digest, coHSld
er ard pass. They fell upon the bill in hot
haste, and so dlsfigured and deformed IL that
its very father would not know it. Instead OF
being beneficent and invigorating measure
1t Is now positively mischieYous- 1t has all
the bad qualities which its enemies charged
on the original bill, and none OF its benefits.
1t now creates money, and by its very terms