The Portland daily press., 1878-07-31

time. tLong Cheers The Republican party
started for purposes of right and not of policy
When he spoke to day for honesty, absolute
and uncomptomsiDg honesty, he but echoed
the brthcry OF the Republican party. CHEERS.
We started with an administration against us
We startediwith one of the old parties dead
and the other surrendered to the power OIL
slavery. When Senator Hamln resigned his
seat in the U. S. Senate and came back in 1856
to the State of Maine and took your nomina.
science of this people, you overthrow the pow
ers that were. You sustained the Republican
party in being right and the nation in striving
to be free (Applause.)
| Whenever this party of yours and mine shall
be false to that original purpose of conscience,
in which it was born, this Republican party
will not only die. but it ought to die and be
buried out of sight. (Applause.) Whenever
this Republican party comes to be an organiza-
tiou simply for the purpose OF getting and dis
party has outived its usefulness and should
pass from the face of the earth. (Appause)
SO long as there are vital principles that at
fect the welfare of the people; so long az s1ere
are questions that touch the interests of labor;
that touch the condition of the poor; that touch
the spindles, the business, the commerce of this
country, the Republican party has but one
duty and that is to be on the right side of such
questions. (Applause.) When it stands upon
the wrong side it should be bnred and your
| votes and mine will be the spades to cover it
from sight. (Applause)
Let US go back from this to that hour when
| our party had its birth thus consecrated to the
idea of liberty. Fidelity to that idea involved,
when the rebellion came, second purpose and
that was the purpose of loyalty. The party
which had said that the nation should be free
then stepped to the front aud said the nation
| shall live. (Applause Today another ques-
ton comes, and the party that was born to
make the nation free, and that existed that the
| nation might live, now says that the mission of
the Republican party is to so administer this
| government as that labor shall bs encouraged
as that the dollar that underlies all fair traffic,
| all exchap ge of produce, all education and all
culture, that this dollar shall be an honest dol
lar, worth dollar the world over. (Long ap-
| plauSe.)
| Do any think 1 state the issue and need of
| the hour too strongly?
This government may have bad administra-
ton and yet you may be happy in your home
ment may have bad administration and yet
yoa and may find place to earn money and
SO to get our honest living. This govern,
ment may have bad administration and vet
all the processes of trade and society, of the
store and the bank, the c0untiDg-roO school
house and church, may go on peacefully side by
side. But if you rob labor by paying labor in
that which is not money; if you invite reckless
speculation by injecting into the commerce and
traffic of the land that which is not the blood
OF business and of commerce.; If you attempt
by law to make something out of nothing and
to legslate that gas is solid earth, then have
you broken up the very foundations of society.
lApplause.) The laborer is falsely paid. In
hatlon comes. Fortunes seem to rise. The
bubbles float, irridescent before mems eyes,
and they say how bright and beautiful is ali
this. At last the bubbles break and there are
paralysis and disaster the broad land over
(Applause)
But say you, did not your party create the
greenback? Yes. Did not your party clothe
1t with legal tender quality? Yes. Did not
your party force it as the basis of national
banking and of all exchange and business?
Yes. And why?
Back in those dark days, during the war for
which we were not responsible, when treason
had grrped the nations life, when we had ex.
hausted our resources, when we had borrow, d
and begged and taxed to the last limit, We
then printed the government credit 10 the
form of treasury notes We gave those treas
nry notes legal tender quality And why2
The nation had no coin. The government
gave them to the soldiers in the field, to the
men who furnished the supplies at home.
These soldiers, had wives and little ones
These needed bread, clothing, shelter. So the
government stamped these notes with legal
tender quality and said if they are good enough
to pay our soldiers, they shall have the legal
tender quality that will enable the soldiers
will feed the soldiers child, and that will carry
on the business and move tbs machinery Of
society. (Appause)
Do you say to me, had the government c,r-
sttutional authority to do that.
Let me make frank answer. / am speaking,
you remember, to-day, not for your convention,
put 10 lG. Frankly stating the truth as uL-
derstand it, leaving time to be the judge, az
proving or condemning what l sly, by the
truth or folly of my words
ha ont .fpt;o
clothe that bill with the legal tender qualify?
La time of peace, answer, emphatically, it
had not, has not.
Why?
The Constitution of the United States au-
thorlzes the government to coin mopey and to
regulate the value thereof. You coin metals,
you do not coin paper. Words must be inter
preted by the meaning with which they were
used The government had authority to coin
money; it did not have authority to print pa
per.
You may refer me to that other clause of
the Constitution where it says that no state
government shall emit bill of credit and that
therefore by accepted laws of Interpretation
the general government may emit bill Of
credit. Certainly. But it is a bill of credit.
1t is not money The very meaning of tue
word credit plies that it is promise to paw.
based upon faith, issued as credit and not
as money.
Then, whence came that power to clothe the
bill with legal tender quality? Simply here.
1t was the exercise of The last, the ultimate
power OF the government In saving its life.
Let me illustrate. | have no rig ht to kill you,
no right to take you by the throat as you leave
this hall AID stab you to tho heart That
would be murder.
But if you we're to spring at my throat and
try to take my life, tbeD. should have the
right, by the right that have 10 live, to do
anything that should save my lite. As, with
men. so with nations (Long applause
When we were in the throes Of the
rebellion, when treason was sprincins at the
nations throat, When treason was striking at
the nallon's life, We had the right to do any
thing that should save the nallon alive, aud
keep the land of cur fathers one and indivisi-
bic. (Applause.)
am not here to attack it. Blood stained with
the memory OF many a battlefield, tear
bedswed, as it passed through the hand of
widow aud orphan, it stands to-day with
sacred memories clustering around it L love
that Greenback OF the war so we'll that | will
not put into the greenback family a bastard
greenback born in the time of psace. (Laugh.
ter and applause.)
Thus the greenback currency was born.
What is it? This greenback, which hold ia
my hand, does not say: This is two dolars'
This bill simply says. "The United States will
pay the bearer two dollars" This makes it
note, promise to pay. This note, for the
reason L have given, was clothed with legal
lcuucI quduty. Dut IL Is Sllll d QOte, as muC1
the part of The national debt as is the bond
The difference is only that the bond is the
promise to pay certain amount on a given
day with interest 10 the meantime at certain
given rate; while the greenback is note not
bearing interest, promising TO pay without d
day fixed
Then came the next step in legislation. The
government pledged itself by the act of 1875,
10 pay these notes in coin whenever presented
on and after the first day of January, 1879
The note which did not have any fixed date
of payment before that law now has a date,
when it is DUE
What makes the value of any note; what
makes the value of this note? L am no be-
never in the idea that by any process of
legislation you Can give to anything a value
that it does not have in and of ITSELF A gold
dollar is worth a dollar the world over, because
it has the actual value in it, 1t is good in Lor-
don. 1t is good in Portl and. 1t is good 10
China. (Cheers.) But L doubt whether
ChiGaman would take even this greenback, in
he could not read English and did not know
what it was. He would simply say that is
little piece of paper. Then whence comes the
value of this note? 1t is what is printed on it.
1t is not the paper itself. Ii is the promise.
What gives the value to a promise? Two
things. FIRST the ability of the man who makes
the promise to Keep the promise. and second,
his willingness You may be unfortunate
apOnph In ba Of