Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1878-08-14

cial distress has not been the result o
contraction. Why? 1 answer for tn,
: simple reason, that all the materia
contraction occurred long before any
financial distress was felt, and tha
the contraction has at no time sine,
1867 been great enough to accoun
for the low ebb of business, and tina
the panic of 1873 occurred when ther'
was more currency than in 1867 ant
1868, and that the large re-issuing du
ring 1873 and 1874 running the vol
ume of currency mp to 1872 million
did not avert the effects Of the panic
thus proving clearly that the pressure
was due to the collapse of credit and
the loss of confidence, and not in any
appreciable degree to contraction
The simple truth is that the contrary
opinion is an outgrowth of that par.
tisan reasoning which has an ear for
only one side Of question and fails
to see the whole truth or draw con.
clusions founded upon an cxamina.
tion of all the material facts in the
case.
PUBLIC CREDIT ACT.
The greenbAckers and democrats
make q combined howl over the
Strengthening Act of 1869 and the
Resumption act of 1876. The act to
strengthen the public credit was to
counteract the repudiating howl rails
ed in 1868. 1t did not, as claimed,
change the contract in one single case.
The act referred to WAS approved
March 18th 1869. After solemnly
pledging the faith of the United
States to the payment in coin of the
bonds and legal tender notes the act
dictinctly excepts all cases ",chere the
taac authorizing the issue of such obi
cations has expressly pror,ded that the
same may be paid in Ia,cful money, or
other currency than gold and siluer." :"
1t was while contending for this ex-
ception, against those who wanted to
declare all obligations payable in
coin, that Senator Morton made the
speech which Is now so often quoted
and falsely represented as being d.
rected against the act of 1869 as the
same finally passed Congress. No
grosser libel was ever uttered against
great and noble man, than is found
in this wilful perversion Of Morton's
speech. The truth ia the act passed
as amended and approved by him.
The act was passed to settle those
cases where the law was silent as to
the mode Of payment. Nor was a
point strained i'm the act of 1869, be-
cause up to short time before there
| never had been such a question rails
ed, the debates at the time, the sink
ing fund provision and the adver-
tisement Of the loan showing clearly
that there was no thought of paying
| anything but coin, except where 9TH
erwise expressly provided. The fact
is that until 1865 nobody ever men
toned or thought Of fdischarging gov
ernment promises to pay except in
coin and hence il was really no more
necessary to declare its obligations
payable in specie, than it now is for
the maker ofa note to declare it pay.
able in money. 1t would only be rec
essary to specify, in case payment
was to be made in something else =
Payment in lawful money was an ex-
ception to the uniform rule and hence
in these cases only, was it necessary
to make special provision to cover
the exception. The sinking fund pro-
vision in the first Legal Tender Act,
Feb. 25th, 1862, demonstrates the in
tent. That provision set apart the
residue Of the specie collected on GUS
toms, after paying interest, "to the
purchase or payment of one per cent
um of the entire debt of the United
States, (See page 46, Loans and the
Currency, lS4l to 1879 Now will
any man tell why it was provided in
the very act creating the first5 -2Obonds
that one percentum of the entire debt
should be paid in coin each year, if
those bonds were payable in lawful
money except where the law express
ly SO provided? There is no resist
ing the conclusion that, so far from
being iniquitous, the strengthening
act of 1869 was passed to meet the
doubt thrown upon the credit of the
government by the Dean-Pendleton
reputation scheme, that the intent of
the law was thereby declared with
out changing it and that as step in
refunding the debt at a lower rate of
interest it was wise measure. No
man can read up this subject fully
and intelligently and come to any
other conclusion.
RESUMPTION ACT.
The resumption act however is rep
resented as the sum of all villainies.
Let lis reason together. If the Uni
ted States is to pay its obligations &C.
cording to contract, instead of repu-
dating them it must reduce its inter.
est as low as possible. The only way
to do this is to make its credit good
by being both prompt and honest. 1t
can only be prompt and honest by
paying when due and paying what is
due. Steps had to be taken to so
raise government credit that it could
sell coin bonds at par for coin to re-
fund the matured and maturing debt.
To 60 on without taking the steps in
dicated was to continue 10 pay per
cent. interest on all the bonds, was to
continue discrediting its obligations
until the discounts would more than
equal the interest.
The republican party courageously
shouldered the responsibility of hon
est payment. The first step was to
boldly assert that the United States
could redeem it's obligations in coin
only, for to discharge them with o. her
promises would simply leave the new
promises tc pay" to be redeemed in
coin or repudiated. The second step
was to declare when the United States
notes should become payable or
redeemable not "swapable" for new
bills. What was the effect Of these
measures? why under the refunding
Act of july 14th, 1870, the govern
ment found itself able to sell its bonds
at par and above for gold, and that
too at reduced interest. Thus it got
the funds to meet the debt due and by
standing no shave it received as much
in value for its new bonds as it will
have to pay for them when they fall
due. This process has continued un-
til until the government can sell more
bonds than it has occasion to sell at
Az per cent. with accrued interest,
nor does il deliver them till paid for.
See Secy's Notes of Conference, page
4. He says:
tIn direct anwser TO the question II will be
perhaps sufficient for me to say that there are no
subscriptions, but never issue the honds until W.
get the money. An arrangement has been made
with the Bank Of Commerce, In New York, BY
coin drafts for bonds, and when the coin ia paj,l
into the Treasury the bonds are sent to the per-
SON"
| If the Resumption Act is complied
with the whole debt can be readily
funded at per cent. Under an op-
posite policy, however, the interest
would not be less than per cent,
and nobody knows how much more.
This would leave the annual interest
at tho old figure l20,OOO.0OO, at 4 per
cent. it would be but 8O,000,OOO, or q
difference annually Of 40, GOO, 600, which
in fifty years, the lowest average date
greenbackers would fix for paying
the debt would make the sum Of q.
OOO, 600, 600 more interest TO be paid on
the greenback plan than on the repnb.
lican plan. II is dra " ing il very mild
to call the rate g per cent. on the tao.
les which the greenbackers blame
the republican party for not pursuing
namely, indefinite suspension. Wei
then leaving the legal tenders to run
: ON unredeemed and irredeemable in.
to the far future and hence bearing