Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1878-05-22
OF SENATOR HARRIS
In Favor of the Repeal OF the Resump-
item Act, Urging Tariff for Reve-
nue. Only, and Demanding an
Income Tax.
Important Statements and Statistics
Discouraging Effect OF Radical
Glass Legislation Upon the
Business Interests Of
the Country.

the fourteenth, In favor OF the h'h GU i0p0"i
the resumption act
Mr.. Harris-Mr. President, the act APP
proved January 18th, 1875, requiring the re-
sumption of specie payments on and after
the first day of January, 1879, Is one OF a
series of measures which seemed to have been
conceived, perfected and enacted for the sole
purpose of fostering and promoting the in
terests of capital at the expense OF the labor
and productive industries of the country.
The act approved February %, 1867. which
authorized the issue Of legal-tender notes
and the issue and sale of certain bonds of the
United States, may be assumed to be the be-
ginning of our bonded debt; and IN order
that the nights of the government and Its
creditors may be the better understood | will
quote at some length the act under which
the bonds were issued and sold. Among
other things it provides
THAT such notes [greenbacksl herein au-
thorized shall be receivable in payment Of
all taxes, internal duties, excuses. debts, and
demands OF every KIND due to the United
States, except duties on imports, and OF all
claims and demands against the United
States of every kind whatsoever, except for
interest on bonds and notes. which shall be
paid In com; and shall also be lawful money
and a legal tender in payment of all debts,
public and private, within the United States,
except duties on imports and interest as
aforesaid. And any holders of said United
States notes [greenbacksl, deposlting any
sum not less than fifty dollars, or some null
tiple of fifty dollars, with the the treasurer of
the United States, shall
receive in exchange therefor duplicate GER
ti6cates of deposit, one OF which may be
transmitted to the'secretary of the treasury,
who shall thereupon issue to the holder an
equal amount of bonds of the United States
bearing interest at the rate
of six per cent. per annum, and payable
twenty years from the date thereof.
''And such United States notes [greenbacksl
shall be received the same as coin at their par
value in payment for any loans that may be
hereafter sold or negotiated by the secretary
of the treasury, and may be reissued from
time to time, as the exigencies OF the public
interest may require.
By the express words of this act every bond
issued by the government which did not by
its terms stipulate for payment in coin was
payable In legal-tepder notes; and the right
to redeem the fve-twenty bonds, ''at the
pleasure of the United States, after five years
from the date thereof" in legal-tender notes,
is too clear to admit of doubt or debate.
This was the well and universally under
stood law of the contract under which and the
acts amendatory thereof the fve-twenty bonds
were issued, amounting to more than one
billion five hundred million dollars, and paid
for by the bondholders in greenbacks at par
when the coin value of the greenbacks ranged
from fifty to seventy-fve cents In the dollar.
By this act the government proposed to ex-
change these bonds for greenbacks at par,
binding itself to pay interest upon the bonds
in coin at the rate of six per cent. per an
mum, for five years, but in express terms re-
backs at the expiration OF i've years from
their respective dates. When this PROPOSE
ton was accepted the greenbacks paid and
the bonds received, the contract was COM
plete, and all that the bondholders had a
right to demand or expect, all that the high
est and most delicate sense Of honor and
good faith could require of the government,
was to perform its obligations according to
the letter and spirit of the contract.
Why did the government reserve the night
to redeem these bonds at the expiration OF
FIVE years from their date? Such reservation
certainly made them less desirable as an in
vestment and diminished their market value
is 70 &c found ff n lie fact that It put It in the
power of the government to stop the interest
upon this immense debt at that time, and
thereby save to the Taxpayers of thescountry
over ninety million dollars per annum.
But instead of relieving the staggering and
almost PROSTATE industries of the country OF
this great burden by the exercise of this re-
served right to redeem these bonds, under the
false pretense of SETTLING conflicting ques-
lions and interpretations Of the laws under
which the bonds were issued, and without the
slightest benefit or advantage to the govern
ment, and wholly without consideration good
or valuable, the act approved March Is, 1869,
was passed, which provides:
THAT in order to remove any doubt as to
the purpose OF the government to discharge
all just obligations to the public creditors,
and to settle conflicting questions and inter-
pretations of the laws by virtue of which such
obligations have been contracted, it is hereby
provided and declared that the faith of the
United States is solemnly pledged to the pay
ment in coin or its equivalent of all obliga-
lions of the United States not bearing inter
est, known as United States notes, and of all
the interest bearing obligations,
except In cases where law authorizing the
issue OF any such obligation has expressly
provided that the same may be paid in lawful
money or other currency than gold and silver
But none of said interest-bearing obligations
not already due shall be redeemed or paid
before maturity, unless at such time United
States notes shall be convertible into coin at
the option of the holder, or unless at such
time bonds of the United States bearing a
lower rate OF interest than the bonds to be
redeemed can be sold at par in coin. And the
United States also solemnly pledges its faith
to make provision at the earliest practicable
period for the redemption of the United
States notes IN coin"
Now, was it true that there were, or could
have been, conflicting questions and inter-
pretations" as to the spirit, meaning and
legal effect of the act of February 25, 1862 ?
The ingenuity of the human brain. however
severely taxed, cannot employ language more
explicit and plain than the language of that
act; its intent and meaning is so
obvious as TO positively exclude all ambiguity
or uncertainty. The total absence of neces-
slty for legislation to explain that act, or set
Mt !
forces us to the conclusion that the sole object
and purpose of the act of March Is, 1869,
was to change the contracts which had been
made under the act of 1862 and which by
their express words were payable in legal
tender notes, into contracts which deprived
the government of the right to redeem the
five-twenty bonds in five years except in coin,
and which compels it to pay to the bondhold-
ers coin instead of greenbacks upon at least
three-fourths of the public debt. There are
reasons, abundant and potent, why the bond
holders should have desired to change their
contracts which were payable in non-interest-
bearing greenback to contracts payable In
coin, because such change must greatly en-
hance3the market value of their bonds.
Butlexactly why the government should
desire. or consent to such change is what the
overtaxed and toiling millions of the country
cannot so readily comprehend.
Yet, so far as an act of congress could SUBJ
stitute the one contract for the other it was
done, the profits of which to the bondholders
and the increased burdens to the taxpayers
may be safely estimated at not less than five
hundred million dollars.
But this attempted change of contract, ex-
listing only in legislative enactment and rest
ing upon no consideration, good or valuable,
was not beyond the reach of repeal. There
fore the bondholders did not feel entirely Sc
cure in the immense profits promised by the
change.
Hence it was followed by the act approved
July IA, 1870, which authorized the issue and
sale of one billion FIVE million dollars of new
bonds, principal and interest payable in coin,
two hundred millions of which are to bear in
terest at the rate of FIVE per cent; three hun
dred millions at the rate of four and one-half
per cent; and the balance at the rate of four
per cent. per aDnum; these bonds to be sold
for coin at not less than par, and the coin to
be used in the redemption of the fve-twenty
bonds, or the new bonds to be exchanged,
dollar for dollar. for the fve-twenty bonds;
and this, too, when it was known that gov
States, counties, cities, private cor
poratious, and the whole people were more
with debt and exorbitant taxation
than ever before, and when the contraction