Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1878-02-02
STRONG POINTS
From the Great Financial speech
of NLr. VoOrhies.

| 1t appears, therefore, that gold
even gold, the very god of a fierc
idolatry in our midst at this time
has committed the moral sin of in
fiation, and has been cursed and os
tracised on that account by tn
usurers and money-changers as wei
as its more modest companions, sill
yer and paper. And if now bOtl
the precious metals threatened t.
Increase beyond the wishes and in
terest of this class they would bt
earnestly enquiring and schemine
into some plan by which they could
demonetize gold and silver alike
and substitute diamonds or some
other Scarcer or more difficult com.
modify to obtain as the basis of spe-
Gle payments and the money in
which all debts due to them should
be paid.
There remains, however one other
argument in connection with the al
legged Over-production and initiation
of silver which requires attention.
In the name of good faith it has been
urged here in this body and else
where that, although silver is speci-
fed as plainly as gold in all our fl
nancial legislation, yet it was pro-
duced in such meager quantities at
the time our national debt was Gre
ated that the purchasers of our bonds
could not have reasonably supposed
they We're ever TO reeeiveit in pay
ment of the same, Notwithstanding
the law expressly said they should.
In other words, it is an argument to
release the bondhOlders from the
absolute definitely written words of
the law on the ground that he could
not fOresee that the Government
would ever have silver enough to
fulfill the law. This is the highest,
bOldest note of reputation ever
heard in this country; an open adj
mission of the law and an open,
square demand for its violation.
No facts or surrounding circum-
stances at the time the contract was
made can for a moment justify such
a fragrant abrogation of its most eX-
plicit terms, but even if outside con-
ditiOns, not expressed in its face,
could be set upon now to defeat it,
/ assert that the conditions alleged
by the advocates of this argument
never existed at all. | assert that
when the law for the payment of
the public debt was construed by the
act of March, 1869, to mean pay
ment in gold and silver both, the
of our silver mines for
that year was 81, ,625, 900, and has
averaged that
1854. 1t is cOntended that the pur-
chasers of our bonds overlooked,
when they were first issued, the
feeble supply Of silver. Did an an
nual average production of nearly
twelve millions for the space of five
years preceding the act of March,
1869, likewise escape their attention,
when they were framing that act in
their own interest and to suit them
selves? But again, by the refund
ing act Of July Ii, 1870, authorizing
the issue of coin bonds, making there
by a new contract of that date, it
was agreed that the bonds issued by
virtue of that act should be made
payable in silver as well as gold.
The entire movement demonetiZ-
ing silver is to be explained solely
and alone on the principle of con-
and this brings me, in this
to consider more fully
that destructive principle, and es-
pecially to examine the policy and |
the effects of the law of Jan. II, 1875,
for the resumption of specie pay |
ment by an enforced contraction of |
the enon-interest-bearing legal-tender |
of the country. The law |
Of February, 1875, fixing the day, |
now less than a year in advance, |
when the greenback shall also per- /
sh, are twin monsters of evil, born |
Of the same parentage ard linked |
together for the destruction of all |
save gold. In their discus
sion, therefore, they are entitled toa
Oint recognition.
in the entire catalogue of crimes
against human society not one can
De found so awful in all its cOnse-
luences, both immediate and re-
mote, as a Government commits
when it deliberately destroys the
money of its own citizens. Wher-
ever in all the regions OF time such
measures have been accomplished,
he horrors of history have taken
place. No shrinkage in the amount
IF money, no contraction of the cur
,ency in the hands Of the people was
ever enforced by law to any cOnsid-
.rabIe extent, except amidst broken
ives, ruined hopes, despair, lost
lonor, and all the vices springing
rom the lowest depths of poverty
md human misery. The worst in
gredients of war, pestilence and fam
ne all flow from the act of Gov
,rnment violently tearing from the
lands of the laboring masses the
money they so much need. Murder,
heft, robbery, prostitution, forgery,
and fraud of every
lue and mien curse the land that is
deprived of a full and sufficient cir
.ulating medium on which to give
to its tOiling men and
The social statistics of
will show that wherever
he supply of money has been scant
md labor poorly paid or left entirely
die, there the gallows-tree has borne
most frequently its horrid burden
here the jails and the penitentiaries
nd all the haunts of infamy have
Deen most crowded. The we'll
lothed and well-fed Pharisee may
thank God that he is
,etter than such as these, but he is
lot. When the strong hand of the
is engaged in abolish
ng money, and thus interposing be-
Ween the labOring-man and the Ia
and their last chance
or bread by honest work, their sins
or seif-preservatiOn are less Odious
0 their merciful Father than the
prayers of the usurerS who have
lriVen them to ruin.
1t is said in highly intelligent
quarters that at this hour there are
hree millions of our own people un-
who have no other de-
,endence for food and shelter than
he labor of their hands, and one
lalf of whom are now tramping
rom place to place for crumbs of
harity. Pitiable and dangerous
pectacle! 1t never happened be-
ore in this land of bounteOus ma
ure, nor would it now but for the ;
act that in these later days class {
las arisen in our midst which is ben
fitted by the scarcity of money, and
he consequent destruction of all
hose industries which afford en-
,lOyment to labor. Nor does this (
rightful spectacle appeal alone to
mr. sympathy with human misery,