Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1878-09-13
Democratic Hypocrisy.

Democratic Hypocrisy.
SOME time during the last session of
Congress, Mr.. Ewing, of Ohio, intro
duced bill to retire the circulating
notes of the National Banks and for
other purposes. This bill was referred
| to the Committee on Banking and Cur
rency, and was amended and reported.
On the 10th of June, Mr.. Ewing moved
that the rules be suspended and that
this bill be passed, but the motion was
rejected--yeas 10, nays ia. As a
matter of current political history this
bill and this vote have more than ordi-
nary interest. We invite careful read
| ing of its provisions. The first read as
| follows:
That as soon as may be practicable after the
| passage of this act the Secretary of the Treas
| ury shall cause to be prepared an issue of
| Treasury notes equal in amount to the crcu-
| lation Of the National Banking Associations
on the lst of February, A. d. 1878. being the
sum of S322,O19,SlO which shall be used In the
| redemption and retirement, in the way herein
after provided, of the circulating notes OF the
| National Banks; which Treasury notes shall
| be in the following form: "WAsHINGTON, d.
| C.-The United States of America are in
debted to the bearer in the sum of - dol
L
| the United States, and countersigned by the
! Register of the Treasury, or their signatures
| be thereto engraved; and shall contain such
| devices and superscriptions as the Secretary
of the Treasury shall direct; and the denomi-
/ nations of such notes and the general simili-
| tude thereof shall conform, as nearly us may
! be- to those of the United States notes com
| monty known as legal-tender notes. They
shall be receivable in payment of all taxes,
eXcises, debts and demands of every kind due
/ tf hl nj tp1 Stotn nd 4
| as hereinafter provided, and of all claims and
demands against the United States, except for
| obligations made payable in coin by existing
| laws, and shall be received by the Secretary OF
the Treasury at par for the per cent. bonds
| of the United States authorized to be issued
bu the act entitled " An act to authorize the
refundlng of the national debt,n approved
July II, 1870.
This section, it will be seen, author.
lied the issue of sum ofnon-legal-ten.
der Treasury notes equal to the sum OF
all the outstanding National Bank notes.
Mr.. Ewing and all the other Democrat
jc Greenback men, when brought face
to face with the Constitution and the
law, were forced to recognize that Con-
gress had no legal power to authorize
the issue of legal-tender notes in excess
Of the limit of 100000, ,000 Thus
forced to recognize this total absence
of power, they proposed the next best
thing, and that was the issue of non
le9al-tender notes, the legal power to
issue which is hardly questioned. Other
sections of the bill, after providing for
details us to the engraving, etc., of the
notes, directs the Secretary, as the bank
notes are surrendered, TO apply the
new Treasury to the purchase of the )
per cent. bonds, or to purchase gold
and silver coin to redeem such bonds.
Any bank so desiring may receive
Treasury notes in exchange for its 6
per cent. bonds at the full market value
of such bonds. The bill as a substitute
for the non-legal-tender character of
the new issue of Treasury notes pro-
vided that they should be redeemable
at par in legal-tender notes at the of
flee of any Treasurer of the United
| States.
For this bill nearly every Democrat
in the House, except those who lodged,
voted, and the significance of the bill
and of the vote may be thus stated:
l. That it is an unanimous confession
by the Democrats in Congress that
there is no constitutional power to is
sue any legal-tender paper money in ex-
cess of that authorized in time of war for
| warpurposes and under the overwhelm-
ing necessities of the national defense.
This confession and frank acknowledge
ment of the want of power to issue
legal-tender promissory notes of neces-
sity includes the concession that the
power to issue fiat-money is wholly in
admissible.
2. 1t was a concession and an admis-
sion that, to retire the circulating
notes of the National Banks and sup
ply their place with Treasury notes of
equal value with the greenbacks, it is
not necessary that the new issue shall
be legal-tenders. The bank notes are
not legal-tender, but, being redeemable
in legal-tender, circulate at the same
general value.
3. That if the fiat-money people, or
those who want more greenbacks is
sued, expect or belief that the Demo
cratic Congress will ever authorize the
issue of any paper money of a legal
tender character in any form, they are
doomed to disappointment. This is
toreShadowed in the Ohio Democratic
platform, in Ewing's latest speeches,
and in Turman's speech, where the
purpose of amending the Constitution to
enable legal-tender paper to be issued
is foreshadowed. Every man knows
that no amendment of the Constitution
to make paper money legal-tender
can be adopted within less than five
years, if ever. The Democratic party,
therefore, is practicing a fraud upon
the credulous Nationalists and fat
money people by pretending to favor
legislation for an immediate new issue
of paper legal-tenders, when that
party knows full well that no such leg
islation is possible without an amend
ment of the Constitution. Chtcaqo
Tribune.