The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1879-10-11
THURMAN on SHERMAN.
Extract from the Ohio Senator's CoIumb,


The Republican speakers and Republican
press are growing Justify about what they call
the resumption OF specie payments Behold
say they, we are on the eve OF prosperity; re-
sumption brought this about aud we brought
about resumption, ergo, you should all stip-
port the Republican party. My friends, it re-
quires no great powers OF analysis to explode
this sophistry.
In the first place, have we specie payments?
Do any of our debtors pay us In specie unless
the debt be s. or lessg Do the banks
pay their creditors in specie9 Try
and see il they do, Collect as many bank
bills as you can and assort them. Out Of
$4,000 you will have probably not over 500
on the national banks OF Columbus. The re-
naming 80, 500 are OF banks scattered all over
the republic. To present them at the banks
that issued them would require you to travel
dollars of expense. 10 pfsesp. them at the
Treasury Department At Washington would
cost less, bhty yet worid be onerous and expen-
tlve SO yoti abandon the idea Of doing either
You have SCOOP Columbus bills You present
them at the banks and demand specie. Do you
get it? Not unless the banks see At to give it
to you. Our Columbus banks are very accom-
modating, and have no doubt that, in case
of necessity, they would oolige you by giving
yon specie for your 900 Of theif notes. But
they Are not Obliged to do so, and were you TO
present 5000 or 10000 of their bills for re-
demption they would not do sos They would
pay you in the much-derided greenback. Then
what would you do with the greenbacks II
you wanted specie for them? Present
them to any Federal officer in Column
bus for redemption? II you did he would
smile at your ignorance, and politely tell you
that the qoverntrent did not redeem green
backs in Columbus; that II you waited specie
Tor them you must carry or send them TO Tire
city of New York and present them TO the
Assistant Treasurer of the United States.
Well, you can't afford 70 incur that trouble, ex-
pense and loss, and 30 you conclude to keep
your greenbacks. Why, what does the Secretary
tell us in the speeches that he is delivering
through the country; In order TO illustrate,
suppose; the honesty OF the Presidents civil
service fules? Does he tell us that the Govern
ment is redeeming greenbacks in specie? Far
from it. He tells us that comparatively few
greenbacss are presented for redemption. Our
so-called specie payments, therefore, are no
specie payments at all. Neither individuals,
banks, nor the Government make payments
in specie. Paper money, when undoubtedly
good, is so much more convenient than specie
that it keeps specie cut OF circulation. In no
country that uses small paper money can there
be a. specie circulation, except small change
In England and France there is veritable
spa,ie payment Debts OF large as well as
small amount are often paid In specie. But
in those countries there are no small notes,
and hence large proportion OF the money in
circulation is specie. In our country we have
small notes of both the Government and the
banks, and hence we have no specie in circula-
ton worth mentioning, except our subsidiary
coins of half dollars and less.
But, while we have no specie payments, &C
curately speaking, | admit that our paper
money has been brought to d par with specie
OF the sacrifices sufsesEs. By she people, In or
der to bring this result about OF the shrinkage
of all values, the paralysis of oil industries,
the thousands of laborers thrown out of en-
ployment, the bankruptcies amounting to hun
dreds of millions of dollars, shall not speak
to night Ii there is any one here who thinks
that we have not paid dearly for the whistle,
will not, tonight, attempt to disturb his belief
But when the Secretary OF the Treasury per
ambulates the COUNTRY, boastingo f the achieve
ment o; bringing greenbacks to par with
coin it is not improper to point out to him the
graveyards through which we have passed in
our dreary march to this result. And when he
claims that this contamination was brought
about by the Resumption act, and his execution
of it, it is eminently proper TO show him how
baseless is his claim, how hollow is his pre-
tension.
There are various causes that have operated
70 bring our paper money to par with specie,
and among them the Resumption act is the
least Had that act never been passed, and
had Congress authorized what the Secretary
of the Treasury, without authority OF law, now
permits, the receipt of greenbacks in payment
Of customs duties, they wonld have been at
par with specie year at least before the time
fixed for resumption by the Resumption act
When that act was before the Senate moved
an amendment providing for the receipt Of
greenbacks in payment Of customs duties. The
Republicans voted it down. / said it was
worth more than all the provisions in the act
Ny opinion was treated with silent contempt,
for the bill had been concocted in caucus, and
the Republican Senators would not debate it,
Time has proved that my Judgment was cor
rect With all the machinery Of the Resump-
ton act, and Its cost to the people, the Secre-
tary Of the Treasury found himself compelled
to receive, in plain violation Of law. the green
back in payment of the duties.
l have said that had the Resumption act
never been passed, greenbacks would have
| reached par with coin. 1t would have been
through great suffering, as 1t has been through
| great suffering, aggravated by that act but II
would certainly have come. I.f
| About every twenty years we have CONNER
| cial revulsion which, for brevity, we call q
| panic when the country wakes up TO the fact
that, owing to an imprudent extension of credit
| or bad legislation or both, it is not able to pay
its debts on demand. A long period Of suffer
mg generally five or six years, ensues, and
then, having reached the bottom, any change
must necessarily be for the better, and bust
| ness begins to revive. Specie payments are re-
sumed, as it is called that u.s. paper money and
! specie come to par 1t is not this resumption,
| 30 called, that produces revival of business,
| but it Is the revival of business that produces
the resumption. In 1887 one of these panice
occurred In five or six years there
sstar, indebtedness being in a great
measure liquidated, or wiped out by
the Bankrupt law OF 1S4l, business be-
| gan to revive, and, as consequences, we had
what was called resumption Of specie pay
| ments In 1857 we had another panic. and it,
history would have been precisely that of the
| panic of 1887 had not the civil war occurred
In 1873 came the last panic, and, without any
Resumption act, five or six years, as in former
instances, would have brought us back to a
revival of industry and a resumption of specie
payments, so-called If l understand one OF
| the speeches of the Secretary of the Treasury,
he admits that the panic of 1878 made resump-
ton possible. II 30, where is the merit Of the
Resumption act which was not passed until
Jan. IA, 1875? agree that resumption neces-
sariy followed the panic OF 1873, just as it fol
lowed the panic of 1887, without Resumption
act, bnt it took five or six years to resume, just
| as il took the same time after 1887.
But another cause has largely contributed to
our so-called resumption, and for this cause
our Republican rulers certainly claim no cred
| it. Owing to bountiful crops in America and
short crops in Europe for three years, the bal
ence of trade, instead of being against us, has
been largely in our favor; until at length, gold
| is being shipped, in large amounts, TO this
country to pay for bread.
Another cause that has facilitated the equal
ization Of paper and coin was the Democratic
measure Of remonetizing silver, which Preei-
dent Hayes vetoed, but which we passed over
his veto.
Still another cause was yhe Democratic bill
that put an end to the destruction of the green
back, for without the greenback in existence
neither Secretary Sherman nor the national