The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1879-08-07
Guarding Our Neighbor from Harm.

Iuo L HESS nau occasion the Olnpf DAY 10
expose the misrepresentation of Thomas
Jefferson's views made by the Argus. But that
sin is not original with the argus. 1t was
behind time, as usual. A few sentences of
the mutilated extract it made from one of
Jefferson'c letters has been in type in the
Ne,c Era for months. 1t is there now, that
paper not having honesty enough to with
draw it. 1t can call John Sherman knaye,
but it cannot, or does not, refrain from a
knavish act itself. For long time it kept
in type forgery on the New York World.
1t has, we believe, turned that over to the
Leader but not with its good will, rumor
says.
The PRESS purposes to call attention to
one or two more misleading extracts from
the recorded opinions of dead statesmen
quoted by the Nelo Era as evidence that
their authors believed in the Greenback
doctrine. The disingenuousness of those
who republish them has been pointed out by
an eminent Western statesman in an article
contributed to the atlantic Monthly, but
the exposure will bear repetition.
The first extract is from an essay by Ben
jamin Franklin, in which he declares in ia
vor of bills of credit being made legal
tender. But the Era does not inform us
that the excerpt is from youthful essay by
Franklin, written in 1920, when he was but
twenty-five years of age; that, unlike Green
back editors, he grew wiser as he grew old
MI :, rlx ,,1 hat
1888, after long experience as statesman,
economist and publicist, he wrote these
words:
II lament with you the many mischiefs, the
injustice, the corruption of manners &c, that
attend deprecated currency. 1t is some con-
ISOLATION to me that washed my hands of that
evil by predicting it in Congress, and proposing
means that would have been effectual to pre-
vent if they had been adopted"
Thusit was that Franklin strove to un-
do the mischief of his youthful essay.
The second excerpt published by the Ne,o
Era as q defense of Greenback doctrines is a
long extract, spattered with stars, from a
speech delivered in the United States Senate
by John G. Calhoun. The latter part of the
extract, as containing the gist of the ques-
ton, we reprint:
81 now undertake to affirm and without
the least fear that I can be answered, that a
paper issued by the government, with the SIM
pie promise to receive it for all dues, leaving
its creditors to take it, or gold or silver at their
option would, to the extent it could circulate,
form q perfect paper circulation which could
not be abused by the government; that it
would be as uniform in value as the metals
themselves and shall be able to prove that it
is within the Constitution and powers of Con-
gress to use such paper in the management
of its finances, according to the most rigid rule
OF constituting the Constitution"
From this it will be seen that Calhoun eX-
pressly rejected the fundamental doctrine of
the, Greenbackers, that Treasury notes
should be made legal-tender; for he insisted
that the Government creditors should have
the option between paper, gold or silver.
Furthermore, lie would not even compel
them to take silver, but would give them
gold if they preferred it. Again he insisted
on restriction of this paper currency to
an amourt that would float at par with
coin. What a healthy Greenbacber John G.
Calhoun was! fr
An author not quoted by the Neto Era-
perhaps because the quotation is genuine
and does not misrepresent the author-is
Sir Archibald Alison, to whose writings the
soft-money men are fond of referring Of
Alison it is sufficient to say that he knew no
more about the currency question than the
Argus does about the financial opinions of
Thomas Jefferson.
This exposure of the disingenuousness of
Greenback papers is for admonition as we'll
as reproof. We wish to guard the argus
against again making itself ridiculous by
claiming Calhoun as a Greenbacker, as it
did Jefferson. And we are particularly anx-
ious that it shall not fall into the sin prac-
ticed by some of its Western Greenback
brethren of emitting from Calhoun's speech
the words ''leaving its creditors to take it
lthe treasury motel Or gold or silver at their