The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1879-09-18
SPEECH
GEN. THOMAS EWING
AT eALL1poL1s, OHIO,
In Reply to the Speeches of Secretaries
Sherman and Schurz.

In Reply to the Speeches of Secretaries
Sherman and Schurz.
FELLOW CITIZENS: About ten days ago two
of the heads of departments at Washington
illustrated civil-seryice reform by taking the
stump in Ohio for the administration candidate
for Governor. They took my Lancaster speech
as q text and discussed such parts Of 1t as
they could most plausibly answer and lodged
the rest In the pauses between other and
previous engagements in the campaign have
examined their speeches and now reply to them
Mr. Schurz, who is relied on every year by
the Ohio Republicans to shoe Democrats into
Republican ranks by shouting sInfahonl" re-
peats with some variation his specious and ex-
travagant speech OF last year. He makes
frantic effort to prove taat the success Of the
Ohio Democracy means abandonment Of re-
sumption and return to paper money not Inn
tied by redeemability In coin, and, therefore,
unlimited in volume; and he thereupon pro-
ceeded to fight us on the ground on which lie
places us instead of on that which In fact we
occupy. Our platform says not word against
not q word for irredeemable cur
rency; not word for any increase Of the cur
rency, except that which will come from the
unlimited coinage of the cd silver dollar and
the issue Of certificates for silver bullion.
But Mr. Schurz says, though return to an
irredeemable currency is not expressly declared
for in the Democratic platform, it is necessarily
involved in the proposition to substitute legal
tender notes for national-bank notes. He rea-
sons thus: The United States now has the bur
den Of redeeming only the greenbacks in coin
the national banks having to lookf after the re-
demption Of their own paper. If we substitute
treasury notes for bank notes, we shall thus
double the burdens of resumption on the
United States. That involves doubling the coin
held for redemption purposes. But that coin
reserve can not be doubled, because the coin
can't be got; nor can it even be increased with
out increasing the public debt; and the Ohio
Democracy declare against any increase Of that
debt Hence, the substitution of treasury
notes for bank notes necessarily involves the
abandonment Of resumption and return to an
irredeemable paper currency.
This reasoning is the warp and woof Of the
fabric of MIR. Schurzs speech. 1t is utterly
fallacious and betrays an astonishing ignor-
ance either Of the laws affecting resumption, or
of the inteligenceof the people sought to be in
fluenced by his false and dazzling rhetoric
Listen, now, my fellow citizens, to this provision
of the act of Congress Of June 20, 1874, now in
force:
y "When the circulating notes of
any such National ::Bankingl Association, as
sorted or unassorted, shall be presented for
redemption in sums of 81, Loo, or any multiple
thereof, to the Treasurer of the United States,
the same shall be redeemed in United States
notes"
This is all the redemption there is, in fact Of
national bank notes, because each bank is only
bound to redeem its own notes, and no man can
collect out of the general circulation any con-
siderable number of the notes of the bank of
his immediate locality. Hence, the United
States, in effect alone redeems the bank notes,
and the same officer who redeems greenbacks
in coin redeems bank notes In greenbacks.
Now, suppose you want 81, 900 in gold; you can
only get it by presenting to the Treasurer or
ub-Treasurer Of the United States s., 900 in
greenbacks or in national-bank notes. 1t makes
no difference which you present Suppose, if
you present bank notes and demand coin, the
Treasurer should say: am not bound to
pay you in coin" Your answer will be:
Z Then pay me in greenbacks. And when he
hands you the greenbacks you will hand them
back and say: snow pay me in coin" Does
not the United States, therefore, in fact and eff
feet redeem equally greenbacks and bank notes
in coin? Is not the burden OF furnishing the
coin for the entire paper circulation wholly on
the United States? Would that burden be in
bank notes? There is no schoel-boy in Ohio
who, on reading that law, would not see that
both Mr.. Schurz and Mr.. Sherman are falsify-
ing the facts when they assert that the substi-
tuition of legal tenders for bank notes either
increases the burden Of resumption or impairs
its stability. Yet on this shallow invention is
built almost the whole structure of their argu-
ments on the money question against the posi-
ton of the Ohio Democracy.
The twin Secretaries make merry over my
speeches In 1875 and 1877 against resumption
in which declared that it was impracticable
and would result in 'a general massacre Of
business" | can read those speeches now
without being at all ashamed of the matter or
the manner Of them They were spoken from
conviction in view of the law and the situation
as then existing, and in no spirit of extrava-
gance or partisanship. Judging the law as it
stood, my criticisms were sound. But subse-
quent legislation greatly changed the scheme
Of resumption. As it originally stood, it pro-
vided for the total destruction of the green
back currency. So Mr.. Shsrman admitted on
the day he introduced the bill in the Senate
30 Mr.. Bristow declared in his report for 1875,
saying that @the faith of the Government now
stands pledged to the final redemption and re-.
moval from the currency of the country of the
legal-tender notes as fast as they shall be pre-
sented for redemption" So Mr. Morrill, de-
cIared in his report for 1876, in which he says
that "by the Resumption law Congress de-
clared in effect monetary system composed Of
coin. and nationa-lbank notes redeemable in
coin." The scheme, too, not only involved the
destruction of all the greenbacks, but also con-
templated redemption in gold alone-silver
having been stealthily dsmonetiZed in advance
of the Resumption law.
This was the programme of resumption
when discussed it in the speeches now criti-
cised and ridiculed by these gentlemen. But
since then, and as a result Of the agitation
against the scheme by the Western and South
ern Democracy, and in spite Of all the opposi-
ton of Sherman, Schurz & Co., the destruction
of the greenback money was stopped, and
s346, ,000, ,0O0 of it saved from destruction. To
the stoppage of this sweeping contraction OF the
currency the people owe the fact that their
business was only MANNED by the resumption
scheme-not amassacred" Moreover, silver
has been partially remonetized by the efforts
of the Western and Southern Democracy since
my predictions of the disastrous effect of the
resumption scheme. and its certain failure
enough being coined to protect the gold in the
treasury from being drained off after resump-
ton day.
In a debate in the Senate on May 2S, 1878,
Mr.. Blaine expressed the opinion common
among the friends and the enemies of forced
gold resumption when he said in the Senate
Undoubtedly, the whole question of resump-
ton has been changed by the coinage of the
silver dollar. The Secretary of the Treasury
may begin resumption to- morrow with $lO,-
100000 in silver, in my judgment, with perfect
safety. For resumption in silver you have go
plenty. For resumption in gold you have moi
got half enough" To this partial restoration
of silver and to three enormous crops in the
United States, accompanied by three failures o.
crops in Europe, which have turned the bal
ance of trade largely in our favor, Mir. Sher
man owes the fact that he has so far equaleG
his great prototype, Sir Robert Peel, in reaching
and maintaining resumption; while he has fal
surpassed him in the miseries inflicted on tht
people in his march to his bad eminence.
Not only has the Resumption law been made
by our efforts less disastrous by stopping thu
destruction of the greenback currency, and les
impractcable by the reconciliation OF silver
and the unexampled succession of large crop
at home and eager markets abroad, but it il
also to be borne Ill mind that the result attained
is not, in fact, resumption. We have equaliza
tion only, not resumption. Resumption, a
promised by its advocates and understood b,
the people, was the free circulation Of gold
silver and paper, and their interchange at al
the bank counters in the United States. The4
will be no resumption in fact until every banl
In the United States receives deposits of col
and paper without distinction, and pays de
mands in either form of money the holder ma,
prefer Such is not now the case Gold ia nj