The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1879-09-03


when Gen. James A. Garfield of Ohio spoke.
William H. Plummer, Esq, chairman of the
Republican City Committee, called the meet
ing to order and introduced as presiding officer
the Hon. w. W. Thomas who said:
Ladies and gentlemen,-You will please ac-
cept my thanks for the honor done me in Sc
lecting me to preside over this meeting. L
| consider 1t an honor to occupy any position
among those who are fighting for an honest
dollar. (Applause.) | now have the honor
| and pleasure of introducing Gen. James A.
! Garfield of Ohio.
Gen Garfield came forward and was received
with a storm of applause.
SPEECH OF GEN. GARFIELD.
Mr.. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,-I am
obliged to say that am suffering with Sc
we're cold but this admirable hall may serve to
help me overc ONE it. l take it that no fair
man in Maine will deliberately lie about any
one, but the Greenback party in its platform
made some remarkable misstatements of facts.
The first declaration Of that platform reads:
The increase of the coin bonded indebted
ness of the government in time of profound
peace from 81 100 GOO 600 in 1865 to 50, O00OO-
| 900 in 1879, is fact SO startling as to alarm
every friend of the country.
Now there are two gross misstatcments here
In the first place the bonded interest debt in
1866 is understated 81 200 00O 000and the bond
ed interest debt in 1879 overstated some $780,
100000. The truth is that the Republican
party has reduced the bonded debt
since 1865 by S54O,OOO,OO0. (Applause.)
Again. the interest to be paid annually has
been reduced to $S3,000,00O against more than
twice that amount in 1865. (Applause.) When
the war ended we stood appalled, at the amount
of our debt, which timid men said could not
be paid and which wicked men said ought to
be repudiated. But the great, strong, vic
torious nation came forward and took up that
enormous burden and has gone on paying it,
and will pay it to the last dollar. (Applause.)
l read in the Greenback platform clause
which reatfirms the platform adopted last year,
and read again, on the other side, that the
platform last year denounced the policy of re-
sumption, and said that resumption could not
be accomplished, but the plain answer to that
is that has been done. (Applause)
The moment the Government redeemed its
great promises, all other promises between man
and man, in the eyes of business men, became
more certain of fulflment, and all over this
country confidence was restored, business re-
vived, and our financial prospects were bright
ened in a remarkable degree. In one hundred
days aftergesumption we sold $3.50, 000, 900 of
four per cent. bonds and redeemed and cam
celled a like amount of six per cents, saving
the Government over $6 100000 per annum by
Cne Cra0SacUlOn. Slnce lne uay UnaU GeHordl
Hayes was inaugurated as President, the re-
funding operations have saved the Govern
ment $14, 250, 600 per annum i'll coin of interest
ON our public debt, showing that in the long
run honesty is cheap and dishonesty is costly.
Before that time the Government was the
great competitor in the way of private citizens
who wanted to borrow money. While the
Government was paying six per cent. you and
could not borrow money for less than eight
or nine Now that the Government has re-
sr
out of the way as a competitor, and private
business gets its loans on more favorable terms.
Everywhere throughout the country the in
spiration of this great act of national faith is
felt, and business has commenced solidiy to
revive. The iron interest was more depressed
than any other; our mills and furnaces were
silent; all the industries that depend upon iron
were paralyzed by the great shock of 1873; but
the moment the Government had shown its
faith in itself and fulfilled its promises to the
people, business began to feel through all the
nerves and arteries of trade the reviving life,
and to-day there is not a leading iron mill in
Ohio that is not running with its full force, land
few of them can keep up with the orders now
coming in. The signs of business in all de-
partments are most hopeful There is only
one bad sign, and that is that so many intelli-
gent men in the United States are willing to
put power into the hands of a party that desires
to tear all this down and plunge us back
into the uncertainties of irrredeemable paper
business sky, there is no reason why we may
not go forward to the uplands of prosperity.
We have suffered heavily in these last six
years. Laboring men have suffered; all have
everywhere hopeful. These gentlemen tell us
they want to get back to the times of high
prices and lively business. War can get us
back to high prices, but honest trade cannot
and ought not to bring the high prices of war.
One hundred dollars will bny more of the nee
essities of life to-day in the United States than
it would have bought for any previous period
for twenty years. 1 do not make this state
ment at random. / make it as the result of |
careful study of the history of prices. A months
labor will buy more to-day than it would have
bought in any day for twenty years.
But we have a class of men who think that |
we can make money easily by means of a
printing press. Up to 1862 it was believed |
that the only Solid substantial money was one |
of gold and silver, and paper money based on
and convertible into gold and silver. Starting
from this point we find party that says that |
this idea, that existed from the foundation Of
the government down to 1862, was false. The
modern Greenback doctrine is simply this,
that money is just what the law declares to be |
money; that money is the creature of law, |
and that Congress has the power to say |
that a piece of paper is dollar
and it is dollar. Now, gentlemen, 1 believe
1 have fairly stated this doctrine, which if |
true should revolutionize the world. If true,
you ought never to vote another Republican
ticket. Let us examine it. The question is,
can Congress make values by its fiat? When
the constitution was framed two great rights
were provided for, the right to life, and the |
right to property. The trainers of the consti- |
tuition saw that we were to be an industrial
people, and that we were to be trading |
people, and that we should need a standard to |
measure value; and Congress was empowered |
to coin gold and silver; Congress was empow-
cred also to fix a standard of weights and |
measures. Now, can Congress create length? |
No. it only subdivides it and names it. Nothing |
in this universe can measure length that has |
not got length in it. But some one will ask, |
"Mr. Garfield, is it necessary that your yard |
stick be of gold?'' No, but it must be of some |
thing that has length it. So a measure of |
values must possess value. And when Con-
gress came to fix the standard of value, it took
gold and silver. and found its weight and fine
ness, and said that SO much of them would be |
worth SO much, and called it q dollar. They |
created the name, but not the value, and they |
said eve will put the stamp of the govern
ment on it, which shall fix to it the faith of
the nation that it is of such weight and fine
ness" Now, the Greenbacker says that the
stamp is the value. The great test is this
Take gold or silver and melt it, and, blackened
as it will be, it will be worth 500 if you took
800 to melt up (applause.) But the Green
piece of paper not worth a quarter of cent; L
can take this to a hardware store and get me
good ak for it. Is there no value here?" Well, |
suppose you had certificate of the county
clerk that you owned 100 acres of land would
that be farm? Qaughter.) Can you raise
corn on it? Uaughter.) Suppose you had
deed for farm of 100 acres that the land sur
veyor could find but 80 acres in, what then?
You might say that your deed called for 100
acres, but no matter for that, your land
wouldn't answer. Uaughter) If you needed
more land here, would it help you to have
law passed to have all deeds to land surren-
dered, and where they read 100 acres, write in
200 acres? Uaughter) This greenback reads:
"The United States promises to pay the bearer
one dollar" All, this is quite another affair;
it is your deed for dollar, but it is not the
dollar itself. (Applause) But the Green
hacker will say the United States can initiate
the currency and make it legal tender; but
would this be honest? No, fellow citizens, God
alone can create value (Applause) What
fools the pioneer fathers of Maine were that
instead of working out their homes, they did
not buy printing press and print themselves
rich. (Iaughter) No, the homes of Maine
were made in the only way that values can be
work, and he who would teach you
to attempt to gain value in any other way is
trying to show you how to be rascals.
Taking 1861 as one shore and 1879 as the
other, there rolls between seventeen hot and
terrible years. during which our money depre-
ciated till at one time it was worth but 30 cents
on the dollar, and this because of the lack of
specie payment. The poor man wants dol