Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1879-10-09


bank notes YOU tender him. That is all
you will get there. You commence
then seriously inquiring where you can
get the specie with which to make spe-
Gle payment to your neighbor, who is
still waiting. | will tell you how you
can get it. There is a place in the city
OF New York where, if you present the
right amount OF greenbacks, you can
lawfully demand coin. Ii you Will,
therefore, take the cars here, hire some
body to show you the place when you
reach there, and policeman
to protect you from being
robbed in the vicinity Of Wall
street, you will be in fair way to enjoy
the luxury Of making one specie pay
ment If you live 10 get home. What a
precious boon this is to you. How
thankful you ought to be that the cur
rency has been so contracted that yonr
property has shrGnk nearly One-half IN
value, and the very vitals OF all the
great Industries have been torn out IN
order to reach such glorious consumma-
ton. Yet, on this state OF facts, trl-
umphant shout is raised that specie pay
ments have been resumed, and Secre-
tary of the Treasury is running Tor the
Presidency on that assertion. A more
brazen and perfectly transparent false
hood has not, in my judgment, been
proclaimed in the nineteenth century.
There is simply no resumption at all,
and no such thing as specie payments
in existence in this country. There is
a bold and audacious attempt to deceive
the people on this point, but 1t Will ialI.
An Equalization of Currency.
will tell you what has been accom-
plished and all that has been accom-
plished. For many years the greenbacE
was quoted below coin in value, solely
from the fact that the government re-
fused to receive it for customs, and au-
thorized the bondholder to refuse 1t in
payment OF interest, and, after the act
of March, 1869, in payment also OF the
principal of the bonds.
1t was thus n currency stigmatlzed
from the beginning by the government
itself us an inferior currency, and It's
total destruction was demanded and
constantly threatened by very power
full class In this way it was kept below
par, Judged by the coin standard, but
within the last two years an aroused ana
indignant public opinion has secured for
il 4 different treatment at the hands oil
its enemies. Congress has, by law, put
a stop TO It's further destruction, and
thus declared that it shall remain the
money OF the country. This gave 1t
place in the estimation OF the world
it had not before possessed, and the
gold gamblers and jobbers in New York
began to abate their sneers, and to
wonder if what they had so long and so
felicitiously styled "rag baby had not
really become a giant in strength, and
made himself permanently at home IN
the United States. The polite mention
of dishonest money" and "greenback
lunatics" became less frequent in GER
tain quarters when the representatives
of the people declared that the green
back dollar should not be driven out
but should remain with the people.
And when in addition to this the aglta-
ton of the subject in Congress drove
the secretary of the treasury To announce
that at a given time he would receive
the greenback for custom duties, its
value rose to the equal OF any other
money in the world. II did SO because
the government which created it gave 1t
full credit. An equalization OF our
different kinds of currency has been
effected, and this fact, brought about
mainly bv a Democratic Congress, and
in spite OF Republican opositiOn, is now
seized upon, and declared to be specie
RESUMPTION accomplished by John Sher-
man, Wendell Phillips, who ought to
be an authority with Republicans, in a
letter from Boston on the 18th OF last
month, speaking of the present con-
dition of the Republican party, says:
81 have watched politics for 30 years,
and my judgment is that the fault OF
this party is one-third ignorance and
two-thirds knavery."
do not by any means quote this re-
mark of the great New England orator
as applicable to the masses OF the Re
publican party, but nothing could be
more faithfully descriptive OF those par
~ leaders who boast of having estaO-
lished resumption OF specie payments,
because the Democratic and National
voters OF the country have forced the
greenback to an equality with gold over
their most determined opposition. Ii
it should be claimed tor the Secretary
of the Treasury that he gave the coun-
try it's splendid wheat crops this year,
the claim would hardly be more alb
surdlv false than that he has restored
specie payments.
1t is well known, too, that the green
back could just as well have been placed
At Par with Coin
at the start, and kept there as it can be
now, if it had only been made full
legal tender. That was all that was
wanting, as Thaddeus Stevens
so clearly pointed out in 1862. In
the Franco-Gcrman war of 1870 and
1871, the paper circulation OF France
was declared a legal tender for all debt;
and although its coin reserve was less
than 2l per cent. for its redemption, yet
its largest depreciation was q per cent.
as compared with gold in November,
1871. According to SpOnord's Ameri-
can Almanac for 1878, most valuable
work, the notes of the Bank OF France
'remain still inConvertible, but are at
par with gold This would also have
been the DlSlOTN III lut Hlttllbd'h III
this country, during and since the war,
but for the fact that unpatriotic and
avariciouS capitalists determined TO Gre
ate deprecated currency, worth say
90 or 20 cents on the dollar, with which
to purchase Government bonds, dollar
for dollar, now to be paid by you in
coin at their face. 1t was vast scheme
of plumber, as was shown in Congress,
when the creation of our bonded debt
began.
But the equalization OF our currency
having at last taken place, and green
backs being equal in value to gold and
silver. and far better for the transaction
of business, see it sometimes asked
whether would now vote 10 repeal the
so-called resumption act. | embraced
every opportunity to vote for its repeal
in Congress, and know no reason why i
should not do so again. II is true ! at
tach less importance to the act now than
heretofore. Its power for evil has been
very great, but in the course OF events
il has become almost, il not quite, a
nullitv. Ii never had any power Tor
good, and has produced not a single
beneficent result
The Record Of John Sherman
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