The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1879-12-31

reading the statute:
Be enacted &c, That the Secretary of the
Treasury is hereby authorized to issue. IN q
sum OF sums not exceeding in the aggregate
500, 900 600 coupon or registered bonds OF the
/ United States, in such forms as he may pre-
| scribe, and of denominations of So or some
multiple of that sum, redeemable in coin OF
| the present standard value, at the pleasure OIL
| the United States, after ten years from the
date of their issue, and bearing interest, pay
| able semi-annually in such coin, at the rate OF
! 5 per cent, annum.
At the same time and largely by this means.
] the greenback currency, which was redeem
| able in coin. was left to decline in value for
the want of coin with which 10 redeem It
| Under the act of Congress of April Il, 1900.
| greenbacks were required II be retired by be-
| ing funded IN bonds at the ate OF not more
than $l00O0000 within the first six months
! from the passage of the act, and not more than
| 81 0U0,00e monthly thereafter.
| This process sent up the currency price OF
| new bonds of 1860 from Ill in April, 1860 to
| I22 IA April 1863, and gold went down from
| As per cent. premium in April, 1865, to 80 per
| cent in April, 1869. This was the result OF
| restored confidence in the rcdeemablllty OF
our promises, not by the process OF contrac-
| ton but through the faith of the people that
our promises would at some time be kept
| On the 4th of February, 1868, Congress sus-
pended further contraction OF the eurren-
| cy, and yet the premium on gold continued
| to sink from that time until reenbackerS
I
| 1879 The coin resources of the Government
| had been set apart under a legislative mort
| gage of our customs receipts tor the excld-
| sive benefits Of the bondhOlders, whose agree
| ment was to accept gree backs for much the
| greater part of their bonds while the holders
| of greenbacks that were payable in coin were
| cut off from all hope of getting coin for them
until after the lapse of many years. OF
course they went down in the money market
| and those who took them at par found them
worth little more than about one-thlrd of their
| face value in gold in July, 1864, while
our bonds were selling at lis IN currency. 1t
was the bad faith of the Government toward
| the people, and not the bad faith of the people
toward the Government, that caused this ter
rible depreciation of the legal-tender curren-
cy. l do not claim that when We reach the
| period of peace and reaction we should have
| issued legal-tender currency equal in amount
| TO our bonded debt, for the purpose even of
converting into non-Interest- bearing deot,
for believe that such policy would have
recoiled upon our industries to an extent al
most as injurious it was to add $500, 600, 600
| to the burden of the debt But l do claim
| that the contract should have been allowed
TO remain as it was originally made, that
we could have had the advantage of the OPP
| ton to pay such part of the debt in green
backs we had in circulation in March, 1909.
1t breach of plighted faith and gross
injustice to create an enormous demand of
gold to pay one class of creditors n mere graz
tuity upon their untaxed bonds, while we
caused another class, who held a different
class OF debts, redeemaDle IN coin, 10 lose
nearly two-thirds of the face value of their
debts and pay the taxes to raise the gold
for more fortunate people.
If these obligations had been left unchanged,
every bondholder would have been the firm
ally of every taxpayer, and of every holder
of greenback in the effort to maintain them
| at par for gold. When the bondholders
bound by contract to accept greenbacks for
| their bonds, they were interested to uphold
their value. When they were released from
this obligation, the position was reversed,
and they were more interested to reduce their
value much possible be low the par of
gold. And thus people were ground
beneath the upper and neither milestone"
But all these advantages were not consider
ed as being enough for the capitalists. They
had gained great ascendeney over the people,
and it had naturally taken a Political form.
1t entered into the State and demanded
share in the powers of government. 1t claim
ed to be able to control the election of a Pres
ident; and il was. 1t demanded the further
concession to its electoral power that its
novated contract, which in express terms
payable Sin coin of the standard value of the
United States on the 14th day of July, $780,
should be paid Onl y IN gold coin. Silver was
then legal tender for all sums, and our mines
opened up to meet the necessities of i'm
poverished people almost the waters rush
ed from the rock when smitten with the rod
of Moses.
Silver was likely to dethrOne old from its
imperial dominion, and the capitalist saw
the victimized people preparing to supply
deliverence; and the Republican party on
their demand demonetized silver. How did
they do this fatal work? By exactly the means
that now attempted with reference to
greenback s-they simply destroyed its legal
tender quality. That was all they did and it
sunk and died; and when silver money
thus destroyed our bonds could only be paid
in gold coin. Every other possible means of
payment Congress had destroyed The peo-
pie still had United States notes with which
they could pay their debts, one to another,
because Congress had impaired TO them the
legal-tender quality. They were below the
par of gold, and to that extent they were a
constant loss to the people
again, when a President to be elected,
capitalists made another demand upon the
Republican party, and 1t was granted. In
1875 they demanded that the volume of green
back currency should be contracted and that
of the national banks expanded. This de-
mand was not made on the grounds that green
backs were legal-tender currency, far from it.
Natioual-bank notes were redeemable in coin
or in legal-tender paper money, at the option
of the banks, and in these banks capital had
established it's citadel. The national bank
was its keep and stronghold, where no enemy
could prevail against capital. Its untaxed
bonds drew interest there. and the Govern
ment, while paying interest on the whole sum
of the bonds, paid to the bondholders, in adj
vance, nine-tenths of that gum in notes to cir
culate money, the final redemption of
which in coin was guaranteed by the United
States. The Government also gave the bond
holders bank charters which they could use in
any State or Territory, and then the exclu-
sive monopoly of banking in any and every
State; and to make this monopoly effectual
and more valuable, the Government destroyed
by its laws every State bank of issue by
directtax of 10 per cent. upon its circulation.
Greenback currency would have been long
since destroyed but for its usefulness to the
tional banks as means of redeeming their
circulation. While greenbacks were below par
the national banks used them to redeem their
circulation and to keep up their reserves. As
soon as Greenb9cks attained the par value of
gold, they ceased TO be q convenience to the
national banks of heavy capital, such they
have in New York, for the redemption of their
issues, and they then became an obstruction
to their business. They occupy a field of cir
culstiOn nearly as large as that covered by
national-bsnk circulation. and if they can be
driven out the national banks will have all
that field to themselves. And so it seems they
must go.
For several years very strenuous efforts
were made by capitalists to force a contrac-
ton of greenback currency, with a view, as
they asserted, to bring the sum of that
rency within the capacity of the Government
to redeem il in gold II was to their interest
then as it is to the interest of capitalists
now, to get the entire volume of legal-tender
money under their ccntrol and until gold and
silver became abundant, they being compelled
to retain some greenbacks with which to sup
ply fund for the redemption of their own
issues, held on to its legal-tender quality, and
struck boldly for the contraction of its volume.
ms 0utcrS against the volume OF TINS cur
rency was always q pretext to satisfy the
country with it's removal from the field of
competition with the national bank circula-
ton. How could it be expected that any man
would believe this pretense while we were
constantly increasing the volume of our
interest-bearing debt payable in gold, and
increasing our natiOnal-baDk circulation
which the Government is as much bound to
redeem ia gold it is to redeem greenbacks
in gold2 All these debts alike rest on the
oredit of the people and their credit gas as
good TO sustain greelhacks at par for gold as
it was to sustain one thousand seven hundred
and ninety millions of bonds at from TO 6
sustain the constantly increasing volume of
national-bank currency at par. The contrac-
ton policy of 1858, which was such 8 cruel
and ruinous visitation upon the country,
leaving the xhole land strepn With greeks Of
families of good and frugal men brought to
poverty and want, and the policy now urged
in this petition, and in the resolutions it asks
ms to adopt, to destroy the legal-tender quality
of this currency, are alike in principle, and