The Portland daily press., 1879-03-22
~ the Union was worth Hghtimg fer il IL
worth paying for.
Another New Era Misau0tati0n,

Another New Era Misqu0tatiOn.
As the Neao Era insists with great, but
not surprising efffontery-men do not usually
confess until they feel the rope tightening
about their necks--that is not trying to mis-
lead its readers and is not guilty OF misrep-
RESERVATIONS, it is well to follow up the ex.
posure, made by the PRESS yesterday, o.
several of its misstatements by further expos
ing the false or garbled quotations and cita.
tions with which its pages are spattered. AL
most the first of its Authorities on the Money
Question, the first is an unidentified excerpt
said to be from Plato, perhaps translated
from the original Greek for the columns OF
the Ne,c Erd) which it has kept standing in
type for long time, is this:
Thomas Jefferson, in his letter to Mr..
Eppis, volume 6, OF his works, says: Treas
ury bills, bottomed on taxes, bearing or not
bearing interest, as may be found necessary,
thrown into circulation, will take the place
of so much gold aud silver. Bank paper
must be suppressed and the circulation re-
estored to the nation TO whom it belongs"
The inference the Greenback weekly seeks
to convey is that Jefferson favored govern.
meat paper legal-tender currency. On the
contrary he was opposed to a paper currency.
He held that coin was the only money of the
constitution. The quotation made BY the
Neto Era is to begin with, gar bled. Dscon-
nected sentences are taken from letter ol
his and made to appear as consecutive expires
sons Of opinion. What is the history of the
letter from which the quoted sentences, dis
engaged from the context are taken? The
letter was written to Mr.. Eppes, (now Eppis,
as the Neo Era with characteristic incorrect.
ness calls hlm) the chairman OF the Ways and
Means committee of the House in 1912 -13.
At that time, men were consulting as to the
best means to raise money to prosecute the
war with Great Britain. The advice of JEFF.
ferson was sought and he wrote two letters
to Mr.. Eppes, one in September and one In
November, 1918. Tne letter bearing the date
of September II, 1913. contains this:
"The question will be asked, and ought to
be looked at, what is to be the resource il
loans cannot be obtained?' There is but
one Carthage deleuda est Bank paper
nucb UC odPpiCooSus duu luc CuCuidbilig uI-
dium must be restored to the nation, to whom
it belongs. 1t is the only fund on which they
can rely for loans; 1t is the only resource
which can never fail them, and it is an abuu-
dant one for every necessary purpose
From these paragraphs joined to others,
and dissociated ones in The letter, the Neo
Era frames its quotation. But it omits tc
add that Jefferson insisted that this cur
rency should have but brief time to rur
before maturity and should be based on ade
quate taxes levied at the time. Il also omit:
to say that in the second letter, the Novem-
Der letter, he argues through twenty pages
against permanent paper currency. 1t may
be well TO give the conclusion of the ettel
which is in these words:
"The sum of what has been said is that
pretermitting the constitutional question or
the authority of Congress and considering
this application on the grounds of reason
alone, IL would be best that our medium
should be so proportioned to our produce as
to be on a par with that of the countries
with which we trade and whose medium is il
sound state; that sDecie is the M ost perfec
medium because it aoiU preserre its oavn leuel
because having intrinsic and universal value
it can never die in our hands, and it is the
surest resource of reliance in time of war
that the trifing economy of paper as the
cheaper medium or its convenience for trans
mission weighs nothing in opposition to the
advantages OF the precious metals; that it i:
liable to be abused, has been, is and ever will
be abused in every country in which it has
been permitted. Instead then OF
| yielding to the cries of scarcity of medium
set up by spectators, projectors and com
mercial gamblers, no endeavors should be
spared to begin the work of reducing it by
such gradual means as may give time to pri.
vate fortunes to preserve their pose aud set
tie down with the subsiding medium: and
that, for this purpose, the States should be
urged to concede to the General Government
with saving of chartered rights, the execlu
sive power of establishing banks OF discount
for paper"
Yet in the face of these declarations of JEFF
ferson the Neao Era has the effrontery tc
quote him as an advocate of paper-money,
legal.tender currency! 1t takes an extract
from his Published utterances, garbles it, anG
then gives it forth as an exposition OF the
views of man, who, we all know that are
acquainted with the mans works, was q
bitter foe of paper-money and an earnest ad
vocate of the doctrine that coin is the only
constitutional money. The course of the Me-,
Era in this instance is fair illustration O
the fairness with which it deals with tht
money question and the correctness of it
citations.