Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1879-07-14
The Honest Dollar.

The republicans boast that they have made
the poor mans dollar as good as the rich
mans dollar. Now will they tell who
made it worth less? Why was it made
worth less? For whose benefit was it so
made? The truth is, the republicans made a
deprecated dollar, worth fifty cents, and paid
the soldier and the poor man with it. The
rich man bought two of theih with one of
his gold dollars, then bought government
bonds with the paper dollars, and now the
republican party has made these same bonds
payable in gold. This one transaction has
doubled the rich mans property. This is
how they have made the poor mans dollar
as good as the rich mans dollar National
Tribune.
The editor of the National Tribune
should have called to mind before he wrote
and published the above, that he was re-
publican before he became greenbacker,
and that it does not become him, having
voted the republican ticket when green
backs were first put in circulation, and
having continued to vote it while the re-
publican party maintained that the bonds
of the government were payable in gold,
to assail the republican party for making
"depreciated paper. or makingth the 'bonds
payable in gold"
The government issued the greenbacks
as resource to aid in carrying the coun-
try through the war. They We're not
money but promises of the government to
pay money. Such a. they were the edit
or of the Tribune sustained them by his
vote up to very recent period. II he
had fault to find with the republican party
because Of deprecated paper" he should
have left the party in 1864, when green
backs were worth less than 80 cents on the
dollar, the depreciation being mostly
caused by the gloomy condition of the
Union cause and the attitude of the cop
perheads Of the North--the present allies
of the National Tribune-who declared in
the national democratic convention in favor
of peace on any terms and denounced the
war for the preservation Of the govern
ment as failure
So in regard to making the bonds paya-
BILE in gold, the position of the republican
party has always been that they were pay
able in coin unless it was otherwise stated
in the contract. coin being the money of
the constitution. This question formed
one of the issues in 1868. the republican
party taking the position which we have
stated above. Did not the editor of the
Tribune vote the republican ticket that
year? In 1869, the republican majority in
Congress in order to settle all dispute
about the bonds--as the contest over them
was seriously interfering with their sale
passed an act declaring them payable in
coin. That was ten years ago, and did the
editor OF the Tribune then make any re-
STRANGE against it or cease to act with the
republican party in consequence of such
declaration By no means.
We notice that he saws in the article
above: NOW the republican party has
made these same bonds payable in gold. -
II he means to convey the idea by using
fhe word noe that the republicans have
recently made these bonds payable in gold
he mis-statss the facts. misrepresents the
republicans, and endeavors to mislead and
deceive his readers. The republican par
~ has always maintained that the bonds
were payable in coin, and ten years ago,
as we have stated. declared so by act Of
Congress. The editor Of the Tribune
would be held in greater respect, to state
frankly that he has changed his opinions
in regard to these matters-if that is the
ease-thaa 10 attempt to misrepresent the
republicans 10 order to try and preserve
bis own consistency.
The republican doctrine always has
been what 1t Is to-day. that the gresabseks
and the bonds bind the government to re-
deem them in coin. This was the doc
1rine when the editor of the Tribune va.
n n O..