Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1879-10-02

| SpOllSlDIt lOI lHb Ddllh HOIeS us IOI the
greenbacks, and, therefore, might us well
issue greenbackS once for all We say
of course he tries to show this, for the
whole tiimSy structure of his financiering
rests upon it. He says:
| "If bank notes are convertible into green
| backs and gresnbacks are convertible into
specie. and Goth bank notes and greenbacks
! are to be kept afiOat, then the specie basis
does, in isci, support both. Ttre lHlerun ed ate
| step Of cOuN erting INK notes into greenbacks
! only Increases tho distance to be travelled. II
| every man ~ 10 has n bank note get a
| greenbac6 for II, and for the grsenback can
get coin. and the note and greenb bark when
| thus exchanged, go o.t again into circulation
! the eoin whicn redeams the greenback in fact
redeems both; and under the same conditions
| II would redeem the aggregate amount Of
| both, II that amount existed in either bank
notes or greenbackE- II conversion meant re
demPtton and cancellation, the result would
| be different, and the volume or coin equal to
all the paper outstanding, would be necessary
| lor It's redemption. Butare We to be seriously
told that this boasted rssum ptIou. this whole
| stock in trade OF our Republican friends, does,
IN fsct, depend for Us continuance on com
| steps instead OF one 10 obtain coln?"
If there was not a suspicion of stupi-
dity in this, it might be called ingenious
But Mr.. Pendleton, while not blunder-
ing as grossly in terms as General Ewing
has done over this matter, is equally-in-
accurate in his conclusions. Ewing
thought the same officer whose duty it
was to redeem the greenbacks in coin
had to redeem the bank notes in green
backs, and he tumbled himself over that
error several times in the most comical
manner 1t would take well drawn
cartoon to fully exhibit Mr.. Pendleton's
drOll confusion of ideas, and the effort
he makes to comprehend his own theory
| Ic ha I'm DFo hn l.
| information that the National banks have
to provide their own redemption fund
this fund is in greenbacks and in the
Treasury, and belongs to the banks, that
.as fast us it is exhausted it is replenish-
ed, so that the whole of the National
bank notes might be redeemed in green
backs according to the law without the
removal of one coin dollar from the specie
reserve? If the great financial states
man will apply this fact to the theories
he has felt under obligations to form, he
may not be relieved Of political embar-
rassm ent, but he may rid himself of an
apparently fundamental bewilderment.
The attempted belittlement of the
achievement of resumption in this con-
nectiOn by Mr.. PendletOn can have no
other effect than to cause the public to
| behold him enSmalled rs one seen
| through an Opera-glass reversed. The
policy of resumption vindicates itself
every day i'll thousand ways. The
fact that Mr.. Pendleton and his friends
have made their most conspicuous record
against it is their misfortune, as well as
their fault.
MIR. Pendleton proceeds to the COM
parisOn of the records of the two pOliti-
cal parties of the country on the financial
qestion. Here he has onlyto follow the
path he had long ago worn in the
public consciousness by frequent gOings
to and fro, but he has nothing to say that
is new. lie mouths about the money
power, assumes that the Republicans be-
lOnged to that power" and that all
steps taken to secure the public credit
was in the interest of the money mana
gers. He says:
Peace came. All the industries were ac-
tive, currency was abundant, enterprises
were stimulated EN- mploymeuJ. was at every
mans hand, and to the eye OF plain, common
sense people the country seemed prosperous
| The public debt was enormous and all of 1t
except the debt incurred before the war, the
small amount OF ten-forty bonds then out,
and few other special oblilgatiOus-in all.
q very small proportion OF the public debt
| was, ny law, by the common consent OF all
parties and all public men, payable in legal
| tender notes. The income OF Jhc.GOvernment
reached more than $500, coo 900. and was easily
| collected The Democrats insisted that the
debt should be raid as rapidly as possible in
| legal tenuer notes of the value at which they
stood when the debt was incurred and the
contract was made. TIE argument reached
l the certainty OF 8 demonstration"
! Mr.. PendletOn does not seem to know
that this prosperity was fictitious, and
that it could not be continued. As for
paying the debts in deprecated paper, a
great portion of the National indebted
ness was discharged in greenbacks be-
| low par. There never were debts dis
charged 80 rapidly; but the bonds repre-
sented contracts, and could not be diSpO-
sed of with the facility that floating OBJ
! legations were dispatched. The pretcnce
that it would be lawful to pint enough
greenbacks to buy up the bonds and get
rid Of them, was of course not honest.
That meant reputation. Mr.. Pendleton
did not exactly join the repudiators, He
accepted and champiOned their doctrine
with notifications. He would merely
have thrown down the bars as now by
| the issue of greenbacSs, and he would
have left to others the application of the
| logic of his position. This is just, as he
would now not fight resumption, but
| simply take the steps that would pro-
vide for its failure. Throughout his
persistent advocacy of one false and
| treacherous financial dOctriue after an
other, Mr.. PendletOn seems to have been
unable to know that the men who were
doing most all the while to Oppress labor
and grind the many for the benefit of
the few. were precisely the advocates of
of further intlation-that the cOstliest
| luxuTies in the country were the repu-
diatOrs. And yet Mr.. PendletOn has the
! hardihOOd even now to repeat the fool
ish declaratiyn that the Coin Act of
| 1860 added $500,0OO,O00 to the burden of
public obligation. 1t did not add cent.
! The bonds have at last been paid in
greenbacks, but in greenbacks made good,
not in repudiators' greenbacks. Mr..
PendletOn's unhappinesS is SO great or
his understanding so feeble that We
venture to recommend him to support
Gen. Piatt as the only man running for
Governor who represents decidedly the
Pendletonian idea of affOfding the pub
lie "relief."
We have never seen story more
loosely put together than that of Mr..
Pendleton about the Republicans and
the refunding act, of which he says
some things that are iucOmprehensible
because they are related neither to law,
fact nor science. lie goes on to say:
at was believed If the Government demon
etized silver, it would not force silver on the
bondhoideIs Acc rdlngly the Republican
party, ever plant to such demands, passed
the laws of 1873 and 1874. fOrbidding the coin
ing and taking away the legal tender quality
of that metal. No Democrat opposed IL, be-
cause no Democrat knew there was such
provision In the law. l will do the body of
Republicans the same justice, for they were
equally ignorant; the Republican leaders
alone knew Of its existence"
Already in this speech Mr.. Pendleton
said neither Congress nor the President
knew about this act of demonstration,
which he claimed had done vast mis-
chief while it was unknown. But Mr..
Pencleton tells us ut last what the DEM
Ocrats have done:
'When greeubacks were engrafted upon our
system. Democrats favored every measure