Mexico weekly ledger., 1879-09-11
RESUMPTION
Not Vet Accomplished, as Orig
inally Contemplated.

Not Vet Accomplished, as Orig.
inally Contemplated. O.
We reproduce the following extract
from one of Gen. Tom Ewing's late
speeches in rebuttal of charges
brought by Secretaries Sherman and
Schurz of inconsistency and error on
the part of the Democracy, some
years since, when the Republican
scheme of resumption was denounced
as impracticable. In pursuing this
course, we have two objects in view.
The one is to refute similar charges
made by M. Y. Duncan against that
portion of our Missouri Democratic
platforms which, in 1876, denounced
the Republican party for Inauguration
of resumption without having made
suitable provision for it, and after
wards, in 1873, not only declared re-
turn to specie payments impossible in
the then financial condition of the
country, but also demanded repeal of
the law requiring it. The Other OBJ
ject contemplated, is the exposure OF
the source to which Mr.. Duncan re-
sorts for ready-made attacks on his
old friends, since his desertion of
them. If the Press is to be converted
into a channel of radical abuse, it had
better hoist the Republican flag.
FROM GEN. TOM EwING's SPEECH:
The twin Secretaries make merry
over my speeches in 1875 and 1877
against resumption in which l de-
clared it to be impractical, and if at
tempted would result in a general
massacre of business. Judging the
law as it then stood my criticisms
were correct, but subsequent legisla-
ton greatly changed the scheme of
resumption. AS it originally stood,
the law provided for the total de-
struction of the greenback, so Mr..
Sherman admitted, and SO Messrs.
Bristow and Morrell declared. This
was the programme of resumption
when | discussed it in the speeches
criticised. But since then, and as
the result of Western and Southern
Democratic agitation, the destruction
of the greenback was arrested, and
the circulation of three hundred and
forty million legal tenders prolonged.
1t is to the stoppage of such whole
sale contraction of the currency, the
country owes the fact that business
was only manned, not massacred by
resumption. Moreover since my pre-
diction silver has been partially re-
monetized, and has thus impaired in
creased ability to maintain the green
back at par with coin.
On the 28th of May, 1878, Mr..
Blaine said in the Senate:
''Undoubtedly the whole question
of resumption has been changed by
the coinage of the silver dollar. The
Secretary of the Treasury may begin
resumption Tomorrow with ten mill
ions in silver, il my judgement, with
perfect safety. For resumption in
silver you have got plenty. For re-
sumption i'll gold you have not got
half enough"
To this partial restoration of silver
and to three prodigious crops in the
United States accompanied by three
failures of crops in Europe which have
turned the balance Of trade largely in
c1ac fneafa aHg tShnuqan owes the fact
prototype, Sir Robert Peel, in reach
ing and maintaining partial equality
of paper with gold; while he has far
surpassed him in the miseries inflicted
on the people in his march to his bad
eminence.
Not only has the resumption law
been made by our efforts less disas-
trous by stopping the destruction Of
the greenback currency, and less i'm
practicable by the RECOMMENDATION of
silver and the uncxampIed results of
large crops at home and eager mar
kets abroad, but it is also to be borne
in mind that the result attained is not
in fact resumption. Resumption, as
promised by its advocates
and understood by the people, was
the free circulation of gold, silver and
paper, and their interchange at all
the bank counters in the United States.
There will be no resumption in fact,
until every bank in the country re-
ceives deposits in coin and paper
without distinction and pays demands
in either form the holder may prefer. |
Such is not now the case. Gold is
no more in general circulation now
han it was five years ago. There Is
n effect none in the bank vaults. No !
nan in Ohio or elsewhere can get a
thousand dollars in gold without paw.
ng as premium therefor the cost of
to and from New York.
---.-Rv