Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1879-07-24


January, 1879, having been enacted by the
republican party without deliberation in
Congress or discussion before the people, and
being so inadequate to secure its object, was
highly injurious to the business of the coun-
try, and ought to be forthwith repealed.
Mr.. Tilden, in his letter of acceptance, en-
dorsed this doctrine. and, at the sume time,
declared himself for speedy return of specie
payments, savsng: "Thc government ought
not to speculate on its own dishonor in order
to save interest on its proken promises, which
it still compcls private dcalars to accept at II
fictitious par"
| will read some of the prophecies made by
very distinguished gentlemen in regard to
the resumption act.
General Ewing in the House of Represen-
tatives, November % 1877, said
"if we were wholly out of debt to Europe.
If our foreign commerce iiOated under our
own flag, if there were no system of absentee
ism among our wealthy classes, expending
their wealth abroad, resumption in gold, or
even gold and silver, would be impossible on
our present volume of paper currency for
many wears to come. The national
banks, the importers, the gold rings in New
! ork, the desperadoes of Wall street, the
money kings of Europe, to whom we are fl
nancially enslaved, they will present the
greenbacks for redemption and destruction as
fast rs the gold can be paid over the counters
of the Treasury"
Senator Coke in the United States Senate,
Nav IA, 1878, said:
SIT is better, Mr.. President that we bidc our
time and turn back from the frightful abyss of
ruin which yawns across the pathway To re-
sumption The experiment must end in fail
urc, and must cngulf the country in n lower
deep of misery than it has yet fathomed. The
bulk of the State, private, and savings banks,
with their vast sum of the peoples deposits,
must go by the board by reason of the insult
ficiencv of their reserves and many of the
national banks must fall from the same cause.
In this general crash the whole system, from
the Treasury down, must succumb. 1t is
simply Il question of time, for this result mast
occur. and in my Judgment the time will be
very short after the lst day of January next"
On the 18th of November. 1877. my old
friend. Judge Kelley. of Pennsylvania, in the
House of Representatives, said:
'But gentlemen, the worst has
not yet come if this act is to he maintained.
And | tell you--and YOU may book it to jeer
and scotl at me fifteen months hence if it
prove not to be Il true prediction--the suffer
ing we have endured during the three years
this law has been in existence. is like the
chill which emhellishes while it blasts with
tcathcrad frost the leaves and flowers of the
tropical plants that surround the homes of
our extreme southern States, compared with
the arctic cold that builds up the mountainous
iceberg. which chills the summer atmosphere
of our coast as it passes near our shores
| have no desire to ieer or scoff at a gen.
tleman whom | sincerely respect, although
near two years ago he gave us authority to do
so. if he proved to be false prophet.
Mr.. Muldrow said, in the House of Repre-
sentatives. Nov l6, 1877:
"Thc act gives the Secretary of the Treas
urv the power to sell bonds so as to obtain
gold to redeem the greenbacks and fractional
currency but there is no sLch provision in re-
gard to the national bank issues The practical
working of the law will be the absorption and
retirement of the greenbacks and the issuance
in their stead of irredeemable national-bank
notes. No man with any financial sagacity
can believe that the national banks will be
able to redeem their circulating currency
with coin in January, 1879
Mr.. Buckner. chairman of the Committee
of Banking and Currency, said on the 10Th of
November, 1871:
Il have not been able to find one man,
learned or unearned. capitalist or laborer.
possible or practicable. Perhaps the Secre-
tary of the Treasury is an exception"
might quote for days the warnings and
evil prophecies of our democratic and green
back friends but they have been SO recently
made that it is scarcely necessary On the
other hand, the supporters of this measure
insisted that resumption was not only posi-
bic but easy; that the accumulation of coin
would lower its price, improve the public
credit, increase the sale of per cent. bonds
and that when the fund should be sufficient
TO inspire confidence in the ability to resume,
resumption would be a tranquil and easy pas
sage, the sure forerunner of hopeful pros per-
ity. They also believed that it would lessen
the burden of the public debt, and lower the
rate of interest not only to the public but to
private individuals.
SrCCEss OF RESUMPTION.
Let us now examine which of these oppos-
ing opinions has been proved to be true by
the test of experience.
The success of resumption depended entire
ly upon the ability of the United States, by
the time fixed, to accumulate in the Treasury
an amount of coin sufficient to meet any de-
mands likely to be made upon it, This coin
could only be obtained by surplus revenue,
or by the sale of United States bonds, full
authority for which was given by the rcsump-
tion act. In April, 1871, it was announced
by the Administration that from the lst OF
May the Treasury Department would accu-
mulate coin at the rate of 81, ,000, 900 month.
and accordingly that sum was set aside from
the sale of u per cent. bonds, up to the lst
of July.
The very announcement of the purpose to
resume. with Il definite plan of resumption
ut once had a reyiving effect upon the public
credit, increasing the sale of u per cent.
bonds. This induced the Treasury Depart
ment, on the 23d day of May. 1877, to with
draw the "a per cent. bonds, and on the 9TH
of June. 1877, to place the per cents upon
the market to be sold at par in coin, both foi
refunding and resumption purposes. This
was critical experiment. the expedicncy OF
which was gravely doubted by many friend,
of resumption, but it proved perfect success
This course was pursued until November, tn,
price of coin constantly declining and conf
dence steadily improving, when Congress met
and a bill speedily passed the House of Repre-
sentatives to repeal the resumption act. Thi.
and other proposed measures affected serious
ly the public credit. and stopped the sale o
bonds rs with clamp. An examination %
financial problems by the committees of botl
Houses and the debates in Congress caused