The weekly Union times. [volume] (Union C.H., South Carolina) 1871-1894, 1880-02-06
BAYARp's SPEECH ON LEoALrENDER

GREENBACkS.-Ine 1Oll0wlnS IS au aO-
stract of Senator Bayard's speech in the
Senate to day on his resolution Mr. Bay.
ard said that his object in urging the adop-
ton Of the present resolution was to bring
| about the actual resumption of specie pay
ments. Whatever else might be effected
by the resolution was secondary and merely
incidental to this one cardinal object
Sound prosperity must rest upon sound
basis, and real money is sound currency
To resume by the existing system is as idle
as to bail water by sieve. Paper notes
are an essential auxiliary to COLO, but they
are not coin, not money, but ss bstitutes for
it. Their acceptance must Be based on
their credit aud on their convenience, and
must always be voluntary iu order to be
safe When an evidence of debt is made
a compulsory tender in payment Of debt,
the great law of honesty and Of money, that
value is to be given for value, is broken
Senator Bayard then referred to the money
power, of which so much fear is expressed
by the opponents of the resolution aud to
the great accumulation of property, aud
said that unequal distribution of property
is attributable moro to the use of inconvcrt.
iblc paper money than to anything else
Jefferson said "Thc breaking up of the
IN ;asuro Of value makes lottery of all pri
vatc property" 1t was a fruitful source of
demagogism. In referring to judicial dccl
sions as to greenbacks, he said that he con-
sidered the construction of the Constitution
| by the Supreme Court, resting the power
to issuo legal-tender notes upon the exist
ence of some great cmcrgency,of which
| Congress is the judge, to be alarming aud
dangerous. 1t made the Constitution weak
est where it should be strongest in tho
| hour Of danger. lie saw no guarantee that
grocnbacks would uot from time to time be
inflated in the future as they had been in
the past. He combatcd Senator Coles ar
gumcnt that to withdraw the lcgal.tcndcr
power from grccnbacks was to question the
validity of the public debt, and said the
notes never were anything but an evidence
Of debt. TO offer to pay the debt was a
novel way Of questioning its validity. The
lcgal.tcndcr power is like the germ of a
deadly fever, only needing tho heat of the
excitement of speculation, war or distress
to develop its deadly powers While it is
dormant he would end its existence. The
present prosperous time is favorable for per-
manent resumption, Unless the present
measure is adopted |. the financial law, that
bad money will drive out good money, will
| operate TO the extent of the amount of our
paper circulation by arrcsting the .absorp-
tion of imported gold into our currcncy.-
The withdrawal of the legal tender power
could injurc no man, nor lessen the value
of the notes in the hands of any holder,
because an equivalent for the face value is
offered in gold and silver coin in case any
creditor refuses to accept the notes. lie
showed that the endowment of government
notes with legal tender power had never
| prevented their depreciation ,Ihen natural
causes tended to produce it. In this con
nection he spoke of the Weaver bill as one
commentary on the foregoing remark, and
said if it were just to pay soldiers the differ
cucc in value between United States notes
and coin, it was just TO pay it to every one
who had been obliged TO take them. This
would require an incredible issue of paper
The present Congress might not yield to
these solicitations, but on the threshold we
snouiu meet ana dcfcat all such 9ld aud
| fatal schemes. Whether the Senate would
now concur in his views re knew noS, for
measures like this had never been and
never would be made by him the subject
of party caucus or personal canvass for votes.
but he believed that the good sense of the
people would support his views.
. O-
SEVERE DRoUGHTs- interesting re-
cord is that of severe droughts as far back
as the landing of the Pilgrims. GLOW
many thousand times arc observations made
like the following: ''Such a cold season -
"Such lot season !" ''Such dry weather."
or "such wet weather - Such high winds
or calms :" etc. All those that think the
dry spell we had last spring was the long
est ever known, will do we'll to read the fol.
lowing:
In the summer of 1921, 2l days In sue
ccssion without rain.
In the summer Of 1890, fl days in sue
ccssion without rain
In the summer Of 1867, IS daya in sue
ccssion without rain.
In the summer of 1902, 50 days in sue
ccssion without rain.
In the summer Of 1GTl, Is days in sue
ccssion without rain.
In the summer of 1850, 81 days in sue.
ccsson without rain.
In the summer Of 1904, 81 days in sue
ccssion without rain.
In the summer Of l7OJ, 40 days in sue
ccSsion without rain.
In the summer Of 1115, G1 days in sue
ccssion without rain.
In the summer Of 1928, Gl days in sue
ccssion without rain.
In the Of summer 113O, % days in sue
ccssion without rain