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

stract OF SENATOR 'Dayaru speech lu tue
Senate to day on his resolution Mr.. Bay
ard said that his object in urging the adop-
tion 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 a sound
basis, and real money is sound currency.
To resume by the existing syssem is as idle
as to bail water by sieve. Paper notes
are an essential auxiliary to oo7p, but they
are not coin, not money, but bstitutes for
it. Their acceptance must S6sbrsed on
their credit and on their convenience, and
must always be voluntary in 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 and to
the great accumulation of property, and
said that unequal distribution of property
is attributable more to the use of inconvert-
iblc paper money than to anything else
Jefferson said ''The breaking up of the
IN ;asuro of value makes lottery of all pri
vate property" 1t was fruitful source of
demagogism. In referring to judicial dcci-
sions as to greenbacks, he said that he con-
sidered the construction of tbe Constitution
by the Supreme Court, resting the power
to issno legal.tender notes upons the exist
ence of some great emergency, of which
Congress is the judge, to be alarming aud
dangerous. 1t made tho Constitution weak
est where it should be strongest in the
hour of danger. He saw no guarantee that
groepbacks would not from timo to time be
inflated in the future as they had been in
the past. He combated Senator Coles ar
gument that to withdraw the lesal-tender
power from greenbacks 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
legal-tcnder power is like the germ Of a
deadly fever, only needing the 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
paper circulation by arresting the .absorp,
tion of imported gold into our currency
The withdrawal of the legal tender power
could injure 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. He
showed that the endowment of government
notes with legal tender power had never
prevented their depreciation when 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.
ence in value between United States notes
and coin, it was just to pay it to every one
who had been obliged 10 take them. This
would require an incredible issue of paper
The present Congress might not yield to
these solicitations, but on the threshold we
snouru meet ana aerear an euch Md aud
fal;d schcmcs. Whether the SENATE would
now concur in his views ne knew not, for
measures like this had never been and
never would be made by him the subjec,
but he believed that the good sense of the
people would support his views.
SEVERE DRouGHrs.-An interesting re.
cord is that of severe droughts as far back
as the landing of the Pilgrims. "How
many thousand times are observations made
like the following: "Such cold season v'
"Such hot season !" "Such dry weather.
or "such wet weather p Such high winds
or calms !" etc. All those that think tho
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, 24 days,n sue
cession without rain.
In the summer of 1880, Al days in sue.
ces.ion without rain.
In the summer of 1867, rs daya in sue.
ccssion without rain.
In the summer of 1862, 80 days in sue.
cession without rain.
In tho summer of 1914, 45 days in sue.
ccssion without rain.
In the summer of 1850, 81 days in sue.
cession without rain.
In the summer Of 1894, 81 DAYS in sue.
cession without rain.
In the summer OF l7O5, 40 days in sue
ccssion without rain.
In the summer Of 1715, 61 days in sue.
ccssion without rain.
In the summer of 1928, 61 days in sue
cession without rain.
In the Of summer 1870, 90 days in sue.
cession without rain.
In the summer of 1741, ~ days ~ sue
ccssion without rain.
In the summer of 1749, 108 days in sue
cession without rain.
In the summer of 1855, AZ days in
cpssion without rain