The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1880-08-21
Mr.. Blaine's Views on Resumption
and its Enemies.
From Senator Blaine's Speech at Bath, Me

ton of the debt and the restoration
of the currency to the specie standard
was the great work of craftsmanship
that dsvolved upon the Republican
party. At every step in this gigantic
undertaking the Democratic party,
the present supporters of General
Hancock, have presented themselves
as an obstruction and hindrance.
The three great enactments that
brought sound currency to the peo-
pie were, first. the act to strengthen
the public credit in 1879; second, the
act to provide for the refunding of
the public debt in 1870; and third,
the act for the resumption of sDecie
payment passed in 1875. Against
every one Of. those measures the DEM
ecratic party offered stern resistance.
l believe l am entirely accurate in
saying that in neither branch of Con-
gress did any of these great and
essential measures receive the support
.sf single Democratic vote.
Msssrs. Thurman and Bayard. the
leaders of the Democratic party in
Congress, united in a vigorous Oppo-
sition to these measures. When the
act of 1869, declaring that the United
States would pay its obligations in
the money of the world. was pend
ing, Mr.. Thurman and Mr.. Bayard
both voted for proposition to pay
off the public debt at the rate repre-
scented by its coin value at the time
the loans were negotiated, declaring
in the amendment they supported
was the just measure Of the obs
legation of the United States; and
when the amendment was rejected,
Mr.. Thurman offered and Mr.. Bay
ard voted for an amendment except
ing tn, five twenty bonds, then more
than half the public debt, from any
obligation Of coin payment. Had
the policy advocated by Mr.. Thur
man and Mr.. Bayard and the whole
Democratic party been sustained. the
public debt would have been paid off
at from 3S to 65 cents on the dollar;
the nation would have been dishon-
ored and its public credit forever
blasted. The proposition maintained
by the Democratic party at that time
was more sweeping in its terms and
more disastrous in its certain conse-
quences than any of the modern
Greenback heresies.
The second great measures to which
l have referred was the funding act
of July IA, 1870. That statute, under
whose beneficent operations such re-
lief has come to the taxpayers of the
United States. was opposed at every
step by the entire Democratic party
in Congress-Mr. Thurman and Mr..
Bayard, as usual, in the lead. The
provision exempting bonds from tax
alton was absolutely essential to
funding the debt at a low rate of in
terest. Yet Mr.. Bayard offered and
advocated an amendment striking
out this provision from the law. and
all the Democrats in Congress voted
with him. Mr.. Bsyard further adj
vocated the substitution of the old
State bank system for the national
bank system-a measure fraught with
merciless disaster to the whole finan.
cial and commercial community.
Happily the Republican party was
able to defeat this destructive propO-
sition, and the funding act of July
IA, 1870, was placed on the statute
book. AT the time of its passage
seven Fights of the public debt was
bearing 6 per cent. interest; to-day
scarcely one eighth Of the debt bears
that rate, and next year. if the Re
publican policy is preserved, all the
of the SKIES will be funded
at 4 per cent. When the war closed
The annual interest of the public debt
exceeded $3.50, 900, 900; to-day, under
the financial policy Of the Republi-
can party, the annual interest is less
than $50, O0O,0 900.
The third and browning measure of
the Republican financial policy was
the act of 1875 for the resumption of
specie payments, passed by the Re-
publican party over the united oppo-
sition of the Democrats, but a single
Democratic senator or representative
voting for it, and year and a.half
after its passage the Democratic par.
ty, in national convention, by a !
unanimous vote demanded the re-
peal of the Resumption act and if
there be one prominent Democrat in
the United States who separated HIM
self from his party on that question,
his name has escaped my observa-
ton. / have not singled out Mr..
Thurman and Mr.. Bayard in any
offensive sense, but simply as the
leaders of the Democratic party, and