Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1880-10-29


petition, and soon brings down the price uf
goods. Now, my countrymen, You know that
the price of iron and all matters that enter in
TO the accommodations of LIE are lower to.
day, through home competition, than they
were before the war, when in the old Demo
cratic times we had no protection. Why, VIC
have built up All kinds of labor, furnished the
market for our farmer implements for our la
boring man. We are more rich in labor say.
ing processes than all the nations of the world
combined. Yes, the Democratic party would
strike down this palladium of our prosperity.
The Secretary showed that the Democrats
were also opposed to the Homestead law.
Why2 Because, "agin the law OF '9S7, The
Democrats maintain that the only power of
Congress over land is to sell il and probably
spend the money rs soon as could be, but we
favor giving our people homes where they can
gain self support. SO when Abraham Lincoln
became President we passed the Homestead
law, and it could not have been passed but for
the Republican Congress. So in every ques-
tion of politics. defy anyman to show where
the doctrine of States rights docs not enter I'm
and poison every effort made for the common
good and welfare. 1T is only the Republican
party that has opposed their schemes
We believe that this is II Nation, spelled with
n great big n that It is n powerful Nation
able to fight any battle of self defense, as
shown on many a battle field. Occupying the
iUirest part of Gods earth, with every thing
that Divine Providence has bestowed ON any
people, we believe that this people is Nation,
dependent on no other for support. They be
lieVe that South Carolina is a bigger man than
Uncle Sam-that this is u confederacy of
states. There is the principal line OF demar-
cation.
The noise of the passing procession became
clamorous and the speaker stopped. "That
is for Indiana" he said, a moment aftcrward;
"let us stand up and give three cheers for
Ohio and Indiana"
We offer liberty, protection, National power,
National glory. we love our Nag, our country
not only Illinois, but our whole country.
secretary sherman then turned to the tlnan
cial state of the Nation at the close of Bu-
chanans administration In 1861 we sold our
6 per cent. bonds at eighty nine cents on the
dollar, Just the bonds that expect to pay off
next month at par in gold. Another thing
They sold our Treasury notes, running one
year. at an interest OF II per cent. Truly our
financial credit was pretty well played out.
That was not ell. The last Democratic Secre
tary of the Treasury, after having trouble to
borrow money at IL per cent, offered to give
as pledge the guarantee of the state to secure
| the payment of this money by the United
| States lie proposed to set aside as security
| for that pledge the deposit made with the
| States in 1896 by the General Government, and
| actually some OF the states did come forward
and offered to guarantee the bonds of the
| United States for that amount. Now, that
was where James Buchanan peteredout. Such
| was the condition i'm which James Buchanan,
| the last Democratic President and the last
| that ought ever to be President left this Ma
! tion. And how is it now!
| our currency is honorable among the Ma
| tions of the world. Our per cent. bonds are
| selling at Ill, On the day they were issued
! lines of people stood at your Postoffice here
! in Chicago seeking to buy them at par. Look
| also at the fact that ut the close of the war we
! had II debt of $27OO,O0O 900, besides large
!
| People were alarmed. They were afraid that
| the Government would fail and that repudia-
banqHting table. But the people of the
| United States were honest as well as brave.
For several years we didn't do anything with
| that public debt but pay on it our surplus rev.
| enue. But in n little while we passed "the act
to strengthen the public credit" Wedeclared
in that act we would pay off our bonds ac-
| with view of paying off that debt, we auth
orized the Secretary of the Treasury to sell
bonds bearing interest at the rate of 4, "a and
per cent, for the purpose of reducing the
| burden of that debt. How could we do that?
Our bonds were redeemable after periods of
five or ten years at that time we had n right
to pay them in full. The Democrats wanted
to pay them in promises, flood the country
with paper money, and thus cheat the public
| creditors. The Republicans said, mo, we
| will pay them as we agreed to pay them-in
coin" a good many good men squirmed
about it. They feared and over, estimated
| We passed the refunding act OF 1871. 1t
authorized the sale of these bonds, the money
to be pledged to the payment of these per
cent bonds. In General Grants term $780,
900 600 were sold at par, and that meant s.,
100000 "A year saved in interest. Afterward,
| when assumed the office of Secretary of the
Treasury, 900 or $50 600 600 of the 45s per
cent. bonds had been sold. made up my
mind that those bonds were too good to sell at
pan; that we had better sell the per cent.
bonds mt par. The syndicate of bankers which
then conducted these operations declined to
assist me. The per cent. bonds were put on
the market in 1915, and the people OF the
United States, strange gudgeons as they were,
grabbed S75,0OOOOO of them in sixty days.
fCheers The Democratic Congress talked
about the defeat of the Resumption act they
shook the public credit, and in a little while
they stopped the sale of the bonds, until fin.
ally it was found that they could not repeal
the Resumption act The bill to repeal the act
passed the House, but 1t was defeated in the
Senate; had it passed the Senate the Presi-
dent stood ready to veto it; and so our credit
went up little.
In 1869, in the same year in which the act to
strengthen the public credit was passed, we
declared that we would bring about tho
resumption of specie payments rs soon as
possible. Why did we do that? The reason
was. that the bondholder was, receiving
were receiving deprecated paper tol
their goods and labor During the
war we couldn't help that: In order to gel
would be paid in gold. We paid them in gold
because we had agreed to do so, and that wa'
enough for honest men to know. The idef
was that the United States notes must be re
tired, or become appreciated to par. After
1859 our credit advanced, our bonds advanced
| Finally, however, the Republican party, which
always has had to crack all the hard nuts fo
the last twenty years, took up the question o
specie resumption. A committee OF nine Sen
atorS prepared plan OF resumption, OF which
committee General Logan was one and wa
another Finally we agreed upon the Re
sumption act. We knew that no Democrat
could vote for that bill. We considered it il
caucus, reported it to the Senate, and passed
it, and no Democrat had the honor of voting
| lOr 1t. llleN Sllu III was n Sndlne, IneN non
ored it by calling 1t "a sherman shame" The!
J all said we couldn't do it, All the Democratic
| State Conventions, including that of Illinois
demanded its immediate and unconditiona
repeal, and the Democratic National ConVen
tion uttered the same sentiment, Durin.
Grants administration nothing was done eN
cept to pay ont fractional coin for fractional
currency But in April, 1877, twenty month
= before the act was to take ehect-because w
had promised to resume ON Jan. l, lSI9-lcOm
menced to make preparations to carry the ac
into execution. 1t was not difficult OF exccu
t tion, as was supposed it was as easy falling
{ off n log. At this time paper money wa
worth 80 cents on the dollar. We had to ad
vance the value of that money NJ
TO par. The only way was to aceu
pare, so that on the day of resump
g tion you could redeem any notes presentel
! for that purpose. We had to purchase, and
/ was objected that if we purchased coin, w
, would advance the price of it, We reasoned
suppose we accumulate coin, tho peopl
a would believe we intended to resume, and tn
rates would go up, instead of gold going up
Y And that is what happened. Atterward the
6 got the idea that the money in the Ireasui,
{ was not gold; they said 1t was something else
e they didn't know what-cortincates phantom
= gold, or somethingo OF that kind And one da
Y General Ewing saidin the House of Represen
n tatives, where they were crazy hot against thi
g act, that this gold that was talked Of as bein
t in the Uuited States Treasury was phantom
D.. gold / saw General Ewing; who is a yer
0 clever and honest nan, and kind of relatto
d of mine, you know, and said, DO you reall
Q believe this gold is phantom goldr' He E re
! Dltu, ldIl Ol IL. llltH lnNlltu CoHllllll
+ tee of three doubling Thomases TO come u
o to the Treasury and count it, ana sec il, an
: handle it, and tell me what they found. ii
j. took his committee. They went to a grca
: room full of vaults. There was great vaul
t thirty by fifteen and fifteen feet higl
II without a door. They lighted the gas.
n was hot I'm there, 100 degrees or more. GeI
|. Ewing and his committee were in hottie
place than they We're ever in before, Vau
: contained S50O,0O0 in gold, one hundred boxe
II of 900 each, They took n box of doubl
eagles; when they counted that they woul
# weigh It. So they went on. 1t took them ii
!. O'Clock To count Ss,OO0O 900 of gold. Ther
It was Sl0O00O,0O0 of gold there then. The
i found 1t would take them eight days to e
IS through the work. Tom said he was satisiie
., that wasn't phantom gold, and he woudn
o say so any longer. Well finally, $3.50 600, ,OC
II of gold coin was accumulated in the Trca'
ury, preparatory TO resumption. When "
II threw open our doors on the 2d of Januar,
X 1879, and called, "All We that are weary an
;. want gold for your greenbacks," not n ma
II came; they didn't want it, by this time I'll
J. people had come To know that resumptio
n had come, and they didn't want. gold, an
v from that time to this there has been no d,
a mand for IT, Gold Is now daily ueDOSiteu