Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1880-11-02


tration they were slowly selling A. per
cent. bonds at par. When I became
secretary of the treasury, in April. 1877.
I believed that the credit of the govern
ment was SO good that we ought to sell
per cent. bonds in coin. So I with
drew the a per cent. bonds and offered
the 4 per cent. bonds. The banks would
not take them. They said the rate of
interest was too low, and don't blame
them at all because it is natural for O.
man to get as high a rate of interest as
he can, and he does not care whether it
is right or wrong. However, I insisted
upon offering the per cent. bonds to
the people. We did so by what is called
the popular loan. Strange to saw, the
people of the United States took 1915
900, 900 of those bonds in sixty DAYS.
Applause.
L am now going to speak a word as to
RESUMPTION AND BUSINESS PROSPERITY.
The resumption act was passed in
1875, after great deal of discussion and
debate all over this land There was
wide divergence of opinion among the
people about our ability to resume and
we had all sorts of nonsense talked. even
in Wisconsin where you are a pretty
level headed set Of people. Finally, the
Republican party in congress after de-
bate pro and con passed measures pro-
vldlng for the resumption of specie pay
ments, and mark it whenever there is any
hard nut to crack, any difficult problem
to solve, it is and always has been done
for twenty years by the Republican
party. Applause. The Democratic
party for twenty years has advocated no
! measure and proposed none. 1t has
done nothing but oppose what we pro-
posed and propose nothing whatever.
We made up our minds that the time had
come to resume specie payments. What
was done? Our notes were then worth
ninety cents on the dollar. What was
meant by resumption? Resumption was
simply to bring the value of those notes
up to par in coin 50 that the note in the
hands of laboring man or farmer
would buy as much hog and hominy or
anything else as gold coin. The bond
holders were paid in gold coin and every
body felt that they had no discrimi-
nation against them. The Ameri-
can people can stand anything but
discrimination. They al want to stand
Oh U1lC UOUuOLl. IL Ollc HILL Has III
dollar in gold everybody else wants a
dollar In gold. Therefore this policy of
resumption was nothing more or less
than to bring this paper dollar to the
value of a gold dollar. How was it done ?
We had accumulated in the treasury
gold little by little SO as not to disturb
the money market, to enable us to bring
about resumption and pay anybody that
wanted gold. In April, 1877, this pro-
cess of accumulation commenced. We
gradually put gold into the treasury at
the rate of five million dollars a month.
We had at that time no surplus revenue.
1t was a period of hard times, and yet we
sold the per cent. bonds and we got
gold and put every month into the
treasury five millions of dollars of gold.
But the Democrats halloed out, "This
will contract the currency" Instead of
contracting it expanded the currency.
We accumulated gold in the treasury,
our notes went up and gold went down.
That was not according to Democratic
logic, but according to the actual fact.
AS we accumulated this gold people be-
gan to believe that we should resume.
and we went on piling up this gold until
! SOhSiCOO lICt. SOuSlCOS Idu DSCOIuC
Democratic, and what did they do
They
| TRIED TO REPEAL THE RESUMPTION ACT:
they tried to arrest the funding opera
lions OF the government; they tried to
defeat resumption. That bill was sent
to the senate, and there it passed by all
but one vote; but [ didn't care for that.
because [ knew if it passed both houses
and went to the president, it would be
vetoed, and resumption would remain.
Applause. In the meantime congress
was doing all sorts of devilment. They
examined me day after day, week after
week, until they pumped me dry. I
gave them all the facts [ could get from
the books. Yet gold kept coming into
the treasury month after month, and
after about twelve months people began
to think, and say, well I believe the old
fellow will bring about resumption.
Laughter. During all this time the
Democratic party denounced the resump-
ton act. [ could read to you by the
hour the resolutions of all or nearly all
the states against resumption. Yes, six
months before resumption was success,
they passed resolutions in Wisconsin.
Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania,
New York, in nearly every state, de-
handing the immediate and uncondi-
tional repeal of the resumption act.
They said it was
A SHERMAN SHAM"
It was anything that was not good.
Every corner grocery that failed, they
said it was on account of the resumption
act. Laughter. Notwithstanding
that, the good sense and sober Judgment
of American people returned, and to-day
they have solid money. The people had
confidence, and three months before re-
sumption came the difference between
gold and paper had disappeared, and
within sixty days of resumption every
body knew that it was success; thirty
days before it came notes rose to par
III coin, and on the day of resumption
when the doors were thrown open and
the treasury was ready to redeem ary
notes that were offered, only 5000 in
notes were presented and $40, 900 of gold