Ashtabula weekly telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1880-1886, 1880-10-29


wcnlthy people, who are able 10 pay. Through
the shrowdnesa Of New Jersey and New Eng.
lana men, IN n short time we will be able 70
compete with Lyons, I'm France, in six manu-.
facturo.
AZ the beginning We do have 20 pay more
sometimes, but at the moment that mnnufao-
lures prosper there comes I'm domestic com
petition, ana soon brings down the price Of
goods. Now, my countrymen, YOU know that
u the accommodations Of life 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 we
have built up all kinds OF labor, furnished tho
market for our farmer, implements for our Ia.
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
were also opposed 10 the Homestead law
Whyr Because, "agin the law Of 49," The
Democrats maintain that the only power of
Congress over land IS to sell II and probably
spend the money as soon as could be, but we
favor giving our people homes where they can
became President we passed the Homestead
law, and Il could not have been passed but for
the Republican Congress. So In every ques.
ttOn of politics. l defy anyman to show where
the doctrine OF States rights does not enter I'm
and poison every effort made for the common
good and welfare. It is only the Republican
party that has opposed their schemes
We believe that this is Nation, spelled with
a great big n; that It Is n powerful Nation
able to fight any battle Of self. defense, as
fairest 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 biRRermanthan
Uncle Sam-that this Is confcderucy of
States. There is the principal line Of demar.
cation.
The noise of the passing procession became
clamorous, and the speaker stopped. "ThRt
is for Indiana" he said, a moment afterward;
"let us stand up and give three cheers for
Ohio and Indiana"
- We offer Liberty, protection, National power,
National glory. We love our flag, our country
not only Illinois, but our whole country
Secretary sherman then turned to the fnan.
cial state of the Nation at the close of Bu.
chanan's administration. In 1861 we sold our
6 per cent bonds at cighty-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 u per cent. Truly our
financial credit was pretty well played out.
That was not all. The last Democratic SeCrc-
tary of the Treasury, after having trouble to
borrow money at ~ per cent. offered to give
as pledge the guarantee of the state to secure
the payment Of this money by the United
states. He 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 peteredou Such
was the condition in which James Buchanan,
the last Democratic President, and the last
that ought ever to be President, left this Ma
n
Our currency is honorable among the Ma.
tions of the world. Our 4 per cent. bonds are
selling at Ill, On the day they were issued
lines of people stood at your Posto1ice here
in Chicago seeking to buy them at par. Look
also at the fact that at the close of the war we
had debt of S27OO,OOO0OO, besides a large
amount of floating debt for pensions, etc
People were alarmed. They were afraid that
the Government would fail and that repudia.
ton, that grim Specter, would appear at our
banqueting. 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 I'm a little while we passed "the act
to strengthen the public credit" WedCclared
in that act we would pay off our bonds ac-
Cording to their terms. But u year after that,
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, AZ 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
tive or ten years; at that time we had 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
will pay them as we agreed to pay them-in
coin" A good many good men squirmed
about it. They feared and over estimated
the burden of that debt But let us see.
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,
600 600 were sold at par and that meant So.
100000 a year saved in interest. Afterward,
when assumed the Office of Secretary of the
Treasury, $50 OI0O0O or $50 100000 of the ~ per
cent. bonds had been sold. l made up my
mind that those bonds were too good to sell at
par; that we had better sell the per cent.
bonds at par. The syndicate of bankers which
then conducted these operations declined to
assist me. The per cent. bonds were put on
the market in 1875, and the people of the
United States, strange gudgeons as they were,
grabbed S75,0OO0OO of them in sixty days.
lCheers.l The Democratic Congress talked
about the defeat of the Resumption act they
shook the 0uDllg 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 tn 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 II little
In 1853, in the same year in which the act to
strengthen the public credit was passed, we
declared that we would bring about the
resumption of specie payments as soon as
possible. Why did We do thatY The reason
was that the bondholder was receiving
were receiving deprecated paper for
their goods and labor. During the
war we couldn't help that. In order to get
money we had to stipulate that the bonds
would be paid in gold. We paid them in gold,
because we had agreed to do so, and that was
enough for honest men to know. The idea
was that the United States notes must be re.
tired, or become appreciated to par. After
1868 our credit advanced our bonds advanced.
Finally, however, the Republican party,which
always has had to crack all the hard nuts for
the last twenty years, took up the question of
specie resumption. A committee OF nine Sen.
ators prepared a plan presumption, ofwhich
committee General Logan was one and was
another. Finally we agreed upon the Re.
sumption act. We knew that no Democrats
could vote for that bill. We considered IL in
caucus, reported it to the Senate, and passed
it, and no Democrat had the honor of voting
for it. They said it was shame; they hon.
ored it by calling it "a sherman shame.h They
all said we couldn't do It. All the Democratic
State Conventions, including that of Illinois,
demanded its immediate and unconditional
nj Matt
tion uttered the same sentiment. During
Grants administration nothing was done eN-
cept to pay out fractional coin for fractional
currency. But in April, 1871, twenty months
before the act was to take efect-becanse we
had promised to resume on Jan, !, 1871 com
menced TO make preparations to carry the act
into execution, 1t was not difficult OF eXecu-
tion, as was supposed was as easy as falling
off a log. At this time paper money was
vance the value of that money up
to par. The only way was to accu-
mulate coin in the Treasury, and pre-.
pare, so that ON the day of resump.
tion you could redeem any notes presented
for that purpose. We had to purchase, and 1t
was objected that If we purchased coin, we
suppose we accumulate coin, the people
would believe we intended to resume, and the
rates would go up, instead of gold going up.
And that is what happened Afterward they
got the idea that the money in the Treasury
was not gold; they said 1t was something else,
they didn't know what-certifcates phantom
gold, or something of that kind. And one day
General Ewing saidin the House of Represen-
tatives, where they were crazy hot against this
act, that this gold that was talked OF as being
in the Uuited States Treasury was phantom
gold. / saw General Ewing who Is a very
clever and honest nan, and a kind of relation
OF mine you know, and said, do you really
believe this gold is phantom gold2" He re-
piled, Part Of it." Then invited a commit
tee of three doubling Thomases to come up
20 the Treasury and count IL, and sec it, and
handle It, and tell me what they found. He
took his committee. They went to great
room full of vaults. There was a great vault
thirty by fifteen and fifteen feet high
yUithOut "a dOor Thpy liphted the goa . ~