The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1881-09-29
TIE CURRENCY ouEsrroN.
Democratic Platform.
vieksburg oOmmerciaI.l

Vieksburg Commercial
As one of the great political questions o
the near future is whether natioIal bank
shall be re-ehartered and shall hereafte
furnish the paper currency of the country
We have been asked to publish thsold Dem
ocratic platforms on this subject aad we de
so.
It will be remembered that unless there
are national bonds outstanding there can be
no national bank notes, for as soon as the
public debt is paid the national banks must
cease TO exist as banks of. issue. We find
the Republican party already beginning to
educate their followers up to the British
doctrine that ga public debt is a public
blessing" They maintain that We should
not pay of all the bonds of the government
but leave enough unpaid to form basis for
the national bank notes which they main
tain is the best paper currency we have ever
had
In other words the people must pay in
terest at the rate of twelve million dollars
annually or twelve hundred million in a
hundred years simply to enable national
banks to issue paper money which could be
better issued by the government without
any cost except the printing.
In view of this question we give the Dem
oeratic platform upon that subject.
In 1882 the Democrats had NJ formal
platform on the subject but made the can
vas on Gen. Jackson's message on the bank
question as its platform.
From 1886 to 1856 the platform was
about the same and we give therefore only
the platform of 1856 which was as follows:
6. That Congress has no power to charter
a national bank; that we believe such an
institution one of deadly hostility to the
best interests of the country, dangerous to
our Republican institutions and the liber-
ties of the people, and calculated to place
the business of the country within the troll |
OF a concentrated money power, and above
the laws and the will of the people and that
the result of Democratic legislation, ia this |
and all financial measures upon which issues |
have been made between the two political
parties of the country, have demonstrated to /
candid and practical men Of all parties their |
soundness, safety, and utility, in ali business |
pursuits.
Z. That the separation of the moneys OF |
the government from banking institutions is +
Indispensable for the safety of the funds OF
the government and the rights of the people.
In 1868 the first canvass after the war the
platform was as follows;
"3. Pay off the public debt of the United
States as rapidly as practicable; all moneys
drawn from the people by taxation, except
so much as is requisite for the necessities of
the government economically administered,
being honestly applied to such payment,
and when the obligations of government do
10 not expressly state upon their face or the
law under which they were issued does not
prove that they shall be paid in coin, they
ought, in right and justice, be paid in the |
awful money of the United States. Thun- .
1ers of applause.
81. Equal taxation of every species of
property according to its real value, includ- I
ng government bonds and other securities
Renewed cheers and cries of Read it again! {
Read it again. G
80 One currency for the government and .
he people, the laborer and the office-holder, ="
he prisoner and the soldier, the producer |
nd bondholder Great cheering and cries I
+ Read it again."
In 1899 the original draft of the platfor m l.
'as simply "honest money" When Mr..
Fatterson, who was chairman OF the COM
littee on resolutions, reported this to the I
al committee, Maj. BArksdale, who was u
opposed to national banks, moved to amend t
follows:
Honest money, consisting of gold and sill II
er, and paper convertible into coin on de- r,
and.
And this was adopted.
Now paper money convertible into coin on
emand does not and can not mean national pl
pk notes, fol- they are by law payable in y
cenbacks on demand: The platfo. M pI