Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1882-06-06

pOoc VI meoliuB eAdeAy
turss il the issue Of more and more such
notes, without . redemption fund, result
ing in their gradual depreciation with
each new issue, and the consequent de-
ransement and final collapse Of business.
The continental currency issued during
the Revolutionary war, the assignats and
mandats of the French Revolution, the
deprecated government paper Of Italy
which that kingdom is making SUI
prsms effort to get nd Of, the collapsed
issues of Turkey. and our own long de-
preciatsd greenbacks-which have been
brought back to par only after the most
strenuous efforts, and in the face of the
most strenuous efforts, and in the face Of
the greatest opposition-are all histori-
cal illustrations Of the dangers of govern
ment notes issued as circulating med
ium. So clear and unmistakable have
been the teachings of history on this point
that no nation with sound and staple
currency is undertaking to issue an ex-
elusive government credit circulation.
WARNINGS OF OUR STATESMEN.
In the face Of the lessons Of history,
shall We undertske to set up an exclusive
Government credit currency, And to
do this, too, against the all but unani-
nous warning Of the statesmen Of the
past
The trainers Of our constitution, by a
vote Of nine States to two, deliberately
struck out of the original draft Of that
instrument clause giving to Congress
the power to ''emit bills on the credit
of the Government, for fear that
it would serve as a pretext for per-
manent Government paper currency
currency of which the fathers had had
bitter experience. Madison, in the Fed
erslist, only gave expression to the judg
ment of the founders of our Government
when he spoke Of this kind of paper
money as one Of the gravest evils that
could be inflicted on q nation. Bancroft
in his admirable history of the formation
of the constitution, just published, shows
that it was the purpose of the trainers Of
tha, instrument to maksa perm amen;
Government paper money impossible.
DEMOCRATIC STATESMEN OPPOSED TO \.
PERMANENT GOVERNMENT CREDIT
CURRENCY.
With the single exception of Calhoun
who in his oft-quoted Tressury-nO
speech in 1887 advocated an inoonverti-
Die Government; paper currency, not one
of the great statesmen who laid the foun-
da,ions Of our Government, not one Of
the long line of great democratic and re-
publican leaders ever advocated an issue
of Treasury notes as permanent credit
currency. In the great currency debate
in the Senate, September 18th, 1887,
Benton. the political mentor of the DEM
ocratie party and the organ of Jsckson's
administration, said
'As currency it the Government
note is the mos. seductive, the most
dangerous, and the most liable to abuse
Of all the descriptions of paper money"
And the great champion of Jackson
democracy proceeded to give as the prom
insnt reason why a Government credit
currency is "the most dangerous and the
most liable to abuse Of all the descrip- |
tons Of paper money that
The stamping of paper BY govern
ment is an operation so much easier than
the laying of taxes or of borrowing money |
that a government in the habit of paper |
emissions would rarely fail in any smer-
xency to indulge itself too far in the en-
ployment Of that resource"
And to give greater authority to his
warning, Benton added:
L" Said General Hamilton and Jeffer-
son, Madison, Macon, Randolph, and all |
the fathers Of the Republic concurred
with him"
Then, to draw the line clearly between |
what the fathers held admissible and
what inadmissible in issuing Treasury
notes-a line Of demarkation &c which |
direct the attention especially ofour DEM
ocratic friends who claim to reverence the
authority ofJeferson, Madison, Randolph
and Jackson Benton affirmed:
"They these eminent democratic
fathers held it inadmissible to recur to
i, the Treasury note in time of peace,
and that it could only be thought Of
amidst the exigencies and perils of war
Treasury notes have been temporarily
issued in variou, public s1igencies, but
previous to the issue of 1852, in the cri-
sis of civil war, they always bore inter-
est and were payable at fixed time, and
in consequence of these characteristics