The Indiana State sentinel., 1886-01-13


in order to enrich few organized c0mblna-
tions of manufacturers who seek no markets
abroad and refuse to sell their products in
competition with so-called paupers with
whom the farmers must compete, our condi-
tiOn is not satisfactory.
But agree that the Senate can not inau-
gurate measures to relieve the country from
expressions of that character; therefore l
propose to seek relief in the treatment of
our circulation, not by destroying it, but by
extending its usefulness. The extended
crusade against silver is only another evil
dence of the audacity of the organizations of
wealth they have always secured all they
demanded, however unjust their demands;
they have succeeded in alarming the Presi-
dent and the Secretary of the Treasury as
they have done several preceding administra-
tions; they threaten to use the power which
our laws give them over our currency, OF
withdrawal from circulation among the
people, and, if need be, from the country
the gold. they control, and thus derange, even
if ruin follows the business of the people.
Every concession increases their audacity
and adds to their power. A stand must be
made somewhere by the representatives
of the taxpayers, or an absolute sur
render of all the monetary interests of
the country tinto their hands must follow.
A mere reference to the past legislation of
Congress on this subject proves what say.
When it was first asserted, in 1868, by the
bondholders, as the time approached when
the United States could lawfully pay off the
500 per cent. bonds, and when the out
standing public debt exceeded 81, 600 000, 900,
that the honor of the country demanded
that the principal as well as the interest on
the bonds should be paid in. gold or silver
coin, a cry of Indignation was raised all over
the land against such demand by all
hs nest, disinterested men,
They were told and told truthfully, that
all the bonds they held had been purchased
with legal-tender notes at par; that for
each 800 in greenbacks they paid to the
Government they had received a bond for
500, bearing 6 per cent. interest, payable
in gold or silver coin; that the green
back when they exchanged it for the bond
was only worth 80 cents on the dollar in
coin, and that it was an outrage in the face
of the contract they had made, with the
privileges given to many of them in addition
as national bankers to have currency issued
for them to loan out on the security of their
bonds equal to 90 per cent. of the bonds de
posted, to demand that the principal of their
bonds should be paid in coin. They knew
everybody knew-that the claim was false.
The legal tender notes had and continue to
have an Endorsement on their back that
This note shall be receivable at its face value
for all debts, public and private, except in
teTest on the public debt and customs dues,
so that there could be neither doubt nor dis
pute either as to the law or the fact No.
body denounced the impudent demand of
the bondholders more emphalically than the
present presiding officer of the Senate Mr..
Sherman. He said in his letter to friend
in 1865:
DEAR SRI was pleased to receive your letter
Ny personal interests are the same as yours; but,
like you, do not intend to be influenced by them
My construction OF the law is the result of careful
examination, and feel quite sure an impartial
WOul0 affirm II If rhp QOuid he tried
before court. Isend you my views as fully stated
in a speech. Your idea is. that we propose to re-
pudiate or violate promise when we offer to re-
deem the principal in legal tenders.
/ think the bondholder violates his promise
when ne refuses to take the same kind OF money
he paid for the bonds. Ii the case is to be tested
by law, am right; if it is to be tested by Jay
Cookies advertisement am wrong l hate re-
pudiation, or anything like il, but we ought not
to be deferred from doing what is right by fear OF
Ii under the law as it stands the holders OF the
fvetwenties can only be paiG n gold, then we are
Iepudlators II we propose 10 Day otherwlse IL the
bOndhoiders can legally demand only the kind OF
money he paid. then he is repudiator and extor-
toner TO demand money more valuable than he
gave Truly yours JOHN SHRMAN.
Every word he said was true, and re-
mains true to this day. The pledge is on
the ,back of every greenback now that il
shall be receivable, at its face value, for
every debt, public and private. except inter
est ON the public debt and customs dues.
Lie men WHO ulOIC were IcpUuA-
ators of the public faith and credit, as he
truthfully and Indignantly said. Mr..
Stevens. then the leader of his party, de-
nounced their claim still more fiercely, and
threatened to abandon his party and JOIN
the Democsacy, even with Frank Blair on
the ticket, rather than countenance such an
outrage on public decency.
The subsequent legislation by Congress
only proves the truth of Macaulay's observa-
zion that If large pecunlary interests were
concerned in denying the truth OF the at
traction of gravitation that most OBVIOUS of
physical facts would be strongly and ably
disputed.
1t seems to me that any set of men who
would deny the fact that the legal-tender
note. indorsed as il was and is, which had
purchased the bonds at its face value should
be received again by the bondholder in pay
ment Of principal of the obligation he held,
would not hesitate 10 deny the truth of the
attraction of gravitation.
Yet these men not only denid it. but In
1869 procured the passage OF an act OF Con-
gresS, against the vote and protest Il am hap
py 10 say) of every Democrat in both Houses,
declaring that the principal Of the bonds
should be paid in coin-in gold and silver
coin, as both are named. Legal-tenders were
only worth fifty cents on the dollar in coin
when the bonds were bought: they were
worth from sixty-six to seventy cents when
this act was passed. Inc act was Simply
legalized robbery. The boddholders and
their attorneys in and oHt of Congress knew
it. and knew that no court would sustain
such law The Endorsement could neither
be erased nor sworn off the back OF the legal
tender note, and nobody could plead ignor
ance of the law or the fact that it was to bt
received at par in payment of the principa
| of all our bonds.
Therefore they caused tlie act of July IA
! 1870 to be passed, extending the time o
/ payment, reducing the interest, and ex
empting the new bonds in express term
/ from all taxation, State, Federal, or munic
\ ipal and to prevent all mistakes or misap
i prehension as to the character. quality anC
| weight Of the money in which payment o
the new bonds should be made they caused
to be printed on each bond as part of th'
obligation, "that it shall be paid in coin o
the standard value prescribed by law on th
14th day Of July, 1870" The present gol'
and silver coin are both of the STANDARD
value prescribed by the law of July Ii, 1870
and were then as now both full legal-tender
for all our obligations. All the bonds tina
mature IN 1892 and 1907, amounting to abou
81, 600, O0O, 900, stand to-day unchanged, an,
payable as required by the act of 1870. Th
remnant of those payable now have bee
changed, and the the time extended, but tn
same provisions govern them, and the sam
| conditions cre written ont as DarI of tn