Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1886-02-04
Congress Is asked or expected to throw

lied, unequippped, and therefore neg
lected militia, whose strength cannot
be brought to bear with half the effici-
ency Of a single regiment of thorough
ly armed veterans, fighting for special
interest. This Is illustrated here and
now by the zeal everywhere displayed
by the combination of bankers and
bondholders and their able and we'll
paid press to maintain their bonds at a
premium of "a per cent. or rather to in
crease that premium to 80 or 40 per cent.
at the expense of the already impover-
ished masses of Taxpayers. It seems
as though it was thought to be the duty
of Congress to see to it that the rich
should be made richer by making the
poor poorer. Why should we be in hot
haste to strike down our silver currency
for fear of fall in our Outstanding
bonds below "a per cent. premium2
Have the representatives of the people
any interest in maintaining, far less in
increasing, the premium on bonds
bearing per cent. interest beyond "a
per cent, when we must soon become
the purchasers of them at any premi-
um, or else contract our currency at
ruinous rates by locking up in the Treas
ury all our surplus revenue, as reduc-
tion of Taxation seems to be impossible,
by the passage of laws which will still
further depreciate the prices of farm
products, now SO low that producers
cannot raise them and pay wages to
their laborers on which they can live?
When fat hogs sell at 81 cents pound
and other things in proportion, when
all the world is combining to exclude
our agricultural products from their
markets in retaliation against our pro-
tective system, which prohibits our
farmers from buying what they must
sell, unless they pay 46 per cent. on the
average more than they are offered
them for, in order to enrich few or
ganized combinations 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 condition is
not satisfactory.
But l agree that the Senate cannot
lnaugurate measures to relieve the
country from oppression of that char
acter; therefore propose to seek relief
in the treatment of our circulation, not
by destroying it, but by extending its
usefulness. The present crusade against
silver is only, another evidence of the
organizations ofwealth; they have al
ways secured all they demanded. how
ever u'just their demands; they have
succeeded in alarming the President
and the Secretary of the Treasury as
they have done, threaten to use the
power which our laws give them over
our currency, of withdrawing from cir
cuation among the people and, if need
be, from the country the gold they con-
troll, and thus derange, even if ruin fol-
lows, the business of the people. Ev-
cry concession increases their audacity
and adds to their power. A stand must
be made somewhere by the representa-
tives of the taxpayers, or an absolute
surrender of all the monetary interests
of the country into their hands must
follow. A mere reference to the past
legislation of Congress on this subject
proves what I say. When it was first
asserted in 1868, by the bondholders, as
the time approached when the United
States could lawfully pay off the $50
6 per cent. bonds, and when the out
standing principal of the public debt
exceeded $2,600,000, that the honor of
the country demanded that the princi.
cipal 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
honest, disinterested men.
They were told, and told truthfully,
that all the bonds they held had been
purchased with legal-tender notes al
par; that for each 500 in greenbacks
they paid to the Government they had
received bond for 500, bearing pei
cent. interest, payable in gold or silver
coin; that the greenback when they ex-
changed it for the bond was only worth
so cents on the dollar in coin, and that
it was an outrage in the face of the
contract they had made, with the priv.
ileges given to many of them in addi-
tion as national bankers to have cur.
rency issued for them to loan out on
the security of their bonds equal to &C
per cent. of the bonds deposited, to de.
mand that the principal of their bond.
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 or
their back that "This note shall be re-
ceivable at its face value for all debts
public and private, except interest or
the public debt and customs dues,n Sc
'hat there could be neither doubt MOI
: dispute either as to the law or the fact
Nobody denounced the impudent de
mand of the bondholders more emphat
ically than the present presiding office
of the Senate Mr.. Sherman.1 He sale
in his letter to friend in 1858:
DEAR SIR: was pleased to receive
your letter. My personal interests ar,
the same as yours; but, like you, I dt
not intend to be Influenced by them
My construction of the law is the result
of careful examination, and I feel quit,
sure an impartial court would affirm it
if the case could be tried before court
tend you my views as fully stated in
speech. Your idea is, that we propos,
to repudiate or violate q promise whel
| we offer to redeem the "principal" IL
legal-tenders. a !.
I think the bondholder violates hi
promise when he refuses to take tn,
same kind of money he paid for til,
bonds. If the case is to be tested b,
law, I am right; If it is to be tested b.
Jay Cookies advertisement, I an
wrong. l hate reputation, or any
thing like it, but we ought not to b,
deferred from doing what is right b.
fear of undeserved epithets.
i If under the law as 1t stands the hold
ers of the five-twenties can only b,
paid in gold, then we are repudiaton
If we propose to pay otherwise. If thu
Il n