The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1888-08-08

the republican party for its gigantic conspiracy
of the last twenty-seven years to shift every
| burden OF government from the monopolies
and the millionaires to the hard-handed and
| sunburnt people of the country, must be al
! lowed to take up every link in the chain of
proof; nor can We overlook financial policy
| which, by law almost doubled the real debt
| of the government and so fastened il on
the tax payers that they have already paid
three times the amount they rightfully owe.
| This campaign, on the part OF the democratic
/ party, is war against the unjust taxation OF
/ American labor for the benefit of enriched
| idlers and pampered monopolists, and we may
| as well cover the whole subject and take in
| the whole field. If the great theme in some of
its parts seems old and familiar, so also do the
best texts and teachings of the holy scriptures;
| and If the sins and crimes of the republican
party, as rehearsed in the present contest, have
an oftrepeated sound can only remind you
| that the history of Satan's administration of
affairs in the Garden of Eden four thousand
| years ago, as well as the betrayal OF the
Savior by Judas Iscariot, and the unjust judy
| ment OF Pontius PLATE in the beginning OF
! the Christian era, are still subjects of discus
sion by good and intelligent people.
But why should not the greenback, with its
| glorious history, and with all the crimes COM
mitted and attempted against it by the leaders
| of the republican party, come TO the front at
| this time, and at all times, when the interests
| OF the laboring classes are under considera-
| ton? Branded at its birth with the bar sinister
stigmatized and caricatured as rag baby, born in
a founding hospital, without known parentage;
| for years denounced as dshonet money fraud
upon the business and commercial world, yet
| it stands to-day in every state in the union
with its head as high and its purchasing power
as great as the brightest gold that ever flashed
| from the depths of the earth. Mr. Beck in
the speech already quoted from, said on the
| hoor oil the senate without contradiction that:
When legal-tender notes we're first circulated war
81 nv
| ers from tho beginning. That war was kept up, and
kept up persistently, and by persistently
than by the senator from Ohio TO the very end and
indeed TO this day. When the greenback first
issued the combinations of bankers got together and
determined that the greenback should be repudiated
50 far they concerned. They all agreed that
1t should be good enough for everybody but them;
tractors, for everybody except tho men who held the
| money-bags Of the United States.
When | entered the senate in November,
| 1877, most persistent and determined assault
| was being made on the lega!-tender quality of
| the greenback by the Hayes administration
John Sherman being secretary of the treasury,
and acting for the National Banking association
| and the money power generally. IL was well
| known that if the legal-tender power of this
currency was destroyed il would speedily pass
out Of existence. and leave the banks to supply
| the entire circulating medium; TO expand and
contract its volume at pleasure, and for their
own interests; to control and huctuate the
markets for spectators and stock gamblers,
/ ana In all respects 10 become the nnanclal
masters and dictators of the American people.
| Looking back now on the work have done in
| congress, can recall nothing more in harmony
with my sense of duty than the part took in
securing the enactment of the law now on the
statute books by which il was declared
the greenback had come to stay, 1916, 600,
| 900 strong, and by which it was made
| penal otense for any secretary of the treasury
! 10 allow il to be contracted a single dollar
below that amount. It's value rose at
| 10 nil Iao fharo
II furnished to the people SS46, 100000 of sound,
stable debtpaying money, and the impartial
| historian will record the fact that the protec
| ton OF the greenback and the restoration of
silver by the Forty-ffth congress broke the
horrible nightmare spell of the panic which
| from 1873 TO 1873 blighted and destroyed everv
| labor interest and caused the inmates of a
million homes to wiring their hands and wall in
despair.
who Should FiiI the AsyIums?
1t is true that the republican candi-
date for president at this time suggested in
1873 that an idiot asylum ought to be erected
for believers in the greenback; for you, my old
| greenback friends, and for me. | believed in
the greenback then, and do now, and take
! my place alongside OF you under Gen. Har-
risOns sweeping, intolerant, and, might say,
brutal criticism and denunciation. / did so
ten years ago, when he poured out his scorntul
! wrath upon us, and | was well content with
the result. He canvassed the state in 1878 as
the candidate OF his party for the senate. as
did, as the candidate of mine, and the people
| of Indiana decided by more than thirty thou
sand majority on the popular vote for members
| OF the legislature that he nearer a financial
idiot than | was, and that should go back to
| Washington and leave him at home. And now
| / will submit, in view of the history of the
| greenback, and the history OF the country dur
ing the pass ten years, whether the republican
candidate for the presidency in this A. d.,
| 1888, is not better entitled to a place in the
| asylum he hannilV recommended than thOSe
OF his fellOw-citizens againt whom his bitter
and envenomed shaft was hurled. / have
heard il said, however, in defense of Gen.
| Harrison's harsh intolerance and savage sar-
casm, thathe was speaking of those who be-
| lieved in fat money when he described q re-
| spectacle portion of the citizens of Indiana and
of other states as idiots requiring the contine-
ment and care OF an asylum. But how can
| this plea of exculpation aid him? Does he
not know that not a dollar of money, whether
| of gold, silver paper, ever did exist ever
will exist in this country except by the fiat of
the government? Does he not know that the
constitution of the United Ststes gives congress
the power to "coin money" and ito regulate
the value thereof" and that the supreme court
| has decided that this grant of power warrants
congress in creating paper currency and Civ
ing il the highest function of money the legal
tender quality? The term fiat in connection
with the creation of money was seized upon
some years ago by the agents and advocates of
the money monopolIsts with which to alarm
unthinking people. Webster says fiat is "a
| a command to do something; a decisive or eff
fective command; decree" and he illustrates
the meaning OF his definition by a couplet Of
poetry:
His fiat laid the cornerstone,
| And heaved the pillars one by one.
II Gen. Harrison or any of his friends can
show how money of any kind can be created,
and its value regulated for the use of the peo-
pie without the command, the decree, the fiat
of the government will be glad to see the
explanation. The truth is that the greenback
is peculiarly the peoples favorite money. 1t
goes into circulation without expense and ex-
forts from labor neither interest nor
taxes. But Gen. Harrison never took
the plain peoples side of any
question, so far rs my knowledge extends,
and this proclivity of his nature can alone ac-
count for the unspariDg bitterness of his as
sault on his countrymen Of the greenback per-
suation of 1875
TARIFF EXToRTIoN.
How the Republican Party Has Encouraged