Fairhaven herald. [volume] (Fairhaven, Wash.) 1890-????, 1892-10-29
REPUBLICAN, FINANCIERING

In the New York Independent SEN
ator Sherman, with the master hand Of
a great statesman and financier,
sketches the grand record of the Re
publican party on the subject Of
finance. 1t should be read by every
voter, and especially those who have
been inclined to lend willing ears to
the senseless sayings of the false proph-
cts of evil who, from the platforms of
the opposing parties, rant about ruin as
a certain result of the continuance of
the Republican party in power. The
senator says:
The financial legislation of the Repub-
lican party constitutes a series Of land
marks OF American progress. The great
measures OF the war period were those
providing for the issue and ultimate re-
demption Of the legal-tender greenbacks,
and for the establishment of the national
bank system. These were followed. after
the war. by the refunding and resumption
acts. The general principles upon which
legislation was grounded assumed that
the public debt was to be regarded always
as temporary burden, to be paid as rap
idly as possible, and that every promise
made to creditors must be fully redeemed.
Although debt was contracted so vast
in volume that one years interest on IT
exceeded the financial Obligations incurred
during the War OF the Revolution, provi-
sion was made for its rapid conversion
into securities bearing low rates of in
terest, and for the payment Of twothirds
OF 1t during the life Of single generation.
The taxpayers Of the period Of the Civil
War were compelled to do their duty
as well as the soldiers were doing theirs
In the field. Taxation was kept at the
highest aggregate which industry would
bear, and the burden Of the debt was
virtually carried by the generation which |
incurred IL. The success # the refunding
acts was largely dependent upon the re-
sumption Of specie payments. That was
a supreme act of good faith which estab-
that reiunding operations we're conducted
with extraordinary facility.
In consequence OF thirty years expert
ence with Republican financial legislation |
the American people have the proud dis
tinction Of being the only great nation
that pays Its debts. They have also a |
currency which was brought by laborious
processes to par with gold. They have
also national bank system which has
steadily grown in popular favor, and I'M
der which not a dollar has ever been lost |
TO note-holder, and only the smallest |
fraction to depositors.
All these great policies have been &C
compllshed without the aid of the Demo-
cratic party. The funding act of 1870, by !
were changed by the conversion of all
classes Of national securities, was passed
without a single Democratic vote in either |
house. The resumption act OF 1875 was
opposed by every Democrat in both /
houses. The national banking act was
denounced as unconstitutional by the |
Democratic party during the war, and its |
hostility to the system has not ceased to
this day, when the repeal OF the tax on |
state bank issues is deliberately proposed |
in its national platform. The party thirty /
years ago defended these state issues, al
though they we're not secured. and had no |
uniform value throughout the country.
were easily counterfeited, and displaced
greenbacks. IL advocates return to the
same system now, and apparently from
deliberate preference for an inferior cur
rency. In like manner majority OF the
same party, instead Of cooperating with
the Republican par ty in adjusting the re-
lations between gold and silver so that
both metals will circulate at par with
each other, favor unlimited free coiuage.
by which gold viii be drained out Of the
treasury and the country plunged head
long into recommendation on the lowest
plane.