The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1895-01-26
THE POWER OF MONEY TO
CYPRESS.
Conclusion of Essay Read by Col. EnOch
NOyeS Before the Cecil Farmers
Club, Jan. 10, 1895.


process before. 1t is not possible to take
that voyage without the sorest distress to
every person, except capitalists out of debt,
or salaried officer, or annuitant. 1t is
period of loss, danger, lassitude of trade,
fall OF wages, suspension of enterprise,
bankruptcy and disaster. 1t means the
ruin OF all dealers whose debts are twice
their business capital, though one third
less than their actual property. 1t means
the fall OF all agricultural pl oductions with
out any great reduction of taxes. What
house, a railroad, ii factory, or a barn,
with the certain fact before him that the
greenbacks the money OF the contract
that he puts into his improvements will in
few years, be worth 80 per cent more
than his Improvements are then worth.
When this comes every man, as the sailor
says, will be close reefed all enterprises
will be suspended; every bank will have
contracted its currency to the lowest limit,
and the debtor compelled to meet in coin IA
debt contracted in currency yet the money
of the contract) will find the coin boarded
i'll the Treasury and no representative OF
coin in circulation; his property shrunk.
not only to the extent of the contraction OF
the currency but still more by the artificial
scarcity made by the holders Of gold. To
attempt this is to impose upon our people.
by arreSting them in the midst of their
lawful bushes and apply wing a new standard
of value to their property without any
deduction of their debts, or giving them
any opportunity to compound with their
creditors or to distribute their losses: and
would be an act of folly, without exampl.
in evil in modern times.
! remark for all, this prophecy, which j.
actually the condition of things to-day he.
the said John sherman, the banker in ISIS,
by his act in conjunction with European
bankers, demonetized silver thereby con-
tracing the money, making possible thu
very condition he prophecied would bring
disaster to the producing classes.
Then again in speech delivered in the
L. 5. Senate February 21th, 1867, referring
to the payment Of our debt in the none,
of the contract, he said Equity and justice
are amply satisfied if we redeem the bond,
at the end of five years in the same kind of
money, of the same intrinsic value it bore
at the time they were issued. Gentlemen
may reason about this matter over and over
again, listen and they cannot come to
any other conclusion; at least that has been
my conclusion after most careful consid-
Grafton Senators are sometimes in the
an antagonist OF saying this is reputation.
Why sir, every citizen of the United States
has conformed his business to the LEGAL
tender clause-he has collected ana pai,
his debts accordingly"
Ben Wade said: Il am for the laborinr
class of people. the rich can take care of them
selves. While most scrupulously live up
to the contracts of the government, will
fight the bondholder as resoutely when he
undertakes to get more than the pound
OF flesh We never agreed to pay the 5-20's
in gold; no man can find it in the bond.
and never will consent to have one pay.
ment for the people; it would sink any
party and it ought to. To talk of specie
payments or a return to specie payments,
under present circumstances, is to talk like
fool it would destroy the country as
etfectually as fire. and any contraction of
the currency at this time is about as bad
Does the Club think that if the money of
the contract, the greenback, had not beer
funded into interest bearing bonds, and the
predictions of the statesmen would to-day
be painful reality. These expressions
simply voice the opinions of scores of states
men and writers in this and other coun-
tries-simply, plainly and truthfully, that
when person agrees to pay debt he
should be allowed to pay it in the money
of the contract, and that changing the
money of the contract before the debt is
paid is heinous crime made more pain
fully manifest when individuals are made
rich at the expense of the laboring classes
who are the sole producers of wealth.
Fellow members of the Cecil Farmers
Club, | would that | could not paint a
more deplorable condition than what |
have attempted. Such is not the case.
A truthful saying is that, by their fruits
We shall know them. | will give few
facts and figures from personal and general
observation which may be of interest to the
club and others, showing how contraction
of the volume of money has effected the
producing clauses
In 1866, our national debt was So, 1885,
100000. We have paid on principal,
81, 756, 900, 600; paid as interest, 2,53s,-
100000; paid as premium, sos, OO0,0
Total amount paid, 81, 352, 600, 900. 1t will
take more wheat and cotton to pay our
debt now of 81, 027, $50, 600 than it would
in 1866, with a debt of 81, 1888, 900, 600.
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