Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1895-02-28
MR. sHERMANS BLACK CONTRACTS.

Senator Lodge proved again, on Satur-
day, the easy superiority OF All educated
man over blatherskites in their own
speciality. After the mining-camp Sena-
tors had poured out their vituperation on
the President for saving the public credit.
the cultured son of Harvard distaneed
them all by saying Of the bond-contract
ut is on its face the blacklist public con-
tract ever made by the government of the
United States" Yesterday the cry was
taken up by Senator Sherman. He left
the blackness and the blackguardsm to
Lodge, and contented himself with calling
the contract faulty and improvident.h
| This suggests an inquiry as to the nature
of the contracts which he himself made MS
| Secretary of the Treasury. What were
they and what was said of them at the
time?
The details are all set forth in the vol
nme published by the government in 1880
on Specie Resumption and Refunding of
the National Debt" One has only to read
il TO discover that essentially the same
| difficulties confronted the Treasury then
| as embarrass il now, and that essentially
| the same measures were chosen to sur
mount them. The arguments that make
out Carlisle's contract black, make out
| Sherman's blacker.
The first argument which Lodge and his
-blackguards use is that the Treasury
has put itself i'll the power of foreigners.
| The Jews have lis on the hip, But what
| are the names of the 'parties of the
second part" in the contracts made by
| Secretary Morrill, in 1876 and Secretary
| Sherman i'll 1877 and 1882 Why, they
| are the dreadful names at the sound of
which every true American starts IN
horror, unless he is in position where he
| must get a loan-the names of Rothschild,
| Seligman, Raphael, Kuhn, Loeb, HOff-
mann and Others are ominous On April
| 18th, 1878, the following cable message
was received at, the Treasury in WASH
ington, than which, as the orators say,
nothing more damning ever appeared i'll Il
| government publication
Very pleased we have entered Into relations
| again with American go ernment. Suall do
our best ~ make the business successful.
| hOTHsCHlLDs.
What splitting of throats and cracking
| of ear-drums there would be over such a
message now-the Jew firm gloating over
u victimlzed Secretary
The second argument to show the ex-
ceeding blackness of the Carlisle contract
| is the tuct that it gives the syndicate an
| option on all bonds that may be issued up
| to next October. If this makes the Car
Isle contract black, it makes the Morrill,
| ana sherman contracts blacker. Those
documents gave the wicked foreign syndi-
cate not an option, but an exclusive
| right" TO subscribe tor further bonds. AS
a matter of fact on two occasions MIR.
sherman had offers for several millions of
bonds at better figures than the syndicate
would give. He was obliged to decline
them on the ground that the syndicate had
a monopoly. This makes a mere option
look positively white.
Finally, say or shrek the blatherskites.
the syndicate is going to make an enor-
nous amount of money. This is what
worries Mr.. Sherman. Selling bond at
l0i which may soon be placed at lis or 10
is too much for him. Senator Gray forci-
bly, retorts that the great Ohio trimmer
really makes the favorable situation
created by the prompt action of the Treas
ury the ground for condemning it, Ii the
action had not been taken, no bonds could
have been sold at amy price,, The nation
was only three days away from bank
ruptcy. Owing to that emergency, and by
surmounting it, the bankers were able to
make a profit out Of their investment.
This is sufficient answer on general
principles But better answer to Senator
Sherman is OF the tn quOque sort. If it is
faulty and improvident" to sell a ~ bond
at l0i, with the prospect of seeing 1t quoted
at lis, what is it to sell per cent bond
at 100, only to have it quoted in few
years at l96?
Senator Sherman dwells in an even more
fragile glass house than this. He admits
that the motives and the character of Sec
rotary Carlisle are beyond suspicion. Was
the same said of him in lS77-f79? Has he
forgotten the ugly talk in those years about
Fort sherman? Has he no memory for
Congressional inquiries, for demands for a
list of commissions paid(and they mounted
up into the millions), for the complaints
about double interest allowed favored
banks, and, in particular, for the charge
that he had practically handed over clean
81 100000 OF profits to single bank in
this city? Has he no recollection of the
talk OF indlcting or impeaching him? In
an interview in the Tribune of December
18th, 1875, Mr.. Sherman admitted that the
banks had made huge profits out of the
exercise OF his discretion in making them
! refunding agents. Is he the man to lead
!, of i'll railing accusations against his sue
cessor in oiiCep IL is safe to say that no
} charges of personal dishonesty will be
made against Secretary Carlisle In the New
York Republican platform of 1875 such
| as we're made against Senate or Sherman, by
implication, in the New York Democratic
platform of 1879
} For our part, we never credited those
: charges for an instant. We saw in Sena-
tor SherInans resumption and refunding
operations great service TO the country
: | performed with great skill and IN the face
l Of great difficulties. But those operations
2 were substantially similar to the one Just
! closed by the present administration The
! Treasury was in urgent need of gold, and
! had then as now to turn to the men who
1 had it. The gold had to be taken then a
Q now on the terms of the men who were
5 asked to part with it, not on the terms OF
the men who were IN desperate straits fol
1 lack of 1t. Then US now contracts had ID
. be made which were onerous which
yielded a good profit to the bankers, bul
which also resulted in great savings TO INC
government, and which secured the aid oI
i the financial world in sustaining tile GOOD
4 faith OF this nation lii 1877 and in 1875
s the syndicate undertook to control the
: rates OF sterling exchange just as they do
. | now.
q In all this we see nothing but what is
4 proper and patriotic Nor is it surprising
/. that the wolves should open in full 'cry on
a the contract of 1895 Just as they aid oil
t those of 1877 and 1873. But the thing that
q is surprising, that is outrageous and in
' tolerable, is to lind tins particular old gra 1
/ wolf now leading the pack. Blackg,iard
: Ism must needs come, and blathers kite.
there Will always he; but to see the black
v guarded of 1875 turn blackguards in 1885
|. to md Lodge, Sherman and the Tyib,tn,
c among the blathcrsktes-these thing,
i cannot overcome lis without our spetin
a wonder.
u A SKELETON IN the RUINS.
n N.w...E II