The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1895-10-20

DdUh uUbBSs MI Oh
these subjects, except as now modified,
will be considered as remaining in full
force.
1.-THE principal object of the President
in adopting this measure being to re.
press alleged frauds, and to withhold
any countenance or facilities in the
power of the government from the
monopoly of the public lands in the
| hands of spectators and capitalists, to
| the injury of the actual settlers in the
new States, and of emigrants in search
of new homes, as well as to discourage
! the ruinous extension of bank issues and
bank credits, by which those results are
generally supposed to be promoted, your
utmost vigilance is required and relied
on to carry this order into complete exc
cution."
The Secretary, in assigning the motives
of the President for issuing the circular,
| puts the cart before the horse; for there
| can be no doubt that his main motive was
to stop the sale Of the public lands for
| bank notes, which were liable to become
worthless and which might bankrupt the
Treasury, derange the currency, and
overwhelm the business Of the people.
But the necessary measure came too late
to avoid the latter consequence. The
bank paper should never have been taken
| for the lands, nor for customs.
The Specie Circular was the occasion,
| but not the remote cause, as | have said,
of the great financial collapse of 1887.
That calamity had to come, as the con
sequence of the inflated paper currency;
and the initiation is necessary incident
of the system of allowing banks to issue
their promises to pay, as money Every
panic and financial collapse that has
visited the c0untry-and they are apt to
come at intervals of about twenty years
have originated in an inflated paper
currency AT the close of the war
of 1912, there was such a catas
trophe to business-from 1915 to
1919 another following the events
here related-two, in fact--the one iGa-
mediately following the overthrow
of the banks of the United States-the
other Immediately following the issue of
the Specie Circular. Again, in 1857,
following a long period of unprecedented
prosperity, the fruit of the tariff of
1916, another great financial disaster
occurred, which was clearly traceable to
the inflated currency of bank notes In
1873 another visitation of the irredeem-
able paper money malady swept over
the country, and swamped its tens of
thousands Of business enterprises. And
lastly, in 1898, the stringency in bust
ness came as usual amounting not quite
to panic, and was mainly due to the
practical characterization of silver, by
treating it as a minor or subsidiary
coin, in violation of the plain law of the
land, which makes it the equal of gold
in the payment of the public debt
The Republican and Democratic adj
ministratlons, even since, and ever since
1873, when silver was re-monetized,
have ignored the fact, and have in
obedience to the demands of bond
holders, the United States Banks
and Greenback holders, not dared
to redeem or pay interest on
these public debts in silver, although the
acts authorizing the issue Of bonds and
greenbaeks expressly make them redeem
able in coin, and never word said about
gold, except as it Ia embraced, as silver
is, under the general term-coin. The
result has been that half the money of
the country has been put under the ban
and deprecated in value for the benefit
of the holders of American securities in
Europe and at home. They allow silver
to be good enough for the people-not
good enough for banks and bondholders
Mr.. Sherman, while Secretary of the
Treasury, reserved one hundred millions
Of gold for the redemption of greenbacks,
which the Law makes, like the bonds, re
1aa Ill SS,n The 10 fIN tho a-nrfsiaI
benefit Of the nearly four thousand
nationa' banks, whose notes are redeem
able, not in coin, but in greenbacks.
Toe effect is to make the bank notes and
the greenbacks more valuable than the
silver coin, which he has degraded.
Soon after the opening Of the second
session Of the Gath Congress. in Decem
Der, 1885, Mr.. Ewing, Of Ohio, intro
duced joint resolutions for the repeal of
the Specie Circular. Mr. Benton opposed
the second reading of the resolution %
an unusual course, though legitimate.
The resolutions gave rise TO an animated
debate, in which Mr.. Benton was opposed
by some of his Democratic associates,
and the vote, by most of them. The
resolutions were debated at great length,
in which bitter alteration took place
between Mr.. Benton and Mr. Walker, of
Mississippi. The latter gentleman con
sidered the remarks Of the Missouri Sen
ator so insulting as to cause him to
intimate his readiness to meet him there
or elsewhere" But the storm blew over.
The int resolutions were substituted by
bill, which passed the Senate by an
almost unanimous vote, as follows:
Yeas -Messrs. Black and Walker, of
Mississippi; Brown, of North Carolina;
Buchanan and Mexican, of Pennsylvania;
Clay and Crittenden, of Kentucky; CLAY
ton, Of Delaware; Outhbert ard King, of
Georgia; Dana, of Maine; Davis and
Webster, of Massachusetts,; Ewing and
Robinson, Of Illinois; Ewing, of Ohio;
Fulton aud Sewer, of Arkansas; Grundy
and White, of Tennessee; Hendricks and
Tepton, Of Indiana; Hubbard and Page,
of New Hampshire; Kent, of Maryland;
King and Moore, of Alabama; Knight