The Portland daily press., 1895-12-12

of its notes-debts payable in gold on de-
mand-which could neither be retired by
receiving such notes in discharge of obi
cations due the government, nor cancelled
by actual payment in gold" and further
| on:
The notes of this description NOTES
by their terms payable in either gold or
silver coin-"now outstanding, added to
1.-THE United States notes still undiinin-
1shed by redemption or cancellation, con-
Istltute volume of gold obligations
amounting to nearly s5Uo, o00, 600. These
obligations are the instruments, which
ever since we have had u gold reserve
have been used to deplete it,"
What right had the President to say
that old Treasury notes of the United
States now are or ever Were debts paya-
BILE in gold on demand? What right has
he to call the notes given for the pur-
chase of silver bullion under the Sher-
man act ''gold obligationss"
The contract is in the obligation it
self and if there be any uncertainty about
| its stipulations, it is for the courts O de-
termine their scope and meaning. 1t is
for the President and his financial agent,
the Secretary, to perform the contract on
the part of the United States, aud not to
alter it or make it over according to their
ideas, in disregard both of the over and
over expressed intention of the national
| ion of the national judiciary.
The President knows, as every citizen
of ordinary Intelligence knows. that not
only the demand notes Of the United
| States are due in coln-in silver coin, if
the government sees fit to exercise it's
legal dlsoregion-but that the bonds of
the United States as to their principal
are also, by their terms, due in coin, and
that Congress though importuned BY the
President, as to his last issue of bonds
expressly refused to make them paya-
BILE in gold.
There had been some uncertainty about
the extent and character of the national
obligation Members of Congress had
maintained, that the United States bonds
might be paid in any legal tender money,
and that as they had been purchased not
with gold, or any other coin, but, with
deprecated paper, they might honestly
be refunded in paper that the govern
ment had raised and maintained to the
par of gold. To make this matter GER
tain. Congress on the 18th of March, 1869,
enacted as follows:
The faith of the United States Is SOL
emily pledged to the payment in coin or
it's equivalent of all the obligations Of the
United States not bearing interest,
known as United States notes, and Of all
the notwithstanding obligations of
the United States, except in cases where
the law authorizing the issues of such OBJ
legations has expressly provided that the
same shall be paid in lawful money or
other currency than gold or silver"
do not know what the words 'or its
equivalent, mean, unless they mean, that
| if payment is made in some currency
other than gold or silver the discount, if
any, on the medium OF payment shall
also be paid so as to make it equivalent
| to coins.
When then the government wished
to strengthen it's credit and reassure its
creditors, it did not, as the President
seems to believe, pledge it's faith to pay
ment of all or either of its obligations in
| gold, not even in silver, but to their pay
ment in either gold, silver or their equiv
alent.
1t is true that from 1873 to 1878 while
silver was demonetized it ceased to be
legal tonder and a complete instrument
| of payment for sums exceeding IS, but
| when by the Bland act of 1878 the legal
| tender quality of coined silver was ex-
pressly restored. any and all Of the o5liga-
tions of the United States could have
been, and can now be as legally, as
as they can be in gold, to say nothing of
the permission of Congress to pay them
in ''the equivalent of either
LAWS NULLIFIED.
In what way has the President disre-
garded the plain requirement of existing
laws? The answer can be gathered from
his own excuses He has appropriated his
gold reserve to the payment Of other obli-
cations of the United States than the
1916, 600, 600 of United Statos notes for
the redemption of such as should be de-
manded, tn Q proceeds of the sales of
United states bonds prior to January
| /, 1879, and the proceeds Of the sale of his
own three issues of United States bonds
If indeed the latter were not issued
without any warrant of law-were ex-
pressly and exclusively devoted, that is to
the payment of the United States notes
issued in payment for purchased silver
| bullion under the Sherman Act, by their
| terms payable in silver as we'll as gold,
and even to the payment of silver certifi-
/ Gates.
That it>was the manifest intention of
Congress to have the legal tender silver
coin authorized by tho Sherman Act used
| to redeem the United States notes given
| for the bullion out of which it had been
coined, is manifest by the terms of the
| Act itself, which declares that the Secre-
tary of the Treasury "shall coin as much
of the bullion silver as may be necessary
for the redemption of the Treasury notes
herein provided for. Did Congress SO
stultify itself as to require it's servant,
the Secretary, to coin enough silver dol
lars to pay all the United States notes
| given in purchase of silver bullion, if
only gold was to be used IN such pay
| ment?
But what is the Presidents excuse for
paying the Sherman United States notes
which he tries to justify. and the silver
certificates. which it evidently passes his
| ingenuity to justify, out of fund raised
and expressly appropriated to another
purpose? o, to maintain the parity of
silver to gold, and he quotes declaratiye
clause of the Sherman Act as his
sufficient warranty.
MAINTAINING The PARITY.
The President is too good a lawyer no
to know that the recitative statement Of
the lntont, and purpose of a statute in
the body of a section, as we'll as the pre-.
liminary whereas at the beginning of a
section is no part of the mandatory
clauses of the statute, and cam only be-
| appealed to in case the plain mandator,,