The record-union., 1897-08-19

is borne upon their face are uncertainty
and doubt, causing from their inception
loss and expense to the people They
at once enhanced the cost of the civil
war and prematurely drove the country
from a specie basis to one, for many
years, of irredeema BILE paper At the
time they We're first sent forth their
most ardent advocate apOlogiZed for
their issue and promised a quick pay
ment and cancellation. AS an earnest
of the then formed and announced in
tention they were for a time made con-
vertible into an interest bearing bond.
Had it not been for the untoward cir
cumstances surrounding the Govern
ment not a dozen votes could have been
obtained in either the Senate or the
House for the legal tender principle
which they embodied. Secretary Chase
was gooned through what he mistak-
ably believed to be dire necessity into
giving official sanction to them. He
fatty declined to advocate their issue in
his report to Congress, and in his ca
pacity of Justice of the Supreme Court
of the United States repudiated as un-
constitutional the legal tender quality
attaching to them. 1t was stated and
uDcOIlITdUlCISQ DIT the llIIlG llelI AACA
to the Act of 1862 not only was such a
law never passed, but such law was
never voted upon, never proposed, never
introduced, never recommended by any
department of the Government, and
that such a measure was never seriously
entertained in debate in either branch
OF Congress. The present senior Sena-
tor from Vermont, Justin S. Morrill,,
then a member of the Committee on
WAYS and Means of the House, in an eX-
tremely able speech denounced them as
"the precursor of a prolific brood OF
promises" and the bill as "a measure
not blessed by one sound precedent
and damned by ALL" His prediction OF
thirty five years ago and his character
ization of them have been fully jusu-
fled by the series of events which have
marked our history since that time, and
to-day as he recurs to the words then
spoken. he must take melancholy salts
faction in the knowledge that his states
manship, unlike that of some others of
that era, was sufficient to see beyond
the pressing demands of a single hour
of the nations life.
The temporary issues of that day, de-
spite the appeals of the Chief Execu-
tiyes and Secretaries of the Treasury,
are vet a part of the fixed volume of our
currency From first to last they have
been the greatest burden and most ex-
pensive debt ever placed upon the Gov
ernment The loss to the people through
speculation engendered by them. the
financial heresies to which they have
given birth, the damage to individual
business enterprise and credit through
the recurring doubt as to the ability or
willingness of the Government to main
tain their payment in gold cannot be
reckoned in figures. But every panic
we have had and every stagnation in
business which has come upon us in re-
cent years, mark their distinctive in
fluence.
1t is asserted that when the revenues
of the Government exceed its necessary
expeditures no further trouble will fol-
low. and the argument based upon
former conditions under a plethora Of
money in the treasury is advanced in
support of the contention. 1t is for
gotten, however, how greatly the bur-
den placed upon the treasury has been
increased through silver purchases and
issues, and how, under existing condi-
tions of to-day, the treasury has no
gold income from the ordinary channels
of receipts The difficulty is a more
far reaching one than mere lack of
revenue 1t touches the vital point in
trenching upon the confidence of those
dealing with US in our ability and con-
tinuing determination to maintain gold