The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-05-16
u ACTS IN GRANTS LIFE.
As General and as President the Same
Principles Guided His Career.

L. f. Chittenden, in New York Tribune.
OF the two acts which may be considered
greatest in the life of Grant the first was
that of the great general, which, as the
world knows, eliminated at AppomattoX;
the second was that of the great President
and the honest man, which reached its
climax in the first act of Congress which
bears his executive approval. Because no
direct reference is made to this act in
General Porter's admirable address, nor in
all that others have recently written of
his chief, and because the facts are vivid
in my memory, | will briefly recall them.
President Lincoln, Secretary Chase and
all who were connected with the treasury
issues of the war understood that our Sc
curities were payable IN com. Ihere was,
then, no difference in the relative values of
gold and silver, and a bond could only be
paid in silver, which, without loss, was
gested that our bonds might by any pos
sibility be paid in deprecated paper curren-
cy the mere suggestion would nave been
fatal to their sale.
AS soon as the war was over those who
had said that it must be a failure, togeth-
er with every one that was in distress and
every one that was in debt and every one
that was d~iscontented, gathered themselves
into a party and declared that the uni
versal panacea was an Unlimited issue of
legal-tender notes, which would cost only
the paper and printing. They said that
those who, in the stress of war, had pur-
chased our bonds were making too much
money. and proposed to reduce their profits
by paying them in a deprecated currency.
A more dishonest proposition was never
made, but the converts to 1t were numer-
Gus enough to secure the control of some
Of the States and to become a menace to
the good fame of the Republic.
In 1868 the convention which nominated
General Grant for the presidency in its
platform declared unequivocally that our
securities should be paid in coin. At the
ratio then in use there was the same value
in gold and silver, and this was equivalent
to a declaration that our bonds should be
paid in gold. The nomination upon this
platform was accepted by General Grant
without reservation, and he was elected.
During the campaign, and in his inaugural
address, he declared that he was opposed
to all forms of reputation, and in favor of
sustaining the good faith OF the Nation in
its full integrity.
The increasing numbers of the Greenback
party and its abuse of General Grant depre-
ciated the market value of our securi1. $
and alarmed their holders TO such an ex-
tent that it was determined to obtain from
Congress a declaration on the subject. GEN
eral Grant approved of such a declaration
and recommended ii in his inaugural adj
dress. The result was that an act was pre-
pared and introduced on the first day of
the second session of the Forty-first Con-
gress which was also the day of Grants
inauguration), in the House OF Representa-
tiveS. by General Schenck, or Ohio. It en-
countered the fierce opposition of the
Greenbackers. but the country was becom-
ing FESTIVE, and Congress acted with such
determination that on March Is. 1869. only
fourteen days after the session commenced,
1t may be foun nd on the first page of the
sixteenth volume of the United States stat
utes at large, and it was the first act Of
Congress to receive the signature of u.
S. Grant, President"
This act put an end to open assaults upon