The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-02-06

| ieci hound therefore. by my sense
OF puOnc duty, much as l regret to say
IT, TO declare that in my opinion the
bonds ISSUED and sold by the Treasury
department under existing circum-
stances VIII be illegal and will impose no
constitutional or lawful obligation upon
Ihe government for their payment.
1 DO not think that a person who
DoIroWS money from the government, or
a bond issued from the Treasury, is
bouhd 10 see to the application of the
money Us the purchaser of a trust es-
state rs sometimes bound in law 1t is
not upon that ground that l base the
statement But he is bound, when the
Secretary of the Treasury has authori-
| ty to borrow money on a specified lawful
condition, to take notice of the notorious
public facts which Indicate whether that
condition exists.
Now, my honorable friend from
o., said the senior Senator from
! Massachusetts, docs not claim, the Sec
| rotary OF the Treasury does not claim,
/ that there is any condition which exists
/ requiring at the most more than sup
/ ply of S3O,O00000 to make the redcmp-
/ ton fund good. 1t is not claimed by
anybody that there is any danger, pres
emit or future, of Il failure of the re-
| sources Of the government of the United
! States to keep the greenback currency
at par with gold and to redeem it when
ever it Is presented at the Treasury.
The notorious public fact is that the
eXigency which the law suppOSes is not
an existing cxigency. The notorious
public fact is, without Disguise, that the
S50,000,000 or the S7J,G00,00O, or what
ever else is to be obtained by these :
per cent bonds, IS to he paid out for me
current expenses of the government; u
purpose the borrowing Of money for
which has never been authorized by any
act of Congress whatever"
Thus, Mr. President, the senior Sena-
tor from Massachusetts has undertaken
to say to the Senate of the United States
that bonds issued by the Treasury De-
/! partment of the United States are III
| his opinion. null and void, under exist
ing circumstances will be Illegal, and
will impose no constitutional or lawful
obligation upon the government for their
payment"
He does this, Mr.. President, upon the
ground that the bondholder ought to
take notice of what? Of the Constitution
of his county? Not at all. OF the laws
of his country? Not at all; but the bond
holder, he says. should take notice of all
those incidental facts beyond express
sion in the Constitution and law, and
upon which the righteousness of Il Treas
ury issue might depend, and be govern
ed by those facts, whatever may have
been the misstatements to him of the
President of the United States. of the
Secretary of the Treasury, and of our
authorized official agents, whom we
have intrusted with the issue Of these
bonds And yet, Mr.. President, when
on the other hand, we stand up here
looking to no fact beyond the issue of
the bonds. not calling in question the
consideration of their issue, not disput-
ing the validity of their issue, not ques-
tioning statute respecting their issue,
and simply say that as they have been
Issued. so they should be considered ac-
cording to the law as interpreted and
recognized to exist by the Senate to-
day. by the President to-day. and by the
President who has just retired. he con-
tends that we are doing something dis
honorable, according to his ideas of pub
lie credit.
do recognize the fact, Mr..
President. that the law Of honor
SYNONYMOUS. The law of honor may be
something more than the law that s
nominated in a bond. 1t may be that
these bonds issued by the Cleveland
Administration, according to the opinion
OF so able Il lawyer and so enlightened
publicist as the Senator from Massa-
chusetts. were illegal; but we nave got
the money for those bonds; we have
taken and used it. They We're issued
by those whom we had made our agents
to issue them.
There, Mr.. President. under all the
circumstances of the case, the law OF
honor settles all questions of law with
me- Where honor sets it's mark, there
Is the border of the Democratic party,
and Il nation that received the money
ought to return it, not by legal Obhga-
ton, if that does not exist. but by the
law of honesty and fair dealing between
MAN and man.
But, Mr.. President, that is not the
issue here. 1T is the extremity of argu-
ment to suggest the question of honor
and equity belonging to this subject
where we stand upon a specific contract,
where we have paid for The benefit of
it by cXempting the bonds from taxa"
ton, by according special privileges to
their holders, by cnlarging their prin-
cipal, and by paying that principal in
something more valuable than that is,
in tAe silver coin or the gold coin of the
country.
Equity, indeed! When j hear equity
appealed to in order to get bonds paid
in gold which were Bought at from 30
to 10 per cent discount in paper, and
which we have nevertheless already
agreed to pay in coin, | think of what
Selden said:
Equity is a roguish thing. For law
we have Il measure. Equity is according
to the conscience of him that is chan
cellor and as that is larger on narrower,
so is equity II is all one as if we should
make the standard for the measure we
call a foot" a chancellor's foot; what
an uncertain measure would this be!
One chancellor has long foot, another
a short foot, u third an Indifferent foot
/, ON : 60
Price so Gents.