The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1898-02-08

the beginning
Mr.. President. | would not under any
circumstance impugn. deprecate, or re-
pudiate one dollar Of the public . b or
my country. | am as proud of its hon
orablc character as any Senator upon
tns floor. | would defend it as quickly
as any Senator upon this floor. No man
can say anything against its honor that
| would not undertake TO defend II.
But. Mr.. President. l stand here To
support the Constitution Of my country
and to execute its laws. | can not set
up for myself any higher standard for
the nation than the law gives Of the
| nation haye set up when they have pass
ell legal statutes which have had the
concurrence and the appreciation of the
most eminent and able and distinguished
men whom both the Republican party
and the Democracy have produced.
Indeed. Mr.. President, think that
| some gentlemen upon this floor who man
| ifest so much tenderness about the pub
lie debt when Democracy undertakes to
| repeat to them the creeds that they have
heretofore uttered or the principle which
the men whom they have put in the fore
| most positions have defended are not al
| ways more sensitive about the public
deb than we are.
| nave before me the speech made by
the senior Senator from Massachusetts
(N1r. Hoar) January 81, 1894. | will say
that | do not cite the speech to upbraid
him for it. / think he was right in
| every syllable tina he uttered. | approve
him for it. But if l were disposed to be
as captious as he is. l might make the
same remark to him about tampering
with the public credit that he does to Us
when we stand up for the Constitution
and the laws.
He was discussing then a Democratic
administration and a Democratic Presl-
dent; he was discussing the issue of
bonds; he was discussing and touching
the sensitive plant called public credit,
and what did he say?
II feel bound therefore, by my sense
of public 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 will be illegal and will impose no
constitutional or lawful obligation upon
the government for their payment.
Il do not think that a person who
bOrrows none from the government, or
q bond issued from the Treasury, is
bound to see to the application of the
money as the purchaser of a trust es-
state is sometimes bound in law. 1t is
not upon that ground that | 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-o.' said the senior Senator from
Massachusetts, docs not claim. the Sec
rot,,y- Of tho fErnnNu,r Innc nnt .I,in,
that there is any condition which exists
requiring at the most more than d sup
ply of 5000 900 to make the redemp-
ton fund good. 1t is not claimed by
anybody that there is any danger. pres
ent or future, of a 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 %eNigency. The notorious
public fact is. without disguise. that the
) 100000 900 or the S-5.OOO.OOO or what
ever else Is to. be obtained by these >
per cent bonds, is to be paid out for Inc
current expenses of the governments: a
purpose tie 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 i'll the Constitution and law, ana
upon which the righteousness of a 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-
tlOning a 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
and the law of legal obligation are not
synonymous. The law of honor may be
something more than the law that )
nominated in a bond. 1t may be that
these bonds issued by the Cleveland
Administration, according to the opinion
of so able "a lawyer and 50 enlightened
Il publicist as the Senator from Massa-
chusetts, We're illegal; but we have got
the money for those bonds; we have
-