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

/ President Of this country paid for the
acquisition Of the great Louisiana en-
pire.
SO we have these coin bonds, ana ac-
/ cOrdIng to the statements upon this floor
/ Of the leading financicr of the Republi-
( can party. one who has been foremost IN
( its councils for thirty years, we paid
our creditors 30 or 10 cents upon the
dollar to have the privilege of paying our
/ bonds according to our option, which still
exists, in silver or in gold.
| But it seeenls, Mr.. President, it was
/ the desire of the Senate to do Just the
/ thing at that time which so shocked the
/ sensibilitieS of Hon. John Sherman, and
/ il u.d it by striking ont the saving clause
/ which ha favored. 1t isolated the bond
/ from the consideration that created tilt
stood upon the law as Congress then en-
acted it. the law favorable to the bond
holders, the law that they desired the law
! that their advocates stood for; and hav-
ing asked for the law, benefited by the
! law, accepted the consideration of the
law, excluded the purpose of the original
consideration for their own benefit they
now turn around in this body and con-
tend that the law making coin a me-
dunn of payments should he changed to
conform to new-fangled views which
they themselves at that time repudiated.
MIR. President. what if silver was. par
italy demonetized between February II
/ 1873, when the standards dollar was
dropped from the coinage, to the year
| 1878 when these resolutions We're adopt
ed, on January p, and when Il little lat
er, February %, 1873, the Bland-Allison
Act was passed to authorize the coinage
| of the standard silver dollar and to re-
store its legal-tender character" the con-
! tract of the United States with its cred
itOrs remained the same. and all new
contracts were made on the sScne specif-
ed basis 4 suspension of the exercise
of right does not alter right. A temper
airy impairment of a contract in it's full
fllnent does not affect the integrity OF
its obligation. r.
Why the Senate when it favOrS bond
holders or seeks to favor bOndholders
! at the expense of the people will not 90
into the question of consideration for the
bond would be more fully realized if
we were to peruse Senate Executive
Document No 90 of the Forty-tifth Con-
gress, second session. There will be
found information in official form that
disp0Ses of the so-called equity of the
,bOndholder to demand gold in payment
OF his bond
That document is a letter from Hon.
John sherman. Secretary Of the Treas
ury. dated April %, 1878. written in re-
ply to II resolution of the Senate adopted
January 10. 1873, on the motion of Mr..
| Hereford. of West Virginia. pending the
consideration Of the Matthews Tcsolu-
ton. of which the resolution now before
us is II copy The letter contains
statement of the issues of loans and
Treasury notes from March t, 1861, to
June 80, 1877, inclusive, with citation
of the authorizing acts, the rate at which
sold, ana the currency in which they
were paid for. This document | shall
ask, Mr.. President, as j do not care
to read it NIL, to append to my remarks
as q part thereof
But, Mr.. President, / will refer to it
in debate. i will he seen that the total
amount received into the Treasury Of the
United States for the bonds of the Uni
ted States in currency mp to that time
was S4.44S. :334 S10.27, and tire total IL
mount of coin was $076,627 ,9S7.72.
Mr.. Gallery. What is the date? d..
Mr.. Daniel. This was up to June 30,
1877. / will put the document in the
Record that the Senate may have full
opportunity to inspect it. OF currency
more than of coin the amount was 3d.
Al. 7O6, So. %. Among the securities
we find that issued from currency was
the temporary loan. ST., 129, 715. -;
certificates of indebtedness, S561 ,753.-
241. 10, and Il great variety of bonds, all
of which are given i'm schcd-
ule. As to the 1916, 62T, 6S7. -
for which, currency was not re-
ccived, what was received, Mr. President?
Gold? No one says so; but the very
thing which we propose to pay--that is,
coin-and which we propose to pay by
the pending resolution not only those for
which which we received coin hut those
also for which we received currency.
Now, to sum up the effect of that
statement, let me say that in all the
acts referred to therein which may affect
any obligations which were issued under
any law passed between the time when
silver was demonetized in part ana
when the Bland-Allison Act restored 1t
in part it will be found that there is not
a single act that affects either the law
or Che equity of the pending resolution:
! have examined those acts. One OF
them. of December II, 1878, authorized
$20,000000 of coupon bonds to take up
a debt contracted in 1858 and 1859.
The act Of January II, 1879, was Tor