The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1909-12-09
INSIDE HISTORY OF a
FAMOUS GRANT VETO.
BY E. .. EDWARDS.

BY &. j. EDWARDS.
I'm 1874 he rendered a great service to
his CO untry by his veto of the bill passed
10y congress for the imitation Of the ape
cure. ICY" So declares a STANDARD Amer
lean encyclopedia in its accounts OF
Ulysses q. Grant as president OF the
United States; and the school histories tell
younli America that one Of the notable
acts IT President Gran was his veto. in
1874. +: { what was popularity known as the
inf1at on bill.
1 hive good reason to believe that the
inside history of this famous. veto has
oscar ed chronicling until now The man
VINO told me the story-the late Frederick
y. s<appan. for many years head OF the
New York clearing house, assured me that
ne had never given it to anyone else, and
ne believed that he alone was in posses
sion of all the facts connected with 1t.
AT the time of the widespread panic
and business depression that followed the
failure of Jay Cooke in 49," said Nh.
Tappan, "a few of New York's %financiers
myself among them-received word from
Washington that President Grant deemed
1t expedient to come to New York that
he might get at first hand such informa-
ton regarding the financial situation as
he felt he needed. You may recall that,
IN addition to the panic, at that time there
was an insistent demand by a large Sec
tlon of the country that greenbacks be
Immediately put freely into circulation,
the order Withholding them to be re-
scinded
THE president reached New York on a
Sunday. Very few persons knew that he
was in the city: in fact, to all intents and
purposes, he was smuggied into it and also
into the Union League club. where some
of US who were in the little secret ar
ranged to dine him partly that we might
be courteous to the head OF the nation
/ and nyf 1y- fs,o% I1 -. l----
portunity to hear what every one had to
say regarding the financial situation.
During the meal 1 sat SO near the
president that 1 was able to watch care
fully the expressions of his face. He was
chatty and very companionable right up
to the time for the various remarks to
be made; then slowly, but none the less
surely, there came over his features an
expression that completely transformed
them-that made his face like that of a
raven image.
One after another those men OF finan-
cial authority spoke their views. l re-
member that several earnestly appealed
to the president to issue an order by
which the ~greenbacks, then withheld from
circulation by the secretary of the Treas
ury, would be put Immediately into cir
culation. One of these men was particu-
larry emphatic; he professed to be afraid
that unless such relief was afforded the
financial situation, there was danger of
riot IN New York and other large centers.
After each of US had had his say
ard our views were frequently widely di-
vergent-General Grant began to ask
questions. He was like an expert CROSS
examiner with the %tinancier who was
particularly ipsistent that the greenbacks
De restored to circulation. With equal
relevancy he questioned every man in the
room. he questioned us until it was time
for him to take the midnight train to
Washington-and when he left us not one
of us had been able to read in that set
mask a hint of now the conference was
lmpressing its owner. Never nave ] seen
such capacity for concealing thought or
mental intention as General Grant dis
played that evening. Then, for the first
time. 1 understood his mastery of him
self and of his campaign secrets when he
was the commanding general Of the union
armies.
Some months la:er congress passed the
so-cailed imitation bill, bowlng to what
seemed to be an overwhelming demand
from all parts of the country for ire
deemable paper money. President Grant
took the bill, studied it, and then sent to
congress his now traditional veto, which
stands as one of the two great measures
identified with his administration, the
other being the Geneva arbitration. That
veto is a model Of reasoning. 1t struck
the first blow in favor Of a sound cur
rency system; it was the beginning of the
end of greenbackisln.
One day, years later, iii the course of q
chat with General Grant, 1 said to him:
General, it has always interested me.
where you, who never professed to know
much about financial matters, got the data |
on which you based your veto of the in
flation BILL
H smiled. 4 will tell you,. he said.
DO you remember that Sunday evening |
we dined together at the Union league
club. following the Jay Cooke failure? 1t
was there, through questioning you and
the other bankers assembled, that I se- |
cured the information on which 1 based
my veto.'"