Year: 1868

From the Congressional Globe, Feb. 81


SP EE O.H OF


HON. SAMU Ell r. GARY,


OF OHIO, IN Tue


HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,.
The GreenbaCk Issue Discussed
/ The Gold Bond Robbery Plan
| Exposed.


/ The national debt is great and its bur-
den heavy, and the man who, by an un.
unjust and forced construction Of the law
against the interest Of the people, seeks
to make the debt greater and the burden
heavier, is the pioneer of Reputation. -
They who claim that the principal of the
IlS2, ,o00, 900, 600 of the fiye-twenty bonds,
payable in lawful money, are rcdeema6lf
ton1y in coin, are doing more to debauch
the morals Of the country and blunt the
sensibility to national honor than all 9TH
Ter influences combined. Justice is the
only foundation to public faith; and
when the sense Of justice is outraged the
|sense of obligation toward all by whom
that outrage is attempted is weakened, if
not destroyed. This is principal of ami.
versal application, and we caution the bond
holders to beware lest the overburdened
taxpayers shall have their sense of obliga-
tion SO weakened by unreasonable exac-
tions that they will entirely repudiate the
debt which they now acknowledge to be
Just. Let any candid man take a six per
cent. fve-tweuty bond and a five per cent.
ten forty bond, examine them and the law
authorizing their issue, and say, If be can,
whether the principal of both is payable
in the same manner. tits not possible for
him to avoid admitting that there is diff
ference. What is the differencel The law
authorizing the FIVE per cents. expressly
provides for the payment of the principal
and interest in coin, while the law au-
thorizing the six per cents. Give twenties)
declares that the in terest shall DO paid
in coin. IF the principal as we'll as in
terest of the latter were payable in coin,
why not either SO have declared or say
nothing about how the interest should be
paid?


When he turns to the law providing for
the issue of legal tender notes-and the
fact is published on the back of every
note issued-he finds that they are re-
ceivable for all debts, public and private
except interest on the public debt; that is
to cay, for all debts, public as we'll as
private, except that which Congress had
declared specif cally should be paid in
gold; and no such declaration has been
made about the debt of the United States
except the interest of the five per cent.
(ten- -forty) bonds.


When these laws have been carefully
examined, let the honest searcher after
truth get an advertisement by the agents
of the Treasury of the Government loans,
in which he will find that capitalists are
urged to invest in the FIVE per cents. (ten
forties) becahse both principal and in
terest were payable in gold; and then let
him forever after hold his peace and NO
longer gabble over the dicta Of any man
mcmentarily raised ever the heads Of the
people on the pedestal of o6ce. Let
him not exchange his common sense for
the declaration of distinguished gentle.
men about the general understanding"
! that the principal as we'll as the interest
Of the five twenties was to be paid in
coin when it is manifest that the law ney-
er could have been SO understood by any
one who had any understanding to exer-
else.


i And let him not in such bad faith to
the holders of the five per cents, who
are willing to loan the Government at one
per cent. less rate of interest, for the
very reason that the principal as well as
the interest was payable in gold. I say
in such bad faith, for these holders Of the
six per cents. ought to know that in set
! ting up this claim they are placing in
Jeopardy with their own property the five
per cents. about whose payment in gold
there is no dispute. Yes, Mr.. Chairman,
they are the repudiators, and not those
who seek to tighten the burdens of the
people BY paying the debt in legal ten
ders or in any other method consistent
with the law creating such debt.


i l am aware that Mr.. Chase, then Sec
retary Of the Treasury, did say that i,
was fair to conclude that these bonds
would be paid in coin, as it had always
been the practice of the Government thu.
to pay its funded debt. The very fact
that he was consulted about the construc-
tioD of the law and the practice Of the
Government is an admission that the law
land the bonds themselves did not provide
for coin payment.


i And it must further be borne in mind
4 that this letter from Secretary Chase was
in reply to an inquiry from Frankfort in
/ 1854, and long after every one of the
bonds in question had been negotiated
This should forever put to silence all the
clamcr about the liability of the Govern.
ment for the representations of the Sec.
retary of the Treasury, as these opinions
were not an inducement to capitalists to
purchase bonds. They had already made
their investments, and were only consid-
ering the magnitude Of their speculation
! 1t was true, as the Secretary said, that
it had been the uniform practice of the
Government to pay its funded debt in
coin, for the best of all reasons, that un.
til the passage of the legal tender act we
never had anything but coin Tor the pay.
ment of any debt, public or private
Doubtless those who invested In these
Eve twenty bonds supposed that specie
payment would be resumed before the
bonds were redeemable, and that if there
1 should still be legal tender notes in cir.