Year: 1862

it this bill goes into effect, Will be this:
! it will enable the contractors who can
not now get their pay from the Govern


ment, to get it and to pay it over to their
debtors. They in their turn will be anx-
ious to get some >.oae to take it, and
money will seem for the time to be
abundant, and trade will seem to be
active. All parties, however, viii find
that the Government has wronged some


body out of the difference between the
par and the present value of the stocks


of the United States, and they will sub


nit to that operation simply because


they cannot help themselves. And


what wiilthey ds.nexsa.- They mill-bide
their time. The Government is obliged


to get supplies, and the contractors will


put their supplies up to the amount
they have lost, and ten or fifteen per


cent. more They will say that the next


time they deal with Uncle Sam they


will take care to get all that they are


entitled to, and the Government will


have to pay all that they have lost, and


percentage for future indemnity.


But among the people, Mr.. Chairman,


what will be the effect? What will be


the effect in Ohio, in Kentucky, and in


all the States2 The first shock will be


that the moral sense of the country will


be outraged. Your friends and neigh


bors will not at first be mad to believe


that it is right, when they have agreed


to pay hundred to get clear receipt


for eighty five, or ninety, or ninety FIVE.


And tell you, it is not safe for leg


is!ative body to undertake to teach the


people laxity of morals. Our Govern


ment within the last four or five, years


have clandestinely taught lessons of cor


ruption, wide enough and we'll enough


understood, to corrupt public morals as


far, at least, as the extreme point of
fsafety; and when we get together here,


and in solemn Legislative act say that


wrong shall be right, the virus of dis


honesty will extend to limits you cannot


very we'll calculate. for one will have


no part or parcel in legislative act of


that sort.


The next thing, Mr.. Chairman, to


which would call the attention of the


com mittee is this: That confusion and


uncertainty will extend in relation to


the value of all exchangeable articles,


and you will never know how much you
have; how much what you have is worth,


or anything certain about it, simply be-


cause you have no standard; because the


standard Of deprecated paper currency


changes from day to day, and from hour


to hour: and all the legislation of the


Congress of the United States, even if is


lis powerful as my friend and colleague,


MIR. Bingham. who made q speech
yesterday, said it was--aHd have no


doubt of it--cannot make paper cur


rency anything but what it is.


There are some things, Mr.. ChaIrman5


which cannot be done. Imitation of
prices, although it might not be rapid,


and although the country might not be
ruined at once, and although we might


not find ourselves in that Serbonian bog
lin which whole armies have sunk at


once, We will get there soon enough


Initiation Of prices will be the result;


and when iuhation of prices begins, ex-
ports decrease and imports increase e.


Agricultural interests will be injured to
an incalcuiable exteut, aud the next


great result will be upon us, which is


the export Of gold out Of the country to


pay debts abroad for excessive importa-
tions, superinduced by the imitation of


prices here. We shall not then be able


to say as we can now, "the farming pro-
ductions of the West have been sent
, abroad to such an extent that even gold
has been brought back to pay the bal
) ance of trade in our favor. ,c
f In 1886 we imported wheat into this
country, not because we did not grow il
) as well as now, but because prices be-
t came so inflated that we all speculated
in western lands and town lots and be-
came perfectly wild, and the farmers Of
, Europe supplied the citizeus Of New
| York with wheat to make -four Of
WI hat has been dcue will be done again
; In the end, the Governments will be


vastly the loser by the imitation oi
prices, because 1t Mas TO buy such an
; immense amount of supplies; and the
contractor will bold in his hand, moi
r the legislative power, but the practiea
power to say, here is my property, auo
2 you shall have it at such a price, anc
not for less We have not yet reached
E the point when the Government, exer


cising its high prerogatives, as the mem
Der from New York, (Mr. Spaulding.
y calls them, can take for its use the
property Of the citizen without pay
: Mr.. Chairman, put the question to yol
with all respect, would it not be as hon
, est to go to the banks, and say, "yo,
S have such an amount of gold; just pa.
: over, and we will give you our bonds?'
:, The advantage of that process would b.
n that you could measure the injury yol
n had done and make reparaton; but hov
! can you measure the amount OF lnjur..
t to the country by deprecated ant
: iuctuating standard of payments?
: During this discussion we have bee
: told that old rules will net answer.
o have read, and / presume all have, tn
t saying Of the wise man, that "the thin!
O that has been done, it is that whicl
e shall be dons;'' and that there is Il
y new thing uude: .he sun" DO not be
" lieve there is any new thing in the law
a of fance. l do not believe all the leg
d islative wisdom we could get togethe
e could, if concentrated in one man, dis
, cover any new thing in the doctrine 9
l. business. Experience, practical knowl
d edge, are the only safe guides in thl
a matter. But there is one great intereS
Vt which you will appreciate, and which,
u think l know something Of, and that
d the interest of labcr Of all classes c
y community to be injured by this grea


o,T Il hat trIt