Year: 1869

declaratory act


Az ACT relatirg to the Public DelA


enacted That in order 10 remove any DOUBT ~ 10
tic purpose Of Government TO discharge all just obga-


ous public creditors aud to settle conhci.g 9ne5
such obligations have been contracted, ~ - hereby
provided and declared that the faith OF the United States


is soey pledged TO the payment IN coin or its eQuiya
lent of all the obligations Of the United States except ~
where the law authol,ng the issue o, any & , m


paidin lawful money, or other currency than gold aud


SIC. ?. And be II further enaeed, That any contract


hereafter MADE spsceSy psyHoe % IN m cCh, % ap m ,e %


property the rendering of labor or service OF any nd


Inc price OF which carried into the contract may have


been adjusted the basis Of the coin value thereof at the


time Of such sale or the rendering OF such service or labor


shall be legal and valid aud may be enforced according
! to lis terms.


The Senate very properly struck out clause
| of the House bill which forbade the paying off
i of funded Debt while the Greenbacks remained
unpaid 80 that the bill goes back to the House
| for concurrence in the amendment; but no
action, nor failure to act can henceforth
affect the above declaration, which has re-
ceiyed the full, unequivocal assent of large
majority of either branch-30 to 16 in the Sen
ate, 119 to 81 in the House. On motion to
strike out the former section, the vote Of the
House stood Yeas 81; Nays 1879: so that it is
certain that this proposition is upheld by more
than twO-thirds. If it should encounter a veto
from Andrew Johnson, and fail to be passed
over that veto, the essential fact that Congress
has affirmed the right and duty of paying our
bonds in coin or its equivalent, will not be
thereby affected, being already established
beyond peradyenture.


Congress has thus evinced its purpose to keep
faith with the Nations creditors in the spirit of
the platform of principles enunciated by the
Convention which nominated Grant and Colfax
and resolved:


H. We denounce all forms Of Reputation as n national
crime and the national honor requires the payment 81
tho public Indebtedness IN the utteTmOst good faith all
creditors at home and abroad not only according to the
letter but the spirit of the laws under which 1t


VI That the best policy to diminish our burden Of
debt Is improve credit that capitalists viii
TO loan money at lower rates OF interest than We now
pay aud must continue to pay so long as Reputation.
partial or total open or covert Is threatened or sus
pected.


There have been thoseiwho denied that the
depression of our National credit grew out of
a widespread apprehension that our Debt
would not be honestly paid; but they are al
ready confounded by the effect of this declar-
alton. Though several voted in the minority
on special grounds whom we had confidently
expected to find in the majority, swelling the
former far beyond its proper strength, yet the
market value of our National obligations was
signally appreciated in both hemispheres by
the vote of the House, and will doubtless be
still further enhanced by the concurrence of
the Senate. Had the vote in either
House been unanimous, as it should have
been, we doubt not that our Skies
which have twelve to sixteen years to run
would have risen rapidly to par. 1t is not the
magnitude Of our Debt. great as it is, but a
fear that we shall prove nation Of rascals,
that keeps our Skies still depressed in the
worlds markets below British Consols which
carry but three per cent. interest. 1t is the
fear that VIC shall cheat that compels us still
to pay six per cent interest OH bonds that we
should otherwise be able to fund at or below
five per cent, and thus save O sum which
would OF itself extinguish the principal of our
Debt in a mans lifetime. What, then,
must be the cash cost to our country of a
brazen swindler like Garret Davis, who proposes
IN open Senate that the National obligations
shall be paid only to the extent OF tho market |
value OF the greenbacks paid for them at the |
late OF their issue respectively, and that but |
hree -fourths of the interest on this arbitrarily |
educed valuation shall DO paid Put the in |