Year: 1867

PAYMENT


But it Is said that this scheme would
initiate the currency, destroy its value,
and thus, in fact, repudiate the debt.
Not at all These gentlemen seem to
think that they can go to bed at night
and in the morning wake up with all the
bonds redeemed, and in their stead
twenty-five hundred millions of green
backs. They seem to forget that the
process will be necessarily slow, and
that it must be conducted with skill aud
caution, and by men whose position will
enable them to guard against any evil
which may be incident to the execu-
ton OF so great measure OF re-
lief. Let me state to you the position.
We have an enormous debt. We have
rate of taxation beyond all example
oppressive. We have system of legal
tender notes, and system Of national
banks. am sorry we have them /
did not vote for them, and am not re-
sponsible for them. They are great evils
They ought to be gotten rid Of And II
they present any means of assisting us
in getting rid OF them we ought to seize
it. The non.interest paying debt, con :
sisting of greenback and unliquidated
debt amounts to about eight hundred
millions of dollars. The proposition Of
the Republicans is to convert this debt
into bonds which pay interest in gold.
The interest on those bonds will be forty
eight millions in gold annually. The
result will be to increase by that amount
the expenses, to convert active capital
into inactive capital, and thus to increase
the number of those who do not pay taxes,
and to increase the burdens of those who
do pay taxes. l maintain that this
debt ought not to be so onverted-that
these forty eight millions in gold should
be saved. There are four hundred mil
lions of these bonds in the treasury as
security for the National Bank currency.
They are represented by nearly equal
amount of bank notes. They call for
twenty four millions of dollars in gold
annually as interest Now, / maintain
that these bonds should be redeemed in
greenbacks. The result would be that
the greenbacks would take the place of
the bank notes, which would be called
in, and that twenty four million dollars
ofinterest would be saved. Ifthat twenty
four million were added to the forty-eight
millions of which / have spoken, you
have seventy-two millions in gold an
nually; and this properly compounded
would pay the whole debt, principal and
interest, in fifteen years. And now OBJ
serve that thus far have rot proposed
to add one dollar to your taxes, nor one
dollar to the currency. [Cheers. This
process of redemption can be pressed as
fast as the business and values of the
country will bear an expansion of the
currency. l am satisfied that they can
bearmore now. am satisfied that the
good to result will more than compensate
for the evils. How far the expansion
may be safely carried | cannot pretend,
with exactness, to say There are men
around me whose experience and knowl-
edge of business would enable them to
Judge. The Secretary of the Treasury
ought to be able to Judge. His hand is
upon the pulse of the country. He can
feel all the throbbings of the blood in the
arteries.


He can tell when it flows too fast and
strong; and then the expansion should
cease. 1t is a matter Of experience
not past but future experience-for the
condition of the country after the rava-
ges of the late war enable it to prosper
under SYSTEM which would have i'm
paired it in time of unbroken peace All
that l maintain is this: That just as
rapidly as the prosperous condition of
the business will permit it, the bonds
should be redeemed in greenbacks; for
just so fast will the interest be paid, the
taxes be reduced, and labor be relieved
from the burdens which now so heavily
oppress it.


An attempt to controvert the above
would be interesting. So if any South
ern bondholder would be interesting, now
is his opportunity.


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