Year: 1868

hundred and thirty nine thousan


six hundred and ten dollars, being a


addition of thirty millions to the


currency, growing out of the chang


from the local to the National bank


ing system In January, 1862. Befor


the National Banks were established


the total amount of bank circulation


including all the rebel States, wa


two hundred and thirty eight million


six hundred and seventeen thousan


two hundred and eighteen dollars, Q


which the nine Northwestern State


had, as before stated, $19,684 564


which was about one thirteenth of tn


whole amount of circulation. NoI


the National Banks have a circulatio


of three hundred millions, of whicl
the nine Northwestern States hav
one sixth, or $5G,000,000.


Mr.. Seymour makes much ado be
cause the rates of interest ar highe
In the Western than in the Easter
States, but he greatly exaggerates th'
difference. It is not more than one
third of what, he represents; still th'
rates of interest are higher in tht
Eastern than the Western States, anC
have always been so. Money i:
cheaper in the old and wealthy States
than in new countries which are but
partially developed and are rapidly
improving. Money is cheaper in New
York than it is in Chicago, and it is
much cheaper in London than it is in
New York. Mr.. Seymour presents
the difference in the rates OF
interest between New York and Chi
cago as something new and wonder
full, as great oppression brought about
by the action of the Republican party,
when the truth is that the difference
is less than it was ten years ago, and
is growing smaller from year to year
as the West increases in wealth and
capital. And now | come to Mr.. Sey-
mOur's position as to the 500 bonds,
whether they shall be paid in gold or
greenbacks. On the 295h of June, he
made a speech at the Cooper Institute,
in New York, in which he assumed,
without condescending to argue the
question, that all the bonds were to
be plid in god, 3 Sd went on to show
what injustice and hardship would
result to the holders of the bonds if
they were paid in paper. The posi-
ton he took at that time was positive
and emphatic; and to show the views
of the Northwestern Democracy upon
his speech, | will read brief edito-
rial from the Cincinnati Enquirer of
June 30, 1868, among the most infu-
ential papers IN the Northwest:


GOVERNOR SEYMoUR's SPEECH. The
Radt al papers seem to be well pleased in
the man with the late speech of Governor
HoraJiO seymour in New York. They re
port IL US a plea for the ond-holdsr~, hat
MS bonds shall be paid in gold. The Gov
ernOr is suaily sound. but his views upon
This QueStion~run counter to those of nine
ty-ntne Democrats out of hundred. They
can never be sanctioned either by the
party or the country. The bonds will not
De paid in gold unless the holders will
take the sum they, were worth Ia that
commodity when they bought them in
1852, 1853. and 1864. Gov. seymour tInan-
oiai views are not calculated to strengthen
the Democratic party, but they will give
aid and comfort to the opposition.


Five days after this speech was
made, the New York Convention
adopted the following resolution:


Third-And where the obligations
of the Government do not expressly
STATE upon their face, or the-law uu-
der which they were issued does not
provide that they shall be paid In
coin, they ought IN right and justice
to be paid in the lawful money Of the
United States.


Mr.. Seymour in his letter accepting
the nomination endorsed this resolu-
tion in the following words: " | have
carefully read the resolutions adopted
by the Convention, and most cordially
concur in every principle and senti-
ment they advance" In his speech at
Buffalo the other night, he disposed
of this question In the following am
biguous sentence, which was intended
to mean anything or nothing as the
reader desired: I'VE have said that
when the agreement was that he
should have been paid in gold, he
should have ii, and when tue con-
tract did not define in what he should
have been paid, he should have been
given money as good as that which
we use for. the sacred purpose of pay
ing our pensions and rewarding the
toll of the laborer." But as the pen
sioner and laborer are both paid in
greenbacks, the sentence means, if it
means anything, that the bondholder
shall be paid In the same way; but
Mr.. Seymour has pledged himself to
both sides of this question, and those
pledges have been given so near to
gether that, IN fact, he has no posi-
ton on the subject, and his two con-
Trajectory opinions taken together,
make both worthless. In his
speech at Cooper Institute he said
that the first thing to be done to re-
store the credit OF the country was to
return to specie payment by makipg
the greenback as good as gold; and
that until this was done, the credit of
our bonds could not be brought up
in the market, aud that insteAd of it,
creasing the amount of currency, we
should make that good which we now
have In that position. | think he was
entirely right; but in his speech at
Chicago he reverses his position. He
declared that the currency could not
be made good and brought up to par
until the bonds had first been brought
up to par in gold. Iu his Cooper In
stitute speech he was very earnest
and eloquent In favor of returning to
specie payments as the first thing to
be done, which would equalize the in
terests of all classes, restore the cred
it of the nation at home aud abroad,
and rlace our bonds upon level with
those issued by other governments.
But in his speech at Chicago he not
only abandoned this position, but
took ground in favor of a further in
hation of the currency, which would
defer specie payment beyond your life
time or mine. In his speech Ia this
hall last night, he again devoted
much time to the question of the dis
trlbution of the national currency,
aud, in this matter, seems to think
that, like another distinguished
d emocrat, he has discovered
the northwest passage. The
great importance that he attaches
to it, did not occur to Mr.. Hendricks
or any other of the ten thou and