Year: 1869

ment from Senator Sprague's speech
in the o. s. Senate: -E--- ~ --z-3 q.


"I do not sympathize with that
class of men who are holding up to
the gaze of the people of the United
States the saeredneSS of that debt, I
was opposed in your caucus, Mr.. Pres
ident, to an amendment of the Con-
stitution giving undue protection to
that debt, and ] am also now opposed
to any reiterated protection BY the
law contemplated by the bill before
the Senate. 1 do not think there is
much sacredness in the issue of bonds
for the Pacific Railroad, which be-
comes a part Of your national debt;
and / see nothing that Is sacred in the
thousand and one unnecessary appro-
priatOns that are constantly made at
each session of Congress.


The great bulk of the debt of the
nation has been created in pursuance
of a necessary and important object,
the maintaining Of the territorial in
tegrity of the Uaited states. In Great
Britain to day the pEOfts on almost
any one of her great induStries-her
commerce, her manufacturers OF iron
or coal, or cotton, or WOol-are Sufh-
cient to pay the interest on her ma
tional debt. But Is it the part of a
people to drift into the condition of
Mexican society, where the national
debt is an oppressive burden to the
community? IfthOSe whose business
it Is to make light OF the public bur-
den, neglect, either from Ignorance or
any other cause, to pursue q policy
that will relieve, instead of a policy
that will destroy; if the people of the
country are to day, in consequence of
the public debt bearing heavily upon
them, drifting, as verify believe.
into the condition of Spanish or Mex
| lean society, would any one demand
that state OF slavery rather than can
ceilatiOn of the debt? @


'SIr, you have provided for whole
sale reputation of private debts, by
your enactIReut at recent sessions of
| Congress. You can cancel debts be-
tween the citizens of the country, but
y-u look with holy horror upon a
suggestion that if you pursue q policy
of destruction this incubus will be
| sloughed of? You look upon it with


horror that any one should touch that
sacred circle2"


Mr.. Sprague then went into details
to show how the stupid or dishonest
politicians had pursued policy, the
effect Of which was to destroy trade,
depress industry and overburden the
people with taxation. Here are some
extracts: 7r r.. n = f.. r=-E.l


"I tell the Senate and the people of
this country that the policy pursued
from the beginning, of contraction
and constantly endorsing the public
debt, has in effect driven capital from
this country, made that which was
scarce still scarcer, ruined your COM
merce, your manufacturing and far
ming, and even the bankers them
selves, who are now constantly at
your bar begging for help even they,
eating their own words, admit that
they are losing from day to day the
business IN which they Were hereto
fore engaged, and they are giving It
up by force to such interIopers as
Fisk and 4onld,. and they can not
help themselves. They are tied hand
and foot, as surely and certainly as
they have tied this Senate and this
country for who ever heard of poi.
icy that would drive public debt or
private debt into the hands of the
people of other countries? =? Why, sir,
that absurd doctrine was given up
two hundred and fifty years ago. In
EliZabeth's time the whole people of
Great Britain were agreed that the
public debt was 2 capital, and the in
terest from time to time paid on that
debt should go to increase the capital
within the territory of Great Britain,
and by that increase, her industries
became more prosperous. But, sir,
on the other hahd, we have been try
ing to force beyond our borders, to
other countries, the very thing on
which, and by which alone we are
able to do our business. Bonds, cur
FencY, interest, are capital, and you
can not separate one from the other"


After showing that industry and
trade, which yield profit, had nearly
ceased, he proceeded: yea. 5-L =


'tAn we have TO help ourselves in
the world is cottOu, which we are a.
bout to los; and cur tobacco, which
we shall lose.


my friend from California (Mr.
Cele) will say that we have the pro-
ductiOn of gold. Sir, that shares the
fortune Of cotton and wheat and eve
rything else. You iind in the gentle
mans own State that the high price
of capital and its scarcity, made so by
your acts, have driven men from the
production Of gold INTO farming and
wool raising. This paper that have
before me shows and speaks and crit
ieises the immense falling of in that
production. has .r. -. =s,H


'tWhat, ask, are you to rely upon
to sustain the prices OF your public
debt when there is no profitable occu-
patton for your people? Will this
bullying operation that you have tried
for the past three years have any ef-
feet? What will this proposition of
curtailing the currency in order to in
crease its value, effect? Nothing but
the same old story, want of prosperi-
dition Of national Indebtedness like
that of Mexico. Why not have made
an effort to restore prosperity to all
the branches of your industry on
which to have doated your debt and
maintained It's price rather than by
Constitutional amendments and by
the statue law to constantly making
an effort to pull up the price of yotET
!lRtiof1dL securities, driUilg ankGt EigtLe
cdpitdE there lpdS left into LheiT irlUest-
nle'lt, and depriving every other in
dustry ofthe necessary means TO carry
it out.


''I did not intend, Mr. President,
when rose on my feet this morning
to occupy the time OF the Senate SO
long, aud I beg pardon for having
done so; but the subject has worn up
on me, and the thought of the cOndi'
ton to which this country Is certain
ly drifting, and the fact that these a.
round me would not listen, nor will
they believe What is the true condition
of the country at the present time;
the fact that no impression can bemade
upon anybody about me, makes me
sick at heart and almost unable to
move. 1 would not nave occupied
the attention of the Senate for a mo-
ment If that condition Of things did
not exist. Sir, If there was any cred
it, or If there was any advantage to
the country in the position taken by
me in the beginning of this war; if the
force of that example amounted to
anything, or if / have ever done any
thing, in the couF3e of my life Of ad'
vantage to the country, this of giving
the exact condition in which the cOun'
try is placed Transcends them all.