Year: 1868

ly reflected on it's dread portent, could pal ter one moment with the vile thing, Repu dlation. For tie thing is ever there, how eyer we may shirk the phrase:

 THE INEAPEDIENCY OF REPUTATION.

 1t IS one thing to palter with the right, because of necessity; quite another thing for convenience, for our personal commo- dlty. Necessity is fury who knows no law, but to violate law at the instance of

 ,that smooth faced gentlemen, tickling commodity" is not the way to make the national credit good. At the outbreak of the war the country was flooded with the 1alled paper of more than thousand banks and 1t was held impossible to carry on the the war on specie basis, Whether that were so or not, whether the national credit was really better by reason of Q currency Mnlcn described our bonds as at par or aoove It, n our own markets, at times l when they were notoriously sellinp in Am sterdam, Frankfort, all the world over, at 35 or 40, IS not for us now to discuss. But this much Is certain, that if we add mil 1ons'to that currency now, for the sake of paylng our bonds with it; if we compel the creditor to take his payment in paper, winch, ID such case, will soon be worth less than twenty cents on the dollar. we snail perpetrate a gigantic injustice on Chose who trusted to our honor, and shall be met with peal of derisivo laughter at home or abroad, should we ever wish to ne- gotiate another loan on such terms as up- rlght Governments command Ii this be the way to make our credit good-to force payment III depreciated paper 12 or 15 years before the debt is duel should like to know what course can make it bad. It was expressly stated that the interest on the bonds should be paid in gold, and the in- ference IS therefore made that the princi- pal IS to be paid in paper This is the most amazing logic eyer employed by reasonable beings. Practically, weanknoW that, as greenbacks hstf become legal tender, it was thought we'll to make 'asshrance doubly sure that Governnent would pay interest in coin; although, as befofe observed, it could pay nothing else, except by express stipulation, without trampling on the dic- tlonary. As the bonds were not due for 2O years from date, and as nobody imag- med that we should be walIowing in an in- convertible paper currency for quarter of century, 1t was thought superfuous to say that the principal would fare as we'll as the interest. At this moment, the paper promise to pay Sl is worth 70 cents Du- ring the darkest period of the War it was worth about 50 cents or. in the preposter- ous ous ]argon Of the exchange, gold was worth 2oO per cent. Gold was worth Ghen exactly what it is at this moment:z6Nk United States promises to pay were WSEth just half what they are to-day So mitch of inn proyement there has been since the war revived conffidence W exists that the United States Government will not make itself bankrupt because it thinks 1t conveninent. But should this threatened madness really atf1lct our people, We shall see the paper dollar descend again with fearful rapidity, till 1t soon ceases to circulate at all, and the poor dupe who trusted to our honor, and who bought our bonds when we need ed money sorely, will be left with piece of paper in his hand, whether nominally for $500 or $5,O00, of just as much value as a withered leaf. We should thus return to specie payments by short cut enough for there would then be no other currency possible, but the cut would be through the very heart of the national prosperity and the national honor.

 THE PRETEXTs FOR REPUDIATIoN.

 I believe that there are many honest peo really imposed upon by the mock logic of the repudiators, who are in earnest when they join ill the thunders of applause which greet the sentiment that the bonds are just

 y to be paid i'll paper when the word coin does not appear upon their face. But sure ly they know, or are bound to know, that Treasury; every dispenser, by authority of the bonds, every Congressman or committee man having authority to speak for govern ment, has uniformly, on all occasions, off cially and privately, declared that when these bonds were paid at all they would, as matter of course, be paid ill specie OF it's equivalent. If the Government now turns round and thrusts irredeemable paper in the creditors face instead of specie, tell me, If you can, by what mild expression the transaction can be described We know how we deal with individuals who obtain money on false pretenscs I feel the most profound respect for the Ameri- can people; I have entire faith in their public yirtne-the only possible founda- tion of republican governments; and I know that they will not be guilty of this fraud. pass over as quite irrelevent the the pretext for repudiation now and then advanced, that the holders of these bonds sometimes obtained them at low prices; that they took advantage of the distress of Government, and are now clamorous for q payment from which they will derive a large profit. Bonds of our Government, or of any government or corporation, are worth exactly what they will bring Tn the markets of the world. If they are depress- ed, it is from doubt of ability or good faith if they are high it is because of general confidence in both. And the best judge of the conditions makes the best bargains. But am not aware that government, any more than an individual. has the right to l inquire at what price bona 1ide holder ob- tained it's paper. The honest man looks at his obligations, not into the private ac- count-book of his creditor Nor is it easy to allude seriously to that other appea sometimes addressed to the lower instincts of mankind by those who show their re. spect for the American people by insulting them. The phantom of bloated, bond holding aristocracy, which is grinding the bones and drinking the blood of the hard

 working people is evoked. Now if the bondholders be ever so bloated and ever SC aristocratic, it is difficult to see how the American people is to honor itself by plum dering or defrauding them. This may be good argument to address to burglars, but the American people will never defraud the bondholdes of his own simply because l he is bloated. As matter of fact we know that hundreds of millions of these bonds

 ara held by trust companies, banks, sav-