Year: 1868

t"e boNerHncDt 10 redeem the Old
bonds in these legal tender notes.
Mr.. Sherman-Thc Senator is a
littIo mistaken in regard 10 the le.
gal effect. The plain meaning ia
that he shall only sell the bonds az
no can redeem an equal amount
lie would not sell these bonds ut a
less price than the market value OF
the five. twchlics; but he can do
that or make the exchange.


Mr. Morton.-I presume the chair
man of the committee is entirely
right upon that point; but the prac.
tical difficulty is that the Secretary
cannot sell them for more than par;
that will not be pretended, and he
cannot buy the existing Gve-twenty
bonds at par. So there can Ue
nothing done in the way Of buying
them on the market. Then there
can be nothing done in the way Of
exchange, because the old bonds
command q premium, while the
new ones do not. Therefore the
/ holders Of the old bonds would lose
by the exchange. Then there can
be nothing done with these bonds
unless be avails himself ofthe law
fulright of the Government to take
fiyo twenty bonds by paying them
off in the legal tender notes. | have
often heard it said that unless you
issue moro grecnbacks, you cannot
not redeem the five twenties in
gTeenbacks. | have shown that
that is a mistake, that by selling
the new bonds at par, to Ee paid for
in the existing legal tender notes,
those notes, when thus received,
can be applied in rcdeemiDg and
absolutely paying off portion Of
the existing five twenty bonds.


| am in favor myself of passing
the first section of this bill. | am
in favor of trying to give an addi-
tiOnal value to these bonds by the
length of time that has been fixed
in the bill for them to run. That
is the only advantage they will
have over the old bonds.


One word in regard TO the amend
ment Of the Senator from Maine,
which is to make these bonds all
redeemable at the pleasure of the
Government after ten years. He
takes away the inducement to buy
these bonds. He says, however,
that these bonds can be made avail
able by the existence of doubt in
the public mind rs to how they
shall be paid; whether they shall
be paid in gold or in greenbacks.
| should like TO ask that distin-
guished Senator if it is very broad
craftsmanship to hang a great mca-
sure of this kind simply upon a
doubt existing in the public mind?
] very much prefer making a
frank statement of this question
to the whole country. AS the law
is written, so it must remain. You
can not help il; you can not rub it
out; you can not argue the seal of
the bond; and the distinguished
Senators 10 whom | have referred,
with all their ability and ingcnu-
ity, cannot take q aslngle word from
these four statutes.


| am in favor of rendering this
funding bill TO the country. hope
it will be accepted; l hope it may
be received; but, sir, to make a
candid confession, | have very lit
tic faith in any funding bill until
such time as We have returned to
specie payments. l believe we
could return to them in n very
short time by legislation in that
direction. With a surplus of over
eighty million dollars OF gold in the
Treasury, and with an accruing
surplus from month to month if we
were simply to say that the gold
we now thus hold and the gold We
shall receive in surplus shall be
applied to the redemption of these
legal tender notes it would send the
premium on gold down one.half at
the very beginning. The very ex.
istence OF that gold standing in the
shadow behind these legal tender
notes although the Government
had declared no purpose in hold
ing that gold, has given strength
and value to these notes, simply
from the impression upon the part
of tho people of the United States
that some time OF other gold will
be applied TO tho redemption OF
these notes. | believe that the &C.
cumulation of surplus gold in the
Treasury with what We now have,
even for a year or q year and q
half, would be sufficient to enable
us to begin the work redemption
and place the legal tender notes at
par, and then all these troublesome
questions will disappear but, sir,
until that is done, they will remain
to plague US,


Frank Blair, in speech in 1860,
declared that 1.-THE Democratic par
ty was the most miserable and
corrupt party in existence" Now
| In his letter acceplinG tho rebel.