Year: 1868

implied obligation is directly negativet


By the inscription on the greenbacks


and negotived also by the wording o


the bonds, which carefully specifies gol'


for,the interest and carefully omits an!


specification as to how the principal II


to be paid; thus leaving that point op
tional with the Government. More


over, the greenbacks themselves art


notes, bonds, promises topay,' which


the Government is as much obligated


TO pay in coin as any other description
of bonds whatever. If the Government


substitutes its greenback notes fer it:


bonds in your possession, You hold


against it as valid an obligation as you


held before, and have no right what


ever to cry 'repudiation.'


"The Government will be able to re-


deem the greenbacks in coin as soon as


it will be able to pay your bonds In


coin. Its necessities compel it TO give


its creditors promises instead of pay. 1t


is for you to show why it should give
you interest-bearing notes and compel


its other creditors to accept notes which
draw no interest. 1t is for you to show


why the people shall be taxed to pay
interest on what the Government owes
you, while they get no interest on the
notes which they hold against the Gov
ernment. In what respect is your claim
more Just or sacred than theirs!


"Now, suppose the Government takes
your bonds at their face and pays you
$50, 900 in greenbacks. You can exchange
that sum for S2l, 400 in gold. You will
then receive more than double the sum
you invested four years ago, and upon
which the Government has paid you
usury at the rate of 1S per cent. per an
uum! My friend, you have ne good
reason for calling this 'repudiatidn.'
When 30 liberal settlement is pro-
posed you have no right to demand
that $1,000 more gold than is 'nOmi-
mated in the bond shall be wrung from
the labor of the country for your private
emolument. AS a just business man
you would not set up such a claim
against private individual and you
could net legally collect it. The obli-
CATION OF your bonds as you construe it
against the public would CONVERT them
and the Government itself into instru-
ments of extortion and inordinate op-
preston.


This implied obligation with which
you propose to piece ont the actual
obligation of the government, applies
with far more force and justice to the
claims of the soldiers who rendered per-
son.l service and devoted their lives to
the public defence. But you and the
party with which you act do not call 1t
to pay them in gre6nbacks
for the blood they shed and the limbs
they lost. You prefer the least merito-
rious class of the public creditors; and
for those VIII" have already grown rich
off the necessities af the Government
you demand an exOrbitant, additional
gold premium. The scant wages and
re wards of the poor, who have toiled
for the Government, and who have bled
and suffered for it, you pay in green
backsw


As he listened to this argument IN la
vor of what he had termed "repudi-
ation," the Pittsburgh gentleman be-
him that for twenty years he
had known the good old merchant to be
q man whe would part with his last cent
and coin his body to pay his bond. tie
unused moment with the air of man
who hears something he must ponder
more at leisure; aud then he changed
the conversation.