Year: 1878

WASHINGTON, Jan. Ex-senator Morrell
has addressed communication to Secy Sher-
man, saying brief and unimportant letter
of yours in 1868, to DIR. Mann, has been pa
raded in the Senate in such manner as
does you gross injustice. Whatever may
have been your opinion as to technical rights
of the governments, you always held it was
its first and paramount duty to make United
States notes equal in value to coin.


sHERMAN's REPLY.


Secretary Sherman replies at some length,
saying he has not time to condense, he saws,
| never changed my opinion as to the tech
nical legal right to redeem the principal Of
the 500 bonds in legal tenders, but have
always insisted we could not avail ourselves
of this legal right until we complied with the


LEGAL AND MORAL OBLIGATIONS.
imposed by the legal tender act not to re-
deem it in coin on demand, or to rest our
right to convert it into an interest bearing
government bond. The grounds of this
opinion are very fully stated in speech l
made February 81, 1868, referred to in the
letter to DR.. Manu. and in the report on the
funding bill made by me from the commit
tee on finance December II, 1867. My posi-
ton was that while the legal tender act made
United States notes legal tender for all
debts public and private, except for custom
duties and interest ON the public debt, vet we
could not


HONESTLY COMPEL PUBLIC CREDITORS
to receive United States notes in payment of
bonds until we made good the pledge of the
public faith to pay the notes in coin from
the first issues of legal tender notes, which I
heartily supported and voted for. have
sought to make it good, support, maintain
and advance its value. 1t was an earnest
effort to


RESTORE TO THE GREENBACK
the right to be converted on demand of the
holder into per cent. bonds, and as soon as
practicable into coin, that made the speech
those who wished to exclude United States
notes from the operation of the pending law,
and the large class of persons who
wished to cheaper, degrade and ultimately
to repudiate them. In all my official con-
nection with legislation as to legal tender
notes, I have


BUT ONE ACT TO REGRET,


and to apologize for, and that is my acquies-
cence in the act of March 3, 1868, which, un-
der the pressure of the war and to promote
the sale of bonds, took away from the hold
ers of those notes the right to convert them
into Understanding securities. This right
might properly have been suspended during
the war, but repeal was fatal to the act, and
the source and cause of all the financial evils
we have suffered and from which we cannot
recover until we


RESTORE THAT RIGHT


or redeem on demand our notes in coin. No
discrimination should be made against a
note holder until we are ready to pay him in
coin. He should be allowed, at his option,
to convert his money into bonds at par I'm
til then our notes are deprecated by our
wrongful act, and we have no right to take
advantage of our OWL money by forcing on
bondholders notes we refuse to receive.
| This is the precise principle embodied in the
act to


STRENGTHEN THE PUBLIC CREDIT


Approved March 18, 1869. This act is a
settled law, and he would assume grave
responsibility who would seek to evade its
terms, weaken its authority, or change its
provisions. It has entered into every con-
tract made since that time. It cannot be re-
voked without public dishonor. So far as
the bondholder is concerned it is
| AN EXECUTED LAW,


and 700 million dollars of bonds have been
redeemed in coin under it, and the civilized
world regards all the remainder as covered
by its sanction and in their faith in it our
securities have become second only in the
markets of the world. This law is not quite
yet executed SO far as the note-holder is con-
cerned. His note is not yet quite as good as
coin. Congress has debated ever since its
passage the best mode to make it good. The
Senate in 1870 provided in the third section
of the refunding act that the notes might be
converted into per cent. bonds, but the
House would not concur. If this had beer
done the notes would now be at par in coin


THE RESUMPTION ACT.


if undisturbed, putting in execution the
promise made in 1862, and so often repeated
is about to be fulfilled. Agitation on collat
eral questions may delay it, but the obliga
ton of the public faith written on the face
of every United States note, is sacredly
pledged by the act to strengthen the public
credit, will give us neither peace nor assured
prosperity; until it is fulfilled. Public opin
ion may vibrate, and men and parties ma,
array themselves against the fulfllment o
those public promises, but in time they vii
be fulfilled, and think the sooner the bet