Year: 1874

|
less adventures to unload property pur-
chased on baseless credit on the innocent
and the ignorant. But all this is not pros
perity


When this great national Legislature shall
say to the people of this country, in words
which cannot be mistaken, that impartial
justice shall be done to every interest and
every pursuit, that public credit shall be
inviolate, that the last cent of public in
debtness shall be saeredly paid, that the
national currency shall be, slowly perhaps,
but surely, brought to the specie standard,
that no step in respect to that shall be
taken backward; when every man in this
broad land shall go to work with the abso-
lutte certainty that no meddling or tinker
ing of the currency shall interfere with
any contract he makes or any business in
which he engages; when you have pursued
this policy long enough for it to be distinct
ly understood that it will be adhered to, all
the industries of the land will be set in
healthy and unceasing motion. Then, and
not until then, will activity and intelligence,
thrift and economy, join hands in creating
prosperity in this new country such as
this world has not hitherto known.


1 would like, Mr.. Speaker, to vote for a
modification of our laws in relation to
banks and currency. would like to get
nd, by some practicable provision, of the
monopoly feature of our banking law. If
that be not practicable, think it but sim
pie justice that the West and South should
have equal banking facilities, according to
their population and needs, with the North
and East. If portion of the superabun-
dant circulation furnished by the Govern
ment to the eastern banks should be grad
ually Withdrawn and given to banking asso-
Citations in the West and South as they
may require it, it would aIlay source of III
tation, it would do justice between the diff
ferent portions Of the country, and practic-
ally it would be ''free banking" in those
portions of the country where free banking
IS, or seems to be, regarded as such a
necessity. But, sir, mere initiation, O new
provision of law to force the people of this
country to accept and use as money in the
prosecution of their business millions on
millions more of morey that is not money
of promises disregarded- without any
provision looking even in the far distant
future to veracity, to solvency, to redemp-
tion-never, sir, never, by my votel


I beg of gentlemen to pay some heed
to the moral aspect of this question.-The
air is foul with accusations of dishonesty,
with charges of official and general eorrup-
ton. trust the half of what we hear is
not true. If they are true, our whole social
system must be rotten to the core. That,
sir, do not believe. Truth and honor,
virtue and morality, are deeply planted in
the American mind and conscience, and are
the solid foundations of our national char
acter. High personal character is the most
priceless possession that any man can have.
| High national character is the richest herit-
age any people can possess. Nothing should
be guarded SO jealously. Wealth, reputa-
ton, seeming prosperity, fade into insignif-
cance beside exalted character Now, DO
gentlemen ever reflect on the lesson that
our irredeemable paper promises to pay
money are ceaselessly intoxicating on the
mind of every boy and man in all this land?
Our legal-tender notes were issued during
the dark days of the war. They were a
war measure. The universal understand
ing was that they werea temporary meas
ure. They were forced loan, to be paid
back at the earliest practicable moment.
Every one so understood them. Congress
has with every circumstance of solemnity
SO declared. That great party which has
SO long.and on the whole SO wisely governed
this country, that party which elected Gen
eral Grant President and sent large ma
jority of us to this Hail. has everywhere, on
every occasion, repeated the pledge. Now
how is it? Nine years have passed since
the war. Every stump orator rhas exhausted
all the resources of rhetoric to demonstrate
that there never was under the sunshine of





material prosperity as that which we have ex-
perienced since the close of the war. But,
sir, notwithstanding all that, and if that be
true, there is no man to-day who has one
dollar greenback in his pocket who does
not carry about with him violated prom
Use of this great nation-an obligation dis
regarded. Are we not teaching the people
that there is no dishonor in violated prom
Use, in an obligation unfulfIled?


Mr.. Speaker, if were in sore pecuniary
distress, if my fortune and that of all my
family were in extreme jeopardy for lack
of sum of present money, and you were
kind enough to lend me what should need
and should thereby save me from ruin, and
1 should give you my note to be paid as
soon as was able, that ability to be judged
by myself, what would you think, what
would any honorable man think, if after
many years of wonderful prosperity, if after
investing great sums in railroads, in the
manufacture of iron and cloth, and city prop
erty, should still insist not only thatI could
not pay, but should coolly ask you for larg-
er loan with an absolute refusal to give you
any promise that would ever at any time
pay you what owed you? Would you en-
ploy me to teach your children morality?
How does that differ from the position this
nation occupies to-day? Is public example
less important as a teacher of virtue than



private example? May We not in this ma
tional bad faith find a fruitful and potent
source for much of the public corruption
|. which stains and darkens our country?
1t is said that public sentiment demands
these measures of initiation; that no man
from the West can ever return to the pleas
ant seats and agreeable company found in
this Hall if he votes against these schemes.
Well. if that be SO, SO be it. There are
some things prize far more than a seat in
Congress; my own self-respect and the
honor and fair fame of my country are some
of these.


Pass this bill, sir, and you set out on
VOYAGE over a stormy sea of financial un-
certainty, without rudder and without
compass No man living can predict with
any certainty whether We shall in the life
time of any one of US ever see a stable cur
rencv. The same causes which demand
imitation now, will demand initiation again
and again. Values will be as unstable as
Wharf.-The shrewd and cunning viii grow