Year: 1875




City, run by the Treasury Department.
Every dollar of this "rag money" from
the beginning to the end, was made by
you, gentlelL en-, who are now clamoring
against rag money" Laughter.] How
came it in circulation Did the Demo-
Gratis circulate itP Oh, no. A Demo-
cratic voice was not heard in the coun-
ellis of the country when that immense
volume of paper was issued, and when
the same Congress that issued it wrote
upon the back of it, this is legal tender
for all debts, and you must take it, ex-
Cept in paying interest to the bondhold-
ers and in the Custom House. By this
they made discrimination in their own
currency; they impaired one faculty to
it and denied it another. They paid their
debts with it, and paid the farmers With
it when they bought anything from them
during the war; they paid the soldiers
with it; they paid pensions with it, hut
they won't pay the bondholders with it,
although it was specially provided that
one class of bonds was to be paid in it,
Why is thisP


The bondholders have a great advant-
age in holding this immense amount of
property, and at the same time paying
no taxes and getting their interest paid
in coin on it. But whatever the currency
is in quality and volume, it is their work,
not ours. If they call the issues of the
government rag money!" whose rag
money" is it2 Didn't you make it !?
Laughter.] You madeth rag money"
Not one dollar of paper money in the
United States was manufactured by the
Democrats. And yet these fellows are
making Clamor as though we had inn
posed upon the country all this rag
money" They are repudiating their
own bantling. They are trying to bring
their own spawn into contempt, and in
doing that they are doing good deal
more than they think they are doing.
Now, rag money" as they call it, is a
promise Of the United States to pay.
That is all it is. A bond of the United
States is promise to pay; bond of the
State of Ohio or tie city Of Cincinnati is
. promise to pay; all the railroad bonds
of the Republic are promises to pay.
They all stand upon the same foundation
of credit, and the man who undertakes
to discredit the notes of his government
discredits the entire amount of our pri-
vate and corporation indebtedness as
well, as the individual notes of people
who will not pay their public indebted
ness will be worth but little in the money
markets of the world


There are in the United States, including
all the bonded Indebtedness ofthe Union,
States, cities, towns and railroads, about
ten thousand millions of dollars, and all
this vast sum hangs upon the precise
thread that sustains the greenbacks and
all the bank circulation of the country.
They are based upon the idea Of credit
and that credit is alone to be expressed
in fidelity to the institution that issues
that note or bond which it promises to
pay. They are all promissory notes;
they are are all intertwined with each
other, they form an immense credit sys-
tenn in the United States and in every
country in the world that is civilized.
You would be surprised, l presume, if
were to tell you that the whole trade Of
the British Empire from Canada to India
"a larger commerce than any country in
the world, old or young, ever had before
is transacted upon credit: every dollar
oft Whenever these people commence
an assault upon the credit of the country
called greenbacks, they at the same time
commence an assault upon the entire vol
ume of this property that consists solely
in credit.


They talk about the Democratic party
| being in favor ofrepudiation. Let us see
how that matter is. Who talks of repu-
diation? q? Why these very men them
selves. They are sending word through
out all the stock markets of Europe that
the great party of the United States, call
ed the Democratic party, are in favor Of
Reputation. Well, now, if they could
get everybody to believe that, what would
their bonds be worth, any of them? Who
put the idea of reputation in the minds
of the American people2 They did; no.
body else. Nobody else ever wanted to
repudiate. Ifthey choose to repudiate, ,th, y
will have to take all the consequences of
repudiation,we willnot help them They
are making the biggest stride toward re-
pudiation that it is possible for delu-
ded people to make. They are predict
ing it, and by predicting it they are in
voking it, Credit has political virgin
quality. twill not do to call its purity
in question. When it is once blighted it
is gone, and forever. These people who
are now trying to bring the entire sys-
tenn of credit in the United States into
dishonor and disrepute, are the men who
are undermining the whole system of
credit, and inviting reputation. Ap-
plause. If their bantling dies, it will be
from their own bad nursing. The Dem
ocratic party have no bantling of that
sort. The Democratic party have no an
tipathy to banks or stock jobbers, or any
class of men that own legitimate proper
ty in this country,


The Democratic party have but one OBJ
ject, that object common to the whole
people. We don't intend to allow stock
jobbers, office holders, government con-
tractors. and ring jcbbing men of the
Republican party, to take the stock job
bing interest, and the banking interest,
and office-holding interest, and put it in
power, to the exclusion of the farmer,th
labOrer, themechanic, and all other por-
tiOns of the community. 1t is not to put
this interest down; it is to prevent
that interest from puttingall others down,
and usurpring the entire government of
the country. That is what we want.


Wht n Democrat is asked about what
kind of law he wants, his answer is
promlt t and ready. He wants a law for
all, ,thi t will protect all, that will dispense
the blessings of free government to all:
he wants law that will take care of the
interest of the poor laborer that is ascend
ing on ladder with the hod upon his
shoulder; he wants a law that will pro-
tect the farmer, small though may be his
acres, and see that he has fare share in
the government Of his country; we
want law that will protect the manu-
facturer and the working people, in town
and country. We want a law, in a word
that is the law Of all, and not the law of,
specific few. Applause.l


Now, what is the condition of this
country at present. These men have had
Al