Year: 1866

comparisons tried to depreclate our currency
and thus embarrass our operations"


l Mr.. Stephens, in speaking of this bill said


'sMr. Speaker, this is a tremendous BILL
it proposes to confer, in my Judgment, more
power upon single man, than was ever be
fore conferred upon any one man in a Gov
ernment claiming to have constitution
Whenever there is vast power, the extenI
of which is hardly limited at all, and 1t L
unC ertain how it will be exercised, there II
no business community that ever feel safe
there is no business man that will not feal
to embark his money in any enterprise which
requires much capital. And think L fol
one, can see already that the very pendency
of this bill has tended to throw dampei
Iupon the business of the country, so far as
know any thing about it, which have new
er before felt or seen from the mere intro.
duction of bill. know that two cotton
factories that had commenced and were
nearly under roof when this bill was intro
duced, have been suspended, and will be en-
tirely abandoned never to be resumed, il
this bill granting this mighty power should
become a law. And 1 venture to say that
there is scarcely any branch of business in
the country, whether in the cities or in rural
districts, that will not be Immediately so
cramped- as to reduce all the industrial en-.
terprises of the country and all the great in
terests of the nation in the revenue-paying
department. Let US for a single moment
see whether the provisions of the bill do not
bear out my assertion that it proposes to
confer tremendous power. There is no
power more terrible if exercised perniciously
than to extend or contract the currency. II
is terrible engine. l remember when the
fight was carried on between President
jackson and the United States Bank,
although the bank had but S35, ZOO, 600, at
its command, that whenever it found it nee
essary to carry State, the bank either ex-
tended or contracted to execute its purpose.
have seen crash after crash, and house af-
ter house of the most flourishing men in the
city of Philadelphia and elsewhere go down
under the mereIless operation of that war
fare which was thus carried on between them.
Now venture to say that that power was
not one fifth part of the power which this
bill proposes to give to the Secretary of the
Treasury. What does it propose to give to
him?


The bill provides that the Act of March,
1865, shall be extended and construed to au-
thorize the Secretary of the Treasury at his
discretion, unlimited by any law, to receive
treasury notes issued under any Act of Con
gress, whether bearing interest or not, in
exchange for any description of bonds au-
thorized by the Act, to which this is an
amendment; and also to dispose of any
description of bonds authorized by said Act,
either in the United States or elsewhere, to
such an amount and in such manner, and at
such rates as he may think advisable


Now, ask whether the Legislation OF
this House, in the hardest times of the war,
whether the legislation of any other nation
on the face of the earth, confided such dis
cretion in a single man. The laW-making
power has always taken care to guard by
proper limitations, the acts of its executive
officers. And although in the executive de-
partment some discretion has been granted,
yet the discretion to borrow Just as much as
man pleases, to borrow it wherever he
pleases, to borrow it at any rate he pleases,
seems to me to be power which no wise
body of men would ever confide to the purest
and ablest man that ever lived. Mr.. Stevens
closes his mastery speech on this subject in
the following language:


'tNow gentlemen, If you have ever been
upon the rack, Il hope none of you have, J
pass this law, and you will have worse rack
than any you ever were on. do not believe
there is branch of business in this country
Il
he will not exercise the power. But perhaps
he will, there is the difficulty; give him the
power, and he may do one thing or the 9th.
er. But as no may do it, every man in the
country who has any regard to his own in
terest will be cautious how he will put him.
self in position to be thus broken, bone and
flesh, by this terrible engine of power which
it is proposed TO give the Secretary of the
Treasury"


Mr.. Kelley incidentally alluded to the
loan bill in the discussion Of 'sa bill to regu-
late trade with British North America" as
follows: at is like the loan bill, which
proposed to contract the business of the coun-
try to the narrow dimensions it filed before
the war, and to give the Secretary of the
Treasury, while he has an average balance
of $40, ,000, 900 lying on deposit in the banks,
the power to contract or expand at his pleas.
ure." l have quoted quite fully from the
speeches of leading Republicans, to show that
the advocates of the loan bill voted for it with
their eyes open. It was carried over the votes oi
some of the best men IN Congress, by the Ad-
minlstration and Cepperhead vote, both in the
House and in the Senate. The Administration
men would support it as matter of course,
beause it was an Administration MEASURE
The Copperheads would vote for it, because
they desired crash in the currency of the
country, which would unsettle values and
prove their predictions true, that the nation
al bonds and greenbacks would be greatly
deprecated, if not as worthless, as
the continental currency They hoped BY
such means to break down the Republican
party, and thus get into power themselves.
This loan bill may yet prove the Grecian
Woolen Horse in the Troy of our commerce.
believe it TO be the most dangerous and
ruinous measure that has passed Congress
for years. Why should Gen. Garfield desire
to eonfde such vast power to the President,
as he sought to do by the 9th Section of the
bill regulating trade with British North
America, and why should he advocate the
loan bill which surrendered such ''tremen-
dous power" to the Secretary of the Treas
uryi


1t is said that Gen. Garfield must be re-
nominated, to sustain Congress, as against
the Administration. Is the Finance Minis
ter in sympathy with the policy of Congress?
his late serenade speech is to the point-I
will take the liberty of quoting brief para
graph from the same.


alt was once said. 1 think, by John
Randolph, that of all tinkers, the Con-
stitution tinkers were the most to be depre-
catea. Cheers. II the old man could
rise from his grave, what would he say to
the present Congress, in which every third
man at least is Constitutional tinker p
Cheers and laughter.] But they are not
wise enough to amend that grand old instrn-
ment-the work of our fathers-of the foun-
ders of the Republic, the glory of the Uni
ted States and the admiration of the world.


1t is not surprising that Mr.. MeCulloch
should doubt the wisdom of this Congress,
after it had conferred upon him power enough
in the loan bill, not only to crush Congress,
but also to paralyze the business of the coun.
try. 1t might be we'll to admonish the Sec.
retary of the Treasury, that there is a class
of tinkers as mischievous as Constitution tin
kers, and that is Currency tinkers. It was
in bad taste for Mr.. McCulloch thus to turn
round and insult Congress, after it had made
him the Autocrat of our finances and com.
merces. He is one of the most jealous and
offensive partizans of the Presidents recon
struction policy, and he has recently given Re
publicans to understand that the influence o.
his position will be used to carry out 'My
Policy" and to defeat the policy of Congress
It is to be feared that Mr.. McCulloeh vii
use the vast power which Gen. Garfield aidet