Year: 1875




additional greenbacks afoatp The que
ry seems to have caused some embar


rsssment, and the answer has usually


been: "Oh we shall get it out some.
how" But there is no need of indef.
nlteness. The matter is capable Of pre-
else statement. Obviously there are two
ways to set additional currency ahoat.
One is by buying up United States gold
bearing bonds in the market. or by buy
ing gold to pay of the bonds as they fall
due. But it ls certain that this method
will answer only in very limited mea-
sure for this simple reason: As you put
out new greenbacks with the prospect of
a large emission, the greenbacks will
rapidly depreciate Us to gold. and as the


bonds arc payable principal and interest
In gold, they will maintain their gold
value, and their price in paper money
will thereby become so high that the
method OF putting out greenbacks by
purchasing bonds will soon become very
unpopular and be dropped. Or if you
mean to repudiate the bonds, Of which,
as understand, there is at present no
declared purpose, then Of course YOU
will simply repudiate them and not buy
them up at all. But there is another
way to put afloat new issues of green
backs, it is by carrying the expenses of
the Government beyond its revenue, and
this have no doubt will be resorted to
as the favorite method. Do you know
what that means2 Imagine Congress
making appropriations Of money for the
ayowed purpose Of getting out. putting
atioat, spending rs much money as pos
sible, and adopting systematic extrava-
ganoe in expenditures as a necessary
measure of financial policy to the end Of
making and keeping the volume Of cur
rency equal to the wants of trade. What
q day OF jubilee there will be among the
thieves and rascals, who think they can
gain not only wealth but respectability,
by stealing as much as possible Of the
public money. Let it be known that
bitches must be dug, that embankmants
must be thrown up, and that railroads
and steamboat lines must be subsidized,
for the purpose Of spending money that
the volume Of the currency be made
and kept equal to tho wants Of trade"


What harvest of jobs, what a crop
of rings this blessed country will bear;
what glorious time for enterprising
what seductive season
for Congressman; to help friend for
q little share in the profits; what fly
ing about of stray millions, for, mind
you, money will be no object; on the
1t must be spent, and the
more spent the better, for the green
backs must be got out in obedience TO
the mandate ito make and keep the
volume of tbs currency equal to the
wants of the trade" No, fellow-citi-
zens, this is no jest. You adopt q flnan-
cial policy, making it the duty of the
National Government to put out new
issues of currency IN any way that will
serve the object quickest and unlimited
will be the necessary,
the inevitable consequence. There
never was.a State ever SO we'll admin
istered, there never was people ever
30 frugal, there never was government
ever so careful which did not by the
emission of large quantities of irredee.
mable paper money run in the vortex
Of profligacy and corruption. 1t has
never been; it will never be otherwise.
It is the very nature of things. When
you manufacture this so.called money
BY merely printing a few words on
Zip OF paper, it apparently costs noth-
ng. You are deluding yourselves
with the idea that you are creating
wealth without stopping to think of the
Ultimate day of reckoning, which de.
nands the settlement of accounts.
When you spend such money for the
very purpose of getting it out, the
widest extravaganza is unavoidable,
md the extravaganza of government
always is the very hot-bed of peculation
md corruption. The rings will thrive
md the honest men will pay the cost
)ut not only the Government officers
loes it corrupt, still more grievously
will 1t demoralize the people, when,
,y the fluctuations of so vicious a
system the possessions of
everybody become uncertain from day
10 day. Every man of business will
oy the very force of circumstance be
made gambler. What is worth some
hing to-day may be worth nothingt to.
morrow, is likely the football of
chance; and when everybody, to save
himself, sees himself forced to over.
reach everybody else, the principles of
honesty are easily forgotten. The sting
Of necessity stimulates unscrupulous
yreed and the general example silences
he voice of drudgery, and to live on
,ne's wits becomes the order of the
lay.
THE FRUIT OF RAG MONEY.


The history of nations is full of per-
.inent warnings. American society
can escape such fate just as little as
IS any other If we flood this country
with that kind of money which in its
very nature carries the poison of false
pretepse and seduction. Ny Demo
cratic friends, we have seen In our
days many startling cases of embezzle-
ment, speculation and fraud; we have
seen Credit Mobilier rings, whiskey
rings, mail contract rings, Indian rings
and what not. l have denounced
these things no less earnestly than
you, but l tell you all these things
will appear Insignificant. compared
with the corruption and prohgacy
which must inevitably ensue when
you put in operation financial policy,
which in order to make and keep our
irredeemable currency equal to the
wants of trade will oblige the Govern
ment to spend money in streams for
the very purpose Of getting it out for