Year: 1877




coming to it simply as prac-
tical question, it is a contest be-
tween brokers and jobbers and
money changers on the one side
and the people of the United States
on the. other"


Mr.. Spaulding or Ohio, said:
"Who, then, are they that ask to
have preference given to them over
other creditors of the Government?
Sir, it is a very respectable class OF
gentlemen, but class of men who
are very sharp in all money trans
actions. They are not generally
among the producing classes-not
among those who, by their skill and
labor, make the wealth of the coun
try; but mass of men who have
accumulated wealth-men who are
willing to lend money to the Gov
ernment if you will make the secu
rity beyond all question, give them
a high rate of interest, and make it
payable in coin.


BoNDHoLDERs' CONSPIRACY OF 1869.


Other men in and out of Congress
denounced the demand of the Shy
locks to have their interest paid in
gold; but the money power was too
strong to be resisted then and has
so continued till now, and gold in
terest was allowed. No man sup
posed, nobody suggested that 1t
could be claimed that the principal
of those bonds (the 5-20s } could be
demanded in gold or silver coin; but
to make assurance doubly sure,
Congress caused to be written on
the back of each legal-tender note,
that it was receivable at its face val
ue for all debts, public and private,
except interest on the bonds and
custom dues. No man will deny
that the principal of the bonds is a
public debt; being so it was of
course payable in legal-tender notes.


1t is simply nonsense for any
body now to contend otherwise.
Yet the first act of Gen. Grants ad
ministration was the act declaring
that the principal of all these bonds
was payable in coin. That act was
voted for by nearly every Rad
ical in the House and Senate,
and did not receive a single
Democratic vote in either. That
was the most Infamous act ever
passed by any Congress. 1t con
verted domestic debt which could
then be paid in a currency which
would remain here, as five years had
run from the date of the issue of
most of the bonds, into a foreign
one; it added without consideration,
and against law and justice, at
least $5OO,OOO,OO0 to the debt of
the country, a sum larger than the
whole cost of maintaining all the
departments of the Government and
all its debts entire for the first TWEEN
ty eight years of it's existence, or
from the first Inauguration of Gen.
Washington to the inauguration OF
Mr.. Monroe, including all the eX-
penditures of the war with Great
Britain, from 1912 to 1915. 1t was
rushed through from all the eviden
ees of carefully preconcerted con
spiracy, before the Speaker had APP
pointed any of the committees; un-
der the gag, no man being allowed
to open his mouth in the House of
Representatives, and it passed both
Houses, and was signed by Gen.
Grant in less than a week after the
time it was first suggested. 1t was
simply an act of plunder, worse than
highway robbery: there the victim
has some chance to resist, in that
case we have none. 1t ought to
have hurled Grants administration
and all connected with it from place
and power.


The acquiescence of the people
in it emboldened them to pass the
subsequent acts of a like nature,
which have brought us to our pres
ent condition. In 1869 the bond
holders of Europe and America
knew that they had a Congress
which belonged to them. A body
of men known as carpet -baggars
had been placed in Congress by
Congress under reconstruction acts,
which reduced eleven States to the
most abject satrapies. They were
called representatives of the South
ern States and people, but were not
so in a proper sense; they were the
most malignant enemies and the
most INSCRIPTIONS vilifiers of the
people for whom they prOfessed to
act-simply the agents of Eastern
monopolists and the hired tools Of
capitalists. BY their presence IN
Congress, New England and the
Eastern monopolies had a double
representation, and the South was
forced to aid in her own degrade
ton and in the destruction OF the
interest of the general tax payers,
especially in the great agricultural
region west of the Alleghanies
and south of Mason and Dixon's
line. Thank God they are almost
extinct in American politics. May
we never see their like again. be
lieve that the act of March Is, 1869
is unconstitutional and, therefore.
null and void. Congress IN 1869
had no power TO declare the mean
ing of previous acts. All declara
tory legislation is void. 1t is the pre-
rogatiye of the courts to determine
and declare the meaning of legisla
tive acts, and it was clearly outside of
the constitutional power of Con
gress to take from the people either
| 100000, 900, or any other amount
of money, and give It without pre-
tense of consideration, to the bond
holder. / have introduced several
bills for its repeal, but have always
been met with the cry that the faith
of the nation was pledged by that
act to the payment Of the bonds in
coin. deny that any Congress can
pledge any future Congress by any
act, and I specially deny that the
representatives of the people are
under any sort of obligation to any
body to maintain such a measure as
that passed, as it was, by \ Con
gress filled with bogus representa-
tives-an act conceived in sin and
brought forth in iniquity. One
fraud successfully accomplished
paves the way for others. 1t was
seen in a few years that silver vas
becoming more abundant