Year: 1874

Speech of Hon. John Q. Smith,


of Ohio. I'm the House, April


9th, 1874.


Mr.. Speaker, the prosperity of people
is not indicated by the nominal amount of
the wages or wealth of each citizen, but by
the real amount. 1t is the purchasing pow
er of wages that gives wages their value
If dollar will buy as many of the neces-
sities of life under one set of circumstances
as two dollars will purchase under other
circumstances, it is of equal value with the
two dollars for every purpose except the
payment of debts already contracted Now,
sir, we have had a great many definitions
of money during the progress of this de-
bate. believe it is universally conceded
that its Office is that of a measurer of
values and an instrument of exchange, and
think no one will deny that it is desirable
that its value should be as nearly stable and
as little liable to f1uctuation as anything we
can obtain can be. There is no article in
this world of absolutely determined and
fixed value. There is no article in this
world, as compared with any different sort
of article, of determined and fixed value.
But the article that approaches more nearly
the abstract idea of perfect excellence than
any other, as a measurer of values, in the
opinion of all men, in every age, is gold.
1t is an article of universal desire, and the
amount in use changes from decade to de-
cade very slowly. 1t is nearly indestructi-
ible; it is divisible; it is beautiful; and its
fneness and purity can be ascertained with
absolute exactness. It is honest; there is
no fraud about it. For these reasons it
has been selected and adopted by every
nation in which commerce has hourished,
either internal or external, as the article
best calculated to measure the value of ev-
cry other article. am stating nothing new.
assume that even the widest infiationist
in Congress will neither give nae credit for
a new discovery nor deny the truth of my
statement


Now, sir, what is paper money? 1t is a
promise to pay gold. 1t is a promise to
pay on demand, or at soma future day, a
given amount of gold. Without that prom
Use what is it? Nothing-worthless utterly
worthless. Its value depends wholly on
faith in the promise. In proportion as you
destroy faith in that promise, you depreci-
ate the value of the promise. If all faith
is destroyed the promise is of no value -
But, on the other hand, if the promise is
to pay gold on demand and that faith is
kept, the promise to pay is held to be equal,
or nearly equal, to the gold itself in value.
But the moment it becomes apparent that
thepledge to pay gold will not or cannot be
kept, that moment the pledge itself loses
a part or all of its value. The Government
of the United States, dozen years ago, is
sued large amount of promises to pay
money-that is, gold coin, and made those
promises legal tenders for the payment of
debts. In the darkest hours of the war it
solemnly pledged itself by act of Congress
that the amount should never again be in
creased. Congress did that for the pur-
pose of inspiring confidence in their ulti-
mate payment. Again, sir, when the war
was over Congress reduced the amount
Sf4, ,OOO,O 900 and solemnly pledged the honor





of the nation that at the earliest practicable
day they should be redeemed in coin. Shall
we take steps to violate our sacred promise?
Shall we turn away from the fulfllment of
our solemn obligation?


Mr.. Speaker, believe that the path of
honor is always the path of true policy. 1t
is frequently hard to pay debts. I know
what it is, sir. The wife and children may
have to be deprived of many comforts.
The home may be poorer. But the man
who will not pay his honest debts, if in or
der to do SO he has to live more poorly than
his tastes or his supposed necessities may
demand, deserves the contempt of all up
right men and women. If this be true of
man, how much more of q State? The
man dies in few years and is forgotten.
The State lives through the life of many
generations. If honesty is the best policy
for the individual, how much more is it the
best policy for the State?


1 read on this subject from Macaulay's
Life of Give:


''That honesty is the best policy is maxim which
we firmly believe to be generally correct even with
respect to the temporal interests of individuals:
but with respect to societies. the rule is subject to
still fewer exceptions, and that for this reason
that the life of societies is longer than the life of
individuals. 1t is possible to mention men who
have owed great worldly prosperity to breaches of
private faith; but doubt whether it be possible
to mention aState which has on the whole been
gamer by breach of public faith. The entire his
tory of British India is an illustration of the great
truth, that it is not prudent TO oppose perfdy to
perfdy, and that the most efficient weapon with
which men can encounter falsehood is truth. Dur
ing long course of years the English rulers of
India, surrounded by allies and enemies whom no
engagement could bind, have generally acted with
sincerity and uprightness; and the event has
proved that sincerity and uprightness are wisdom.
English valor and English intelligence have done
less to extend and preserve oriental empire than
English veracity. All that we could have gained by
initiating the doublings, the evasions, the ictions
the perjuries, which have been employed against
us, is as nothing when compared with that we have
gained by being the one power in India on whose
word reliance can be placed. No oath which su-
perstition can devise, hostage however precious
inspires hundredth part of the confidence which
is produced by the 'yea, yea, and may, nay" of
a British envoy. No fastness, however strong by
art nature, gives to its inmates security like
that enjoyed by the chief who, passing through the
territories of powerful and deadly enemies, is
armed with the British guarantee. The mightiest
princes of the East can scarcely, by the offer of
enormous usury, draw forth any portion of the
wealth which is concealed under the hearths of
their subjects. The British government offers lit
tie more than per cent. and avarice hastens to
bring forth tens of millions of rupees from its most
secret repositories. A hostile monarch may prom
Use mountains of gold to our Sepoys, on condition
that they will desert the STANDARD of the company
The company promises only a moderate pension
after long service. But every Sepoy knows that