Year: 1874




a part of that which has been provided
as the means by which they are enabled
to live. If they succeed, the period may
be much shorter than they anticipate
when, by the reason of the great reduc-
ton in the current resources of the Gov
ernment. the destruction of the indus
tries of the country, these bonds may not
be so valuable in their hand as now
They may "kill the goose that lays the
golden egg" =


Now, Mr. Speaker, what is the public
credit, and how ought it to be considered
by the people of this country? Why,
sir, if you have bond of the Government
payable twenty years hence, and drawing G
but per cent. interest, you say it is gold.
But if you have greenback of the Gov
ernment, the Government and all the
people are just as solemnly bound to pay
it, and take care of it and keep it good,
as they are the bond yet by the legisla-
ton of the country it is not worth as
much as the bond is in gold


But it is said that gold is the worlds
currency" What is the worlds cur
rency? What gives value to anything
that circulates among the people of any
country as the currency of that country :?
If it is metallic currency, is it the met
al? Or is it not the stamp that is placed





Europe, and all the world besides, to un-
derstand, when they come to America
that our currency has all the attributes
| of money, and their currency must be
brought to the standard of the green
back, just the same as they make US bring
ours to their standard when we go to
their respective countries


What ought we to say when they ask
us by what authority we call this piece
of paper five dollars Our answer should
be analogous to that of old Ethan Allen
at Fort Ticonderoga, by the authority
| of the American Congress and Almighty
| God" With such stamp and with such
security the greenback is the best cur
rency in the world to-day We have no
! fears of detriment to the country by an
! increase of its volume Our people
would hail the legal authority for such
an increase, as the experience of the
country indicates very clearly as being
proper, as the children of Israel did the
fall of the mama in the wilderness


"The worlds currency p Why, sir,
my friend from Pennsylvania Mr.. KEEL
LEY the ether day, 1 think very fittingly
exposed that fallacy, when he instanced
| the fact that man travelling from Eng
land to France, across the channel,
would h ave to convert his sovereigns
into francs. We have had very nota-
BILE instance of this worlds currency"
When the little unpleasantness between
! Germany and France was made up, you
remember that Germany required the
French TO pay her large sum of money.
Now, the French had a specie currency
-"the worlds currency. Old President
Thiers said to his secretary of the treas
/ ury. "We have the worlds currency, the
franc, with which to pay this indemnity
to Germany" "But," says Bismark, mo
sir; you do not; that is not the worlds
currency We have worlds currency
of our own here; and you have got to
melt up your worlds currency and put
it into our worlds currency and you
must take it. / fancy I hear Bismark
say "mir konamer aus Laughter Now
that may not be very good German, but
it is germane to this subject. And in
order to pay the war debt the French
had to take their worlds currency and
melt it into the worlds currency" of
Prussia.


Another thing They had a world S
fair and exposition over I'll ere in Vienna
last summer. And they had world S
currency" there, too. But the curious
part of it is that during that fair the
greenbacks of the United States were
worth more at Vienna than the currency
Vi n uSGT1d, GH0 WOTlO currency, anu
brought premium. A friend of mine,
who was over there. to whom l said,
"What could you do with the greenbacks;
could you get anything with them p
replied, 40, yes; 1 got premium on
them"


The worlds currency of the United
States. the greenback currency, is to-day
worth more at Vienna and on the Rhine,
than the bond of Great Britain. Now, l
think that is about good enough. 1t
seems to me that the quality is all very
well, and that we have no right to say,
by legislation or otherwise, that the dol
lar of the United States in the shape of
a greenback shall not be a dollar for all
purposes.


But, Mr.. Speaker, know that in talk
in this way / am outside of precedents,
and l am glad of it.


Mr.. KELLEY. But you are on the
foundations of eternal truth.


Mr.. BUNDY. 1t seems to me that as
a people we have been following long
enough the precedents set US in centu-
ries gone by.


Mr.. KELLOGG. Will the gentleman
allow me one question?


Mr.. BUNDY. | am speaking without
notes and off.hand; besides that am a
granger" and opposed to middle-men,
and therefore decline to yield the floor


Laughter


Mr.. KELLOGG. If the gentleman
would tell us whether he would have
greenbacks for all time, never paving
? them Oft would be very glad.


Mr.. BUNDY. Sufficient unto the
day is the evil thereof" You cannot
get from greenbacks to specie, for the
reason that you have not got the specie
nor you never will have so long as you
export it, as you have been doing for the
! last ten years.


Mr.. KELLOGG. Does the gentleman
mean to say that we never should get
there? 40 ID
: Mr.. BUNDY. All That is another
thing My idea is, Mr.. Speaker, that in
the progress of time this thing will regu
late itself, just as our business interests
have regulated themselves since the close
of the war, and that we shall get back
to specie payments by process of ma
ture, so to speak. Any spasmodic effort
any application of violent remedy, will
be a Cesarean operation, involving the
life of the mother and the child at the
! Z same time


, Mr.. Speaker, | was saying while age
= that am outside the line of precedents
: Sir, it is a very easy thing to make {
y speech in favor of contraction and re
: sumption. 1t is a very easy thing, anc
) sounds very pretty to say, LET us g
q back to specie payments" for the writ
; ers on the subject are nearly all that wav
: The books that have been written by
u men who were in the interest of the aris
/ tocracy of the country in which they
were living. They were written in thu
q interest of moneyed men, as against tn,