Year: 1875

their public men, but they had coDfided


to their sorrow. They saw the country


drifting to ruin as fast as the impetus of


the storm could carry it. They saw,


and they see now every day, the losses


by whisky rings, credit mobilier rings,


salary grabbing rings, District Of Column


bis rings, land-grabbing rings, Pacific


Mail rings, CustomhOuse and Indian


rings, these latter brought about by the
! cOnnivance OF custOmhOuse officers and


Indian agents. These immense larcen-


les are committed upon the people, for


every dollar that they steal from the
| public treasury has to be taken out Of


your pockets by the tax-gatherers. That


is the fact about it. The government


can get 10 money except from taxes,


and every fellow that runs off


with dollar of the taxes


makes it necessary for that dollar


to be put on you next year. But these


gentlemen who are making such q


hue and cry about rag money have no


word of depreciation for the two thou
sand national banks to which We pay


twenty millions Of dollars per year for


the blessed favor Of furnishing US q cur
rency. And what kind Of a currency
! do they furnish US? Is it not rag cur





| material out of which gIeenbscks are
constructed, and is it not redeemable in
! greenb1cks? Then why is this species
of rig money better than the greenback,
and why.should we pay this enormous
sum every year for the privilege OF hav-
ing currency redeemable in greenbacks
when we can have the greenbacks them
selves and save our twenty millions OF
dollars? If we could hear the clink OF
the coin on the counter when we pass
national bank bill to its maker for Ie-
demptiOn, there would be a distinction
with difference between the two kinds
of money, But while the national
bank rag is only redeemable with a
gTeenback rag, and the faith and pros
perity of this great government is
pledged to redeem the greenback, 1t
seems to me that the greenback Is the
preferable, as it certainly is the cheapest
currency. To call the greenback
worthless and an irredeemable curren-
cy is to impugn the honor and credit of
the government. Upon the face of each
note is printed, "The United states will
pay to bearer - dollars" IL does
not say when it will pay it, as it does in
its interest-bearing bonds, but it never
theless sOlemnly promises to pay the
u
of either Of the series OF the interest
bearing bonds rests entirely upon the
honor Of the government. There is no
power under heaven to compel the pay
ment OF any of our bonds if the govern
ment declines to do so. Therefore, what
right have the Republicans to say that
the government will pay one class OF its
honestly contracted Indebtedness and
refuse to pay another? The obligations
of this government will all be paid. The
people will not allow reputation in any
shape. Their moral sense revOlts at the
idea. But, say our Republican friends,
YOU Democrats have hard-mOney
record. How can you be for rag money
now? l can say to them that
circumstances change policies.
When we were hard-mOney
party hard money was possible,
aud it was for the interest of the masses.
We have always been an anti-national
bank party. In Jackson's time we Op-
posed a single national bank because 1t
was detrimental to the interests of the
American people. Now that we have
two thousand national banks draining
the life-blOOd Of the people, why should
we not raise our voices against them?
The old national bank Of Biddle fat
tened off Of the peculiar privileges
granted to it by the government, and
our present national banks are contrlv-
ances by which the government author
ICES favored class to pluck the govern
ment goose, except the pinfeathers,
which are left for the people. But who
has a right 10 say that We are not a
haId-mOney party to-day? What Is
there in our recent record to cOntrovert
that idea? There is not Democrat in
the land who will oppose the resumption
of specie payment when 1t can be
brought about without paralyzing indus
tries and impOverishing and distressing
the people. But we do not make such
an idol Of metallic coin as to be willing
to breed Communistic revOlts and fill
our land with paupers to
force resumption. We fully realize
that with ten thousand millions
of Indebtedness, public and private, and
the vast volume of business represented
by it, that speedy resumption Is absO-
Iutely impossible without bringing i'm
mense distress and disaster to every
class of our population except the bond
holder and the mOney-changer. The
congressional pledges Of resumption 10
1879 hangs like pail over the business
of the country. Prudent men have
been following the example OF retrac-
tiOn set by hegOvernment. They have
been drawing their means out OF act
i've business and securing 1T In real
property; they are closing up their man
ufsctOries; they refuse to go into new
enterprises, and the result Is that the
panic Of 1874, which should only have
had temporary duration, has settled
down into season of business prOstra-
I, al1 tho mol.
lev OF the government is changed, the
continued tampering with the currency
checked, and the active men OF the
country can have faith to resume Oper-
ations without fear Of being OVertaken
by ruin through government interfer-
ence. If resumption is reached in
1879, steady contraction and
q depreciation in values must con-
tinue; and what sane man will invest
his means in business under such Cir
cumstances? Let us reach specie pay
ment as speedily as possible, but let the
laws of busine 5 and circumstances un.
sder which we are placed govern the mat
ter, and not the special interest OF the
banker and bondhOlder. The Republi-
cans of America are not responsible as
individuals for all the bad dOipgs OF their
representatives. If the honest Republi-
cans had known the state OF the country
the year after the war, they would have
turned every dishonest man out Of con-
gress, as they assisted the Democrats to
do a wear ago The Republican leaders
ran about the country hallOOlDg about
the war, the war, the war, and the peo-
pie Of the country who had stood by the
Union listened to them. They deceived
their constituentsIyesr in and year out
until their gullibihty ceased, aud now
they are determined to have an honest
administration Of the government
through the Democratic party. Now,
my dear friends, this is very hot night,
either to speak or to listen, and l think
that ought to be excused for not saying
all the things which desired to say. l
may visit you again during the cam
paign, and, for the present, l will say
goodnight.