Year: 1870

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, to-day to speak for his welfare and t.


the best of my abilities uphold Iii


cause.


Sir, i'll examining the financial pol


icy which is now proclaimed by the


administration in power, the history o


the creation of our national debt, the


manner in which it was formed, be


comes primary and important sub
Iject of investigation. II had its origin
in the midst of the commissions of war


The contract for its payment was made
when the sword impended with bloody
menace over the existence of the Gov.
ernment. 1t was negotiated when the
sound of battle along n thousand miles
of dividing and ensanguine borders
were in our ears. The smoke of car
mage lay heavily on all the air, and un-
der the shadow of its threatening can.
opy, the borrower for the maintenance
of the armies and the lender for usury
and gain crept about and arranged the
terms of that stupendous debt which
now confronts US with its Unsuitable
demands. The hard, bitter duress OF
deadly peril was upon all the func-
tons of the nation. But little was
done in those dark days from untrem-
meled choice, but much upon cruel
compulsion. The doctrines of free
will gave way in the councils of the Re-
public to the code of an inexorable ne
cessity. We were compelled to have
money or perish from the face of the
earth, and this was known in every
money market in the world. We went,
reeling and bleeding under the blows
of the rebellion, to the counters of
brokerage and offered our paper for
discount, when money was AZ vital n
necessity rs breath to dying man or
water to one whose lips blackened
with thirst in the burning desert
Were these circumstances favorable to
just and equitable negotiation? Did
these sinister omens give promise of u
fair transaction with the capitalists
and money changers? Will wealth
seek no advantages from individual or
national distress? Is amassed capital
unselfsh? Does it seek no moro than
its own when the straits pf poverty or
peril drive men or Government into
its power? Such is not the experience
Of mankind, and such was not the ex-
perience of the American people when
under the stress of mighty affections
they bec..me borrowers and rendered
their bonds for the repayment of the
sums obtained. l appeal 10 the facts
OF history within the knowledge aud
memory of all who hear me. The cap
italists of this country discounted the
credit of this Government in its strng-
gle for life more heavily, shaved its
notes iii the broker shops more deep
ly, than was ever before known under
similar circumstances in the annals of
civilized nations. They drove the hard
est bargain ever known between citi-
zens and the Government which pro-
tected them. They traded with less
conscience upon the fuctuating for
tunes of the flag than any other class
of beings that ever drew breath be-
meath its folds. Their keen eyed Gu
pidity kept watch upon the imperiled
standard OF their country, and the
measure of their exactions was gaueed
according rs it was advanced full high
in the hour of victory, or borne back
in gloom upon the ebbing tide of de-
feat. And disaster brought them their
richest banquets. The clouds that so
often filed our sky with darkness were
to them relieved by golden lining.
Speculation hovered over the fate of
our armies and fattened like the vul-
ture upon the unburied dead of lost
and strickened fields. Death and the
sordid greed of gain held high carni-
val together, and ministcred to each
others ferocious and insatiate lusts
and appetites from the opening to the
close of the dreadful conflict. I stand
prepared to sustain these statements.
am fully aware of my responsibility
in making them; but knowing, as do,
the facts are recorded in the archives
of the Government, I here solemnly
assert, and shall prove. that vast
proportion of the public debt, rs it is
stated upon paper, has no existence
whatever in reality; that it is fiction
created by unjust and scandalous leg
islation, or the still more unjust and
scandalous perversion of the true con-
tract; that it is fraad fastened upon
the labor of the nation utterly without
consideration, either legal or moral !;
that it is clear and naked extortion
from the wants, the necessities, the
helplessness of the people and the
armies when they were wholly at the
mercy of capital. have made my
calculations, and made them safely. I
have underestimate the wrongs of the
people and the enormous advantages
of the bond-holder, rather than, over
estimated them. l desire those who
receive my statements as authority, to
feel amply secure from successful
contradiction. 1 wish to enable them
to challenge denial everywhere, as I
do here.


The first step in the creation of the
present interest bearing bonded debt
was taken by the Government in 1862.
In that year there were issued bonds
amounting to $50, 1882 ,45O, bearing six
per cent. interest, and due in twenty
years from date. The average price of
gold then, as given by high author
ity, wa 1881 in currency. At this rate
the purchasers of this first sale of over
sixty millions of bonds paid for them
only S44, ,030, ,649 in gold. It is now
demanded that they shall be paid in
gold at their face, and not according
l. "A Il, III