Year: 1875

If the $65,0O0,000 had been


applied annually for the


past tea years it would have


paid off $500,000,00O and


the interest besides, leav-


ing for support of Govern


ment each year. ..... $75,000,000
which is more than was spent by any ad-
ministration before the late war, or more
than the cost of government during the
Mexican war, when we conquered that
country.


Last year our navy cost $9O,0O0,OOO, al
though our carrying trade is destroyed.
1t cost but $l2,000,00O when it protected
American shipping on every ocean. If
this policy of economy and payment Of
debts had been pursued, if the example
of the General Government to the States
had been on the side of retrenchment
and reform, does any one think our
country would have been in its present
condition2 Would there now be contest
about our CURRENCY The failure of the
Republican party to restore the credit of
our currency and to lessen the weight of
taxation has excited dangerous resent
ments in the minds of large numbers of
our citizens. The public faith is endan-
gered when the holder of our bonds are
looked upon as a favored man, because
he is paid in better money than is given
to the pensioner, or to men who toll in
fields or workshops. For this reason
the Democratic party at all times during
the past ten years, has earnestly and per-
sistently urged return to Specie Pay.
ment while our political opponents were
silent upon the subject As the enemies
to Capitalization of power at Washington
we have resisted to the utmost the pur-
pose to make the General Government a
financial despotism, by abandoning the
standards of value recognized by the
commercial world and by the Constitu-
ton, and substituting the judgment of
Congress, acting under the influence of a
multitude of speculative schemes. How
can any one who is opposed to usurpa-
ton of power by Congress consent that
it shall also be made in fact bank of
issueP We have very many ingenious
schemes for making a paper money
which shall be safe, but what assurance
is there that body of men acting under
conflicting opinions, local interests and
personal purposes will act wisely and
well? Can we safely make the question
of currency Congressional foot ball ?
If we cut loose from the national and
universal standards of value and submit
to mere Congressional discretion we are
lost. All confidence will be DESTROYED.
No one will embark in any business,
when no care, industry or prudence can
save him from danger of bankruptcy by
changes of currency made by Congress.
sional struggles. Under that system any
wildor corrupt scheme could be floated
off by a flood of currency. All that Con-
gressmen would have to do would be to
print notes, which the people would have
to pay, and which would be mortgages
upon the property and industry of the
country.


Among the saddest and worst influ-
ences of all this theoryof relieving the
distress of the country by paper money
is, that it has turned away the public
mind from the causes of our misfortunes
and their rightful remedies. 1t has
tended to teach our people that the con-
sequences of Congressional waste and
extravaganza can be averted or cured by
paper panacea, and to that extent to
shield unfaithful officials from public
condemnation. AS both political par
ties in this State are in accord upon the
currency question, 1 should here drop
the subject if an attempt had not been
made to weaken the moral power of the
Democratic party of New York with re.
gsrd to it, and to represent its members
as mere time-servers, yielding to the
pressures of public opinion in this Sec
ton of the Union. l read with regret
the following passages in the speech of
an official representative of this State,
and one eminent and powerful in the
councils of his party. / regret that he
should have done himself great wrong
by assailing unjustly one-half of the
citizens of his own State, when, if he had
read the records of the Democratic par.
ty, he would have seen there was no
foundation for hia ohar.ae IL ..-z