Year: 1875

~ l KNOW that last year and this year the
democracy in this State has announced
a Hard Money Platform, but I know Also
that the same Democracy fought for
years under the banner of imitation y
The Democracy Of fthis State never fouoht
under the banner of initiation for a dav
nor Tor an hour. 1t has for ten wears de-
manded return to honest money II
was convention controlled bv Demo.
Gratis which put into our State Constitn.
ton this article


Section 5. The Legislature shall have
no power TO pass any law sanctioning in
any manner, directly or indirectly, the
suspension Of Specie Payments by any
person, association or corporation Issuing
bank notes of any description"


1t was q Republican Congress which
oVerrode this section. 1t was Republi-
can court which decided that a man
could be forced to take deprecated cur
rency. when by the contract he was
promised coin.


He also says that at the National
Democratic Convention held in 1893 n
declared plainly for imitation; that it de-
clared that the national bonds which
were payable in coin should be paid in
paper promises" l will give the yerv
words of the resolutions which were
passed by that body, so that all NAV
judge of the fairness of these assertions.
-, Ihlrd-Payment of the public debt of
the United States as rapidly as practica.
BILE; all moneys drawn from the people
by taxation, except as much as requisite
for the necessities of Government eco.
nomically administered, being honestly
applied to such payments; and when the
obligations of Government do not ex.
pressly state upon their face, or the law
under which they were issued does not
provide that they shall be paid in coin,
they ought, in justice, to be paid in law.
full money of the United States.


Here is an express recognition of the
fact that the bonds payable in coin
should be paid in coin. As to the resi-
due, there was difference of opinion in
the Republican and Democratic ranks,
Mr.. Stevens, the Chairman of the House
OF Representatives and the leader of the
Republican members, who reported the
bill for the issue of that class of bonds
about. which there was controversy, de-
clared that they were payable in paper
money, and this opinion was held by
many prominent members of his party.
A Republican Congress felt the uncer-
tainty of the obligation and passed a
declaratory act which settles the uues-
ton. The bonds in question were sold
for paper money. The bonds of New
York, repudiated by the Republicans of
New York, were sold for gold. AS to in
tiatlon, there is no word nor inference in
the resolution looking in that direction.
On the contrary, the convention APP
proved that policy on the part of Con-
gress, which is called for to-day by every
advocate of Specie Payments. Having
in the resolution demanded the payment
of the public debt as rapidly as possible,
and the application of taxes to that end,
in its sixth resolution it called for econo-
my in the administration and the credit
Of the Government and the ctlrrency be made
good. 1t recognized the low character of
our paper money at the time, and called
not for Its debasement by imitation, but
for Its improvement to par value, for
there is no other way of making currency
good.


After recognizing the duty of paying
the gold-bearing bonds in specie, the
next resolution:


1t demanded one currency for the Gov.
ernment and the people, the laborer and
the ottceholder, the pensioner and the
soldier, the producer and the bondholder.


The danger and the odium of two
kinds fmoney are thus declared. There
was and is but one way of getting cur
rencies of uniform value, that is by max
ing all kinds in use equal in value to gold,
and, in the words of the convention,
making the currency good" In its
resolutions the convention echoed the
sentiment of its candidate for the Presi-
dency uttered few days before its meet
ing in the city in which it was held, in
a speech that was in the hands of all its
members. ..


Every paper dollar now put out is
Government falsehood, for it claimed to
be worth more than its real value, and
it goes about the country defrauding the
laborer, the pensioner, the mechanic and
the farmer


Again: ......


There is another way of lifting our
greenbacks to par. which will not harm
any, but will help all, which will bring
back confidence, revive business, will
tighten taxation, will give labor honest
money and will do justice to the public
creditor.


Again he said: .


The whole question is brought down
to this clear point: Shall we use our
money to pay our debts, relieve the tax
payer, make our money good in the
hands of the laborer or pensioner and
help the bondholder?


If the policy marked out by the Demo.
cratic Convention in 186S,had been sus-
tanned, to-day we should have Specie
Payments, and our country would have
been spared from the atflictions of wild
speculations and disastrous bankruptcies,
With a good currency redeemable in
gold we should have been saved from
the ill-feeling engendered in the minds
of individuals and communities by Of
lensive distinctions in modes of payment.
At all times since the close of the war
we have demanded return to Specie
Payments, either in the discussions of
our conventions, or by our speakers on
the platform. At every election the
duty and wisdom of this policy have
been urged with all the force of argu-
ment and persuasion, by Gov. Tilden
and others, who have been called upon
to state the position of those with whom
they acted. On the other hand, then,
in no instance has initiation been sug. /,
gested or approved. In 1864, more than
ten years since, Democratic Governor
urged the Legislature of the State to pay
in specie the interest on its bonds it had
sold for gold, or its equivalent, in these
words: ..... q. ty..4. fa I.. .s...
look upon this matter as of SO mucb
moment to the welfare and to the char.
acter of New York and its people that
feel constrained to ask you to give the
subject reconsideration, and 70 urge