Year: 1875

work, not Ours. If they cal


the issues of the government


"rag money" whose "rsg money" i:


it? Didn't you make it? Laughter.
You made the "rag money" Not one


dollar OF paper money in the Uuited
! States was manufactured by Democrats


And yet these fellows are making q


clamor IS though we had i'm
| posed upon the country al this "rsg


money" They are repudiatiDg theiI


own bantling. They are trying to bring


their own spawn into contempt, and ia


doing that they are doing z )Od deal


more than they thi1k they are doing.


Now, "rag money" as they call it, is q


promise OF the United States to pay.


That is all it is. A bond Of the United
| States is a promise to pay; q bond OF


the State Of Ohio or the city Of Cincin-


natl is promise to pay; all the railroad
bonds OF the republic are promises TO


pay. They all stand upon the same
foundation OF credit, and the man who


undertakes to discredit the notes Of his


government discredits the entire amount
Of our private and corporation indebted


ness as well, as the individual notes OF
a people who kwlll not pay their public


Indebtedness will be worth but little in
the money markets Of the world. There
are in the United States, includ-
ing all the bonded iudebt-
edness of the United States,
cities, towns, and railroads, about ten
thousand millions of dollars, and all
this vast sum hangs upon the precise
thread that sustains the greenbacks and
all the bank circulation Of the country.
They are based upon the idea of credit,
,,I e oil 70 hsa -oI in 70


fidelity to the institution that issues
that note or bond which it promises to
pay. They are all promissory notes;
they are all intertwined with each other;
they form an immense credit system in
the United States, and in every country
in the world that is civilized. You would


be surprised, 1 presume, if l were to
tell you that the whole trade of the


British empire from Canada to India-a
larger commerce than any country in
the world, old or young, ever had before,
is transacted upon credit, every dollar Of
it. Whenever these people commence
an assault upon the credit OF the cOun-
try, called greenbacks, they at the same
time commence an assault upon the en-
tire volume of this property that con-
sists solely in credit. They talk
about the Democratic party being in


favor of reputation. Let us see how
that matter is. Who talks of repudia-
ton? Why these very men themselves.
They are sending word throughout all
the stock markets of Europe that the
great party OF the United States, called
the Democratic party, are in favor OF re-
pudiatiOn. Well, now, II they could
get everybody to believe that, what
would their bonds be worth, any Of
them? Who put the idea of repudia-
ton in the mind Of the world, or in the
minds of the American people? They
did; nobody else Nobody else ever
wanted 70 repudiate. II they choose to
repudiate, they will have to take all the
consequences Of repudiatiOn; we will
not help them. They are making the
biggest stride toward repudistiOn that it
is possible for deluded people to make.
They are predicting it, and by predict
ing it they are invoking it. Credit has
a political virgin quality. 1t will not do
to call its purity in question. When it
is once blighted, it is gone, and forever.
Tnese people who are now trying to
bring the entire system of credit in the
United States into dishonor and dlsre-
pute are the men that are undermining
the whole system Of credit and inviting
reputation. Applause. II their
bantling dies, it will be from their own
bad nursing. The Democratic party
have no bantliug of that sort. The
Democratic party have no antipathy to
banks or stock jobbers, or any class Of
men that own legitimate property
in this country; the Democratic
party have but one object;
that object common to the whole peO-
pie. We don't intend to allow stock
jobbers, office-holders, government con-
tractors and ring j0bbing men OF the
Republican party to take the stock job
bing interest, and the banking interest,
and office-hOlding interest, ,and put it in
power, to the exclusion Of the farmer,
the laborer, the mechanic and all other
portions OF the community. 1t is not
to put this interest down; it Is to pre-
vent that interest from putting all others
down, and usurping the entire govern
ment of the country. That is what we
want. When a Democrat is asked
about what kind of law he wants, his
answer is prompt and ready. He wants
law for all, that will protect all, that
will dispense the blessings Of free gov
eminent to all; he wants law that will
take care of the interest of the poor la
borer that is ascending your ladder with
the hOd upon his shoulder; he wants
law that will protect the farmer, small
though may be his acres, and see that
he has fair share in the government OF
his country; We want law that will
protect the manufacturer and the work.
ing people, in town and country. We
want law, in word, that Is the law OF
all, and not the law of specific few.
[App'ause ] Now, what is the condi-
tion of this country at present? These
men have had the entire control of it.
They are bound to admit that fact. Why,
the condition of il is, that full half
million of working people are without
employment. If some of them are work.
ing ten hours a day, in the burning in
fuence of a July sun, they get for this
labor from seventy-five cents to dollar
and a quarter per day-barely sufficient
to keep them alive from sun to sun. In
every region of the United States the
farmers, by the name OF Changers, have
been driven together to consult for the
general interest of agriculture, because
that interest has been entirely ignored.
What a spectacle it would present if the
curtain should be lifted and the reality
revealed to the eyes Of the people! Why,
here are forty millions Of people, more
than eight millions Of them voters, en-
gagged in the avocatiOns Of life, about
two thirds of them cultivstors Of the soil.
Now lift the curtain, and let US see who
occupy the seats in congress. That tells
the tale. A majority Of the whole num-
ber are bankers, bondholders, stock
jobbers, or persons vitality interested in
making laws for their own benefit, so
that the rich may become richer and the
poor poorer. Suppose that the farmers,
the laboring people, the manufacturers,
the merchants, the shippers, and all the
great industrial classes of the United
States were represented in that congress
in proportion to the interest that they
have, how many bankers would there
be there? They would be crowded out.
They are not one per cent. Of the voters
of the country, and yet, in point Of rep
resentation in congress they amount to
about eighty per cent, and the other
twenty per cent. Of the people amount
to very little more than disfranchised
units, having one great and precious
privilege, that being the privilege Of
paying taxes. Now, the Democratic
I'll, !, I1 of -