involved in this bill. I believe that the public Brought forward.. ..$43,997,285 Brought forward... $140,865.280 judgment demands that we should take some From November 1, 1875, to May 1, 1876..... 2,500,000 Interest to May 1, 1888, at 3 per cent....... 4.225,960 steps, this much at least, toward equalizing 46,497,285 145,001,240 the position of the noteholder and the bond- Interest.......... 1,391,920 Interest to Nov. 1, 1888, at 3 per cent...... 4,352,740 holder and toward reducing the interest of the 17.892,205 149.443.990 public debt. At this late period of the session From May 1, 1876, to November 1, 1876..... 2.500.000 Interest to May 1, 1889, at 3 per cont....... 4,483,220 I do not intend to renew the discussion of last January; but if Senators wish fuller informa. 50,392.205 153.927.300 Interest. 1.511,765 Interest to Nov, 1, 1889, at 3 per cent...... tion on the subject than I now choose to give 4,617.820 them, they will find in the remarks made by 51,903,970 158,545.120 the Senator from Vermont, [Mr. Edmunds, From November 1, 1876, to May 1, 1877.... 2,500,000 Interest to May 1, 1890, at 3 per cent........ 4.756.355 by the Senator from Missouri, (Mr. HENDER 54.403,970 163,301.475 son,) and by myself, statistical information that Interest.. 1,032,120 Interest to Nov. 1, 1890, at 3 per cent...... 4,899.045 will enable them properly to answer most of 56.036,090 168.200.520 the questions that would naturally arise in this From May 1, 1877, to November 1, 1877..... 2,500,000 Interest to May 1, 1891, at 3 per cent....... 5,016,015 debate. It is scarcely worth while at this period of the session to repeat these arguments, 58,536,090 173.246,536 Interest........... 1,756,080 Interest to Nov. 1, 1891, at 3 per cent...... 5,197,395 especially by those who participated in the former debate : 60,292,170 178,443,930 Table A. From November 1, 1877, to May 1, 1878..... 2,500,000 Interest to May 1, 1892, at 3 per cent........ 5.353,33 Five-twenties of 1862, due 1882, 62,792,170 183,797.950 Five-twenties of 1867, due 1881, ( bear six per cent. Five-twenties of 1865, due 1885; interest. 1,883,765 Interest to Nov. 1, 1892, at 3 per cent...... 5,513,920 If these are exchanged for a five-per-cent. 61,675,935 189,311.170 From May 1, 1878, to November 1, 1878..... 2,500,000 5,679.335 bond due thirty years from 1st November, Interest to May 1, 1893, at 3 per cent........ 1868, what will the country gain? 67,175,935 194.990,5115 Take $500,000,000 five-twenties, 1862: Interest.. 2,015,280 Interest to Nov. 1, 1893, at 3 per cent...... 5.819,715 From November 1, 1868, to May 1, 1869, it saves one 69,191,215 200.840.220 balf of one per cent. gold... $2,500,000 | From May 1, 1878, to November 1, 1878..... 2,500,000 Interest to May 1, 1894, at 3 per cent........ 6,025,205 Interest on this at six per cent. from May 1, 1869, to November 1, 1869. 75,000 71,691,215 206,865,435 Interest...... 2,150,735 Interest to Nov. 1, 1894, at 3 per cent...... 6,265,265 2.575,000 From May 1, 1860, to November 1, 1869..... 2,500,000 73,841,950 23.071.390 From November 1, 1878, to May 1, 1879..... 2.500,000 Interest to May 1, 1895, at 3 per cent........ 6,392.140 5,075.000 76,341,950 219,463,530 Interest......... 152,250 Interest.. 2,290,260 Interest to Nov. 1, 1895, at 3 per cent...... 6,553,906 5,227,250 78,632,210 228,016,433 From November 1, 1869, to May 1, 1970.... 2,500,000 From November 1, 1879, to May 1, 1880.... 2,500,000 Interest to May 1, 1896, at 3 per cent...... 6.781,435 7,727,250 81.132,210 232.828.860 Interest ......... 231.817 2,433,965 Interest to Nov. 1, 1896, at 3 per cent....... 6,984,865 239.873,73 From May 1, 1870, to November 1, 1870..... 2,500,000 From May 1, 1880, to November 1, 1880..... 2,500,000 Interest to May 1, 1897, at 3 per cent........ 7,191,410 10,459,067 86,056,175 217,008,135 Interest......... 313,773 2.581,985 Interost to Nov. 1, 1897, at 3 per cent 7,410.215 254.416.380 From November 1, 1870, to May 1, 1871..... 2,500,000 From November 1, 1880, to May 1, 1881.... 2,500,000 Interest to May 1, 1898, at 3 per cent....... 7,632.550 13,272,810 91,148,160 282 050.930 Interest........ 398,185 2,734,445 Interest to Nov. 1, 1898, at 3 per cent...... 7.851,50 13,671,025 93,882 605 $ 359,912,460 From May 1, 1871, to November 1, 1871..... 2,500,000 From May 1, 1881, to November 1, 1881..... 2,500,000 Thus by exchanging with the holders of 16,171.025 96,382,605 Interest......... 485,130 2,881,480 $500,000,000 of five-twenties of 1862 the coun try is saved : 16.656,155 99,264,085 From November 1, 1871, to May 1, 1872..... 2,500,000 From November 1, 1881, to May 1, 1882..... 2,500,000 | 1. Till the maturity of the five-twenties in 1882. $101,764,085 19,156,155 Total saving to May 1, 1882, when five-twenties 2. From 1882 till the maturing of a new Interest....... mature.... 168,148,375 $260.912,460 19.730,810 This sum reinvested will, with its interest at From May 1, 1872, to November 1, 1872..... 2,500,000 | six per cent. per annum, amount by Novem- It is thus plain that more than half of the 22,230,840 ber 1, 1898, as computed in table B: $500,000,000 would be self-extinguished by Interest........ Table B. 1898. The other half would be redeemed by 22.897.765 What will $101,764,085 amount to by November 1, the strict application and operation of the one From November 1, 1872, to May 1, 1873..... 2.500.000 1898, with compound interest every half year at six per cent. out of customs receipts, which is stated per cent, per annum, from May 1, 1882? 25,397.765 $101.764,080 in the act of 1862. Interest ......... 761,930 Interest to Nov. 1, 1882, at 3 per cent........ 3,052,925 The same principles and figures will apply to the five-twenties of 1864 and 1865, except that 26.159.695 $104,817,005 From May 1, 1873, to November 1, 1873..... 2,500,000 Interest to May 1, 1883, at 3 per cent. 3,144,510 the country.would gain two and three years more savings in the diminution of interest. 28,659.695 107,961,515 Mr. SUMNER. The bill before tbe Senate Interest....... 859,790 Interest to Nov. 1, 1883, at 3 per cent. 3,238,815 opens the whole question of financial recon29,519,485 111,200.360 struction. I do not know but that the Senator From November 1, 1873, to May 1, 1874..... 2,500,000 Interest to May 1, 1884, at 3 per cent........ 3.336,010 from Obio would prefer to proceed with the 32,019,485 114.536.370 amendments or the consideration of details, Interest ........ 960,585 Interest to Nov. 1, 1884, at 3 per cent...... 3,436,090 but if not disagreeable to him at this stage, I should like to proceed with its discussion in 32.980,070 117,972,460 From May 1, 1874, to November 1, 1874..... 2,500,000 Interest to May 1, 1885, at 3 per cent. 3,539,170 some of its more general aspects. Mr. SHERMAN. I will state to the Sen35,480,070 121,511,630 ator that I shall be very glad to hear him upon Interest... 1,064,405 Interest to Nov. 1, 1885, at 3 per cent...... 3,645,350 the general proposition, but this amendment 36,544,475 125, 156,980 now offered is the careful result of the fre From November 1, 1874, to May 1, 1875..... 2,500,000 Interest to May 1, 1886, at 3 per cent........ 3,754,710 quent deliberations of the Committee on Fi39,044,475 128.911,690 nance, and I do not know that the members Interest..... 1,171,335 Interest to Nov. 1, 1886, at 3 per cent...... 3,867,350 of that committee desire to change a single word of it. We desire that the Senate sball 40,215,810 132,779,040 From May 1, 1875, to November 1, 1875..... 2,500,000 Interest to May 1,1887, at 3 per cent........ 3,983,370 | not adopt any amendments to this amendment unless they appeal themselves clearly to their 42.715,810 136,762,410 Interest ........ 1,281,475 Interest to Nov. 1, 1887, at 3 per cent...... judgment, because the amendment, as it is now 4,102,870 offered, is the result of our deliberate consid. Carried forward.. 43,997,285 Carried forward... .140,865,280 \ eration, and the striking out of a word, or any AND FINANCIAL. material alteration might very seriously change say which was the worst? Certainly, it is dilli- reconstruction in conformity with the Declarathe meaning of the bill. We have no proposi- cult to distinguish between them. One grew tion of Independence-every pretension of a tion to make and no amendınent to offer out of the other, so that they belong together " white man's government" in horrid inockery except this. and constitute one group, all derived uliimately of self-evident truths declared by our fathers, Mr. SUMNER. If I should not interfere, from the rebellion, and directly depending upon and of that brotherhood of mankind declared then, with the plans of the Senator, I will pro- it. So long as slavery continued in arms, each | by the sermon on Mars' Hill-is a bar to that ceed now. and all waxed in vastness; and now, so long financial reconstruction without which the ReMr. SHERMAN. Very well. as any of these remain, they testify to this bellion still lingers among us. So long as a Mr. SUMNER. After a tempest sweeping same unnatural crime. The tax-gatherer, tak- dollar of irredeemable paper is forced upon sea and land, strewing the coast with wrecks, ing so much from honest industry, was born the country, the Rebellion still lives-in its and tumbling houses to the ground, nature of the rebellion. Inconvertible paper, derang: | spurious progeny.. must become propitious before the energy of ing the business of the country at home and Party organization and Presidential antagman can repair the various losses. Time must abroad, had the same monstrous birth. Our onism have thus far stood in the way, while at intervene. At last ships are launched again and enormous taxation is only a prolongation of each stage individual perverseness has played houses are built, in larger numbers and fairer the rebellion. Every greenback is red with its part. The President has set himself obstiforms than before. A tempest has swept over the blood of fellow-citizens. nately against political reconstruction ; so also us, scourging in every direction; and now that To repair these calamities, political and has the Democratic party. Others have folits violence has ceased we are occupied in the financial, the first stage was the overthrow of lowed, according to the prejudices of their work of restoration. Nature is already propi- the rebellion in the field, thus enabling the Na- nature; and so the national finances have tious, and time, too, is silently preparing the tion to reduce its armaments, to arrest its accu suffered. Not the least of the offenses of way, while the national energies are applied to mulating debt, and to cease anxiety on account Andrew Johnson is the adverse influence he the work. of foreign intervention so constantly menaced. has exerted on this question. All that he has To know what to do we must comprehend || Thus relieved, we were brought to a resting | done from the beginning has tended to prothe actual condition of things and how it was place, and the nation found itself in condition tract the rebellion and to extend the disorder brought about. All this is easy to see, if we to begin the work of restoration. of our finances. And yet there are many not will only look. POLITICAL RECONSTRUCTION. indifferent to the latter, who have looked with FINANCIAL QUESTION A PART OF THE POLITICAL. Foremost came the suppression of slavery, indifference upon his criminal conduct. So It is a mistake of too constant occurrence to in which the rebellion had its origin. Common far as their personal interests depended on an treat the financial question by itself, without prudence, to say nothing of common humanity; already suffered ; but it is hard that the coun improved condition of the finances, they have considering its dependence upon the abnormal || required this consummation, without which condition through which the country has passed. there would have been a short-lived truce only. try should suffer also. Andrew Johnson has The financial question, in all its branches, deSo great a change necessarily involved other postponed specie payments, and his supporters pends upon the political, and cannot be sepa- changes, while there was the ever-present duty of all degrees must share the responsibility. rated from it. I might use stronger language. to obtain from the defeated rebels, if not Such is my confidence in the resources of It is a part of the political question, and now indemnity for the past at least security for the our country, in the industry of its people, and that reconstruction seems about to be accom- future. It was impossible to stop with the in the grandeur of its destinies, that I cannot plished, it is that enduring part which still suppression of slavery. That whole barbarous doubt the transcendent future. Alas! that it remains. code of wrong and outrage, whose first article should be interrupted by unwise counsels, even THE REBELLION AND ITS CONSEQUENCES, POLITICAL was the denial of all rights to an oppressed poned only. It must come at last. Here I for a day. Financial reconstruction is post , the Our present respousibilities, whether politiorder of things. It was necessary that it should have no panacea that is not as simple as nature. cal or financial, have a common origin in that yield to the Equal Rights of All , promised by which this cure can be accomplished. It will I know of no device or trick or medicine by vast rebellion, when the people of eleven States, ihe Declaration of Independence. The citizen, inaddened by slavery, rose against the Nation. lified from slavery, must be secured in all his come with the general health of the body politic. As the rebellion was without example in its rights, civil and political. Loyal governments, It will come with the renovated lite of the declared object, so it was without example in republican in form, must be substituted for Nation, when it is once more complete in the extent and intensity of its operations. It rebel governments. All this being done, the form, when every part is in sympathy with the sought nothing less than the dismemberment States, thus transformed, will assume once whole, and the rebellion, with all its offspring, of our Nation and the establishment of a new more their ancient relations to the Nation. is trampled out forever. In such a condition power weh slavery as its quickening principle. This is the work of political reconstruction, of affairs, inconvertible paper would be an The desperate means enlisted by such a cause constituting the new stage after the overthrow impossibility, as much as a bill of sale for a could be encountered only by the most strenuof the rebellion. human being ous exertions, in the name of country and of Human Rights. Here was slavery, barbarous, Meanwhile there are certain practical points brutal, vindictive, warring for recognition. The Meanwhile there has been an effort and a which must not be forgotten. Foremost among tempest or tornado can typify only feebly the || longing for financial reconstruction also- these I put the absolute dependence of the ravage that ensued. There were days of dark. sometimes without sufficiently reflecting that national finances upon the faithful performance ness and despair, when the national existence there can be small chance for any success in of all our obligations to the national freedmen. was in peril." Rebel armies menaced the Cap this direction until after political reconstruc- Pardoned rebels will never look with complaitol, and slavery seemed about to vindicate its tion. Here also we must follow nature, and cency upon the national debt, or the interest wicked supremacy. restore by removing the disturbing cause. which testifies semi-annually to its magnitude. Looking at the scene in its political aspects, This is the natural process. Vain all attempt | Their political colleagues at the North will be we behold one class of disorders; and look: to reconstruct the national finances while the apt to sympathize with them. Should the scales ing at it in its financial aspects, we behold still rebellion was still in arms. This must be at any time hang doubtful it is to others that another; both together constituting a fearful obvious to all. Vain also while slavery still we must turn to adjust the balance. Therefore, sum total, where financial disorder mingles domineered. Vain also while Equal Rights for the sake of the national finances, I insist with political. Turn, first, to the political, are without a sure defense against the op. that the national freedmen shall be secured and you will see States, one after the other pressor. Vain also while the Nation still pal- and maintained in Equal Rights, so that local renouncing their relations with the Nation, and pitates with its efforts to obtain security for prejudices and party cries shall be unavailing constituting a new government, under the the future. Vain also until the States are all against them. You who have at heart the name of confederacy, with a new constitu- once more harmonious in their native spheres, national credit, on which so much depends, tion, making slavery its corner-stone; all of like the planets, receiving and dispensing must never fail to cherish the national freedwhich they sought to maintain by arms, while, || light. men, treating their enemies as if they were in aggravation of these perils, Foreign Powers Nothing is more sensitive than credit, which your enemies. Every blow at them will regave ominous signs of speedy recognition and is the essential element of financial restora- bound upon yourselves. support. Look, next, to the financial side, and tion. A breath will make it flutter. How DIMINUTION OF TAXATION AND SPECIE PAYMENT BOTH you will see business in some places entirely can you expect to restore the national credit, prostrate, in others suddenly assuming new now unnaturally sensitive, while the Nation is In dealing with the financial question there forms ; immense interests destroyed; property still uneasy from those rebel pretensions, which are two other points of ever present importance. annihilated; the whole people turned from the have cost so much? Security is the first con- First, the necessity of diminishing, so far as thoughts of peace to the thoughts of war; vast dition of financial reconstruction; and I am practicable, the heavy burden of taxation so armies set on foot, in which the youthful and at a loss to find any road to it, except through oppressive to the people; and, secondly, the strong were changed from producers to destroy | political reconstruction. All this seems so necessity of substituting specie for inconvertiers, while iife itself was consumed ; an unpre- plain, that I ought to apologize for dwelling ble paper. Here are two objects which when cedented taxation, commensurate with the on it. And yet there are many, who, while accomplished will add infinitely to the wealth unprecedentes exigency; and all this followed professing a desire for an improvement in our and happiness of the country, besides being by the common incident of war in other coun- financial condition, perversely turn their backs the assurance that the Nation has at last reached tries and times, first, the creation of a national upon the only means by which this can be that condition of repose so much longed for. debt, and, secondly, the substitution of incon. accomplished. Never was there equal folly. THE PUBLIC FAITI MUST BE SACREDLY PRESERVED. vertible paper as a currency. In this catalogue Language cannot picture it. Every devial of Before considering these two points in detail, of calamities, political and financial, who shall ! Equal Rights - every impediment to a just I venture to remark ibat there is one condition FAITH TO BE KEPT WITH THE NATIONAL FREEDMEN. FINANCIAL RECONSTRUCTION DEPENDS ON POLITICAL. NECESSARY NO PAYMENT OF BONDS BY GREENBACKS. preliminary in character and equally essential There it is; and it must continue unchanged, of Assistant Secretary Harrington of the 26th to both, through which taxation will be light- except by the consent of the parties, until the May, antedates this adjournment nearly two ened and specie payments will be hastened. I laws of the universe tumble into chaos. months, during which time Congress might refer to the Public Faith, which must be sa- The rogue in Shakspeare exclaims, "What have set aside this explicit representation that credly preserved above all question or suspicion. a fool is honesty! and trust, his sworn brother, a the bonds would be paid in gold." It did no The word of our Nation must be as good as its very simple gentleman!"? In equal levity it is such thing, and the sales were proceeded with. bond; and nobody must attempt to take a said, tax the bonds, although, by the original It must not be forgotten that these original tiule from either. Nothing short of universal || bargain on which the money was obtained, sales were mainly to bankers and brokers and wreck can justify any such bankruptcy. Let amid the als of war, for the safety of the in large ainounts for purpose of resale to the Public Faith be preserved, and all that you Nation, it was expressly stipulated that these sinall purchasers seeking investinents. It was now seek will be easy. bonds should not be taxed. Nevertheless, tax in reply to parties interested in these regales A virtuous king of early Rome dedicated a the bonds. Of course, by taxing the bonds, the that the subsequent letters of Assistant Secretemple in the capitol itself to a Divinity under | bargain is brutally broken; and this, too, after tary Field and of Mr. Chase were written, the name of Publica Fides, who was repre- the Nation has used the money. Such a transac- pledging the Nation to payment in coin. At sented with a wreath of laurel about her head, tion in common life, except where bankruptcy the date of these important letters Congress carrying ears of corn and a basket of fruit- had supervened, would be intolerable. А was in session, and although the opportunity typical of honor and abundance sure to follow | proud nation justly sensitive to national honor, was constant, there was 110 protest against the in her footprints. In the same spirit another as the great Republic, through whose example meaning thus authoritatively affixed to these temple was dedicated to the god Terininus, liberal institutions are commended to man- obligations. The bonds were in the market, who presided over boundaries. The stones set kind, cannot do this thing. advertised and sold daily, with value estabup to mark the limits of estates were sacred, The proposition to tax the bonds, in open vio lished by the representations of these national and on these very stones there were religious lation of the original bargain, is similar in spirit | agents; and Congress did not interfere to set offerings to the god. The heathen maledic- to that other enterprise, which, under various aside these representations. By subsequent tious upon the violator were echoed also by discordant ensigns, proposes to pay the national acts, similar loans were authorized and nobody the Hebrews when they said, "Cursed be he || bonds with inconvertible paper. Here at once protested. There was the supplementary that removeth his neighbor's landmark, and and on the threshold Public Faith interposes a clause of 3d March, 1864, for the issue of all the people shall say, Amen." (Deut., ch. summary protest. On such a question debate eleven millions of these bonds to cover an xxvii., v. 37.) In those early Roman and even is dangerous ; the man who doubts is lost. excess subscribed above the amount authorHebrew days there was no national debt divided The money was borrowed and lent on the ized by the original act. This was debated in into bonds; there was nothing but land. But || undoubting faith that it was to be paid in coin. the Senate on the 1st March, 1864; but you a national bond is as well-defined as a piece | Nothing to the contrary was suggested, imag- will search the Globe in vain for any protest. of land. Here, then, is a place for the god | ined, or dreamed, at the time. Behind all forms Then came other acts, at different dates, hy Terminus. Every obligation is like a land- of language and even all omissions, this obli- which the loan was further enlarged to its presmark not to be removed without curses. Here gation stands forth, in the nature of the case, ent extent, and all the time these representaalso is a place for that other Divinity, Publica explained and confirmed by the history of our tions were uncontradicted. Against them fides, with laureled head, and hands filled national loans and by the official acts of succes. there was no act of Congress, no protest, with corn and fruit. sive Secretaries of the Treasury interpreting nothing. If this is not acquiescence," then Public Faith may be seen in the evil which the obligations of the Nation. I am at a loss to know how acquiescence can springs from its loss and in the good which be shown. Therefore do I insist that these overflows from its preservation. It is like So much stress is laid upon the language of representations are a part of the contract by honor, and yet once lost, more than dishonor the five-twenties that I cannot let it pass. The which the Nation is bound. is the consequence; once assured, more than terms employed were precisely those in pre- It is said that, in the five-twenty bonds, there honor is the reward. It is a possession sur- vious bonds of the United States where the are words promising interest in coin, but nothing passing all others in value. The gold and silver | principal was paid in coin; some of which are with regard to the principal. Forgetting the in your Treasury may be counted; it stands still outstanding: Had there been any doubt contemporary understanding and the official recorded, dollar for dollar, in the national about the meaning it was fixed by the general interpretation, and assuming that at maturity the ledger, but the sums which the unsuspected understanding and by special declarations of bond is no better than a greenback, it becomes credit of a magnanimous Nation can command responsible persons speaking for the Nation. important to know the character of this obligaare beyond the record of any ledger. Public On 26th May, 1863, Mr. Harrington, the Assist- tion. On its face a greenback is a promise to Faith is more than mines of silver or gold. ant Secretary of the Treasury, in an official pay a certain number of dollars. Ites paper, Only from Arabian story can a fit illustration || letter, says: “These bonds will, therefore, be and it promises to pay" dollars." Here is an be found, as when, after all human effort had | paid in gold.” On 15th February, 1864, Mr. example which I take from my pocket: “ The failed, the genius of the lamp reared the costly Field, also Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, United States promise to pay to the bearer palace and stored it with beauty. Public Faith writes: “I am directed by the Secretary to say five dollars." Not five dollars in paper, or in is in itself a treasury, a tariff, and an internal that it is the purpose of the Government to pay some other substituted promise; but' " five revenue, all in one. These you may lose ; but said bonds, like other bonds of the United | dollars," which can mean nothing else than if the other is preserved it will be only for a States, in coin at maturity.” On 18th May, the coin known over the world with the stamp day. The Treasury will be replenished; the 1864, Mr. Chase, at the time Secretary of the of Spain, Mexico, and the United States, tariff will be renewed; the internal revenue Treasury, wrote: “ These bonds, according to being a fixed value, which passes current in will be restored. With Public Faith as an the usage of the Government, are payable in every zone and at the antipodes. The - dolunfailing law, the nation, like Pactolus, will Mr. FESSENDEN, while Secretary of the lar” is an established measure of value, like sweep over golden sands, or, like Midas, it will || Treasury, in his annual report to Congress, the five-franc piece of France, or the pound change into gold whatever it touches. Keep, || expressed the same conclusion ; and his suc- sterling of England. As well say that, on a then, the Public Faith as the "open sesame” cessor, Mr. McCulloch, in a letter of 15th May, promise to pay so many francs in France, or to all that you can desire; keep it as you would 1866, says: “I regard, as did also my prede. so many pounds sterling in England, you could keep the philosopher's stone of fable, baving cessors, all bonds of the United States as pay. honestly acquit yourself by handing over a which you have all. able in coin." There are also numerous ad. scrap of printed paper, inconvertible in value. And yet, in the face of this plain command- vertisements from the Treasury and from its This could not be done. The promise in our ment, on which hangs so much of all that is | business agents, all in the same sense. greenbacks carries with it an ultimate obligamost prized in national existence, we are Here is a succession of authorities embracing tion to pay the silver dollar, whose chink is so called to break faith. It is proposed to tax high functionaries of the United States, all familiar in the commerce of the world. The the national bonds, in violation of the ori. concurring in affixing upon these bonds the convertibility of the greenback is for the present ginal bargain on which the money was lent. obligation to pay in coin. As testimony to the suspended; but when paid, it must be in coin. Sometimes the tax is to be by the Nation and meaning of the bonds, it is important; but con- To pay with another promise is to renew, and sometimes by the States. The power to do this sidering that all these persons represented the not to discharge the debt. But the obligation wrong you may possess ; but the right never. national Treasury, and that they were the in our bonds is to pay "dollars'' also, whenever Do wbat you will, there is one thing you cannot agents of the Nation for the sale of these very the bonds are paid ; it may be after five years, do: you cannot make wrong right. It is in vain | bonds, their representations are more than or, in the discretion of the Nation, not till that you undertake to set aside the perpetual testimony. Until their authority is disowned twenty years. But when paid it must be in obligation which you have assumed. Against | by Congress and their representations dis "dollars." Such is the stipulation; nor could every such pretension, whether by speech or carded, it is difficult to see why their language the addition of " coin” or “gold” essentially vote, there is this living duty, which will survive must not be treated as part of the contract, at this obligation. It is contrary to reaCongress and politician alike. Puny as the land least in all sales subsequent to its publication. son that a bond should be paid in an inferior of a child is the effort to undo this original bar- The Senator from Ohio, [Mr. SHERMAN,) ap. obligation. It is dishonest to force inconvertgain. The Nation has promised six per cent. parently feeling the pressure of this argument, ible paper without interest in payment of an interest, payable semi-annually in coin, nor explicitly says that “ Congress never acqui- interest-bearing obligation. The statement of more nor less without any abatement, and then esced," thus admitting the force of acqui- the case is enough. Such an attempt disturbs having bound itself, it proceeds to guard against escence, if it could be shown, and he then the reason and shocks the moral sense. the States by declaring specifically that the adds that Congress was not in session when Between the bond and the greenback, there bonds shall be " exempt from taxation by or any portion of this loan was sold.” Congress ad- is an obvious distinction, doubly-attested by under State authority,' Such is the bargain. I journed on the 17th of July, 1863; but the letter the act of Congress creating them both; for a ) coin.'' 66 change 66 FOLLY OF REPUDIATION. seasons. ALL REPUDIATION DISHONORABLE. In 18710 In 1910.. DIMINUTION OF TAXATION. they were created together. This distinction every legislator I would address those incom- proper scheme for a diminution of the interest appears, first, in the title of the act, and, sec- parable words of Milton in his sonnet to Fair. on our national debt, so far as this can be ondly in its provisions. According to its title fax: done without a violation of Public Faith ; it is " An act to authorize the issue of United "0. yet a nobler task awaits thy band, and this brings me to the very bill now before States notes, and for the redemption or fund (For wbat can war, but endless war still breed?) the Senate. Till truth and right from violence be freed, Allare anxious to relieve the country from of the United States." In brief, greenbacks Of public fraud.” recurring liabilities, which come round like the were made a legal tender, and authority was How can this be done best. First, given to fund them in these bonds. This ap The proposition to pay bonds in greenbacks by the strict performance of all existing enpears in the very title of the act. Now the becomes futile and fatuous, when it is consid- gagements, so that the Public Faith shall be object of funding is to bring what is uncertain ered that such an operation would be nothing our inseparable ally; and, secondly, by funding and floating into a permanent form; and acmore than the substitution of greenbacks for the existing debt in such ways as to provide a cordingly greenbacks were funded and placed bonds, and not a payment of anything. The reduced rate of interest. A longer term would on interest. The bonds were a substitute for form of the debt would be changed; but the justify a smaller interest. There may be differthe greenbacks; but the new theory makes the debt would remain. Of the twenty-five hun. ences as to the form of the substitute ; but it greenbacks a substitute for the bonds. To dred millions which we now owe, whether in would seem as if something of this kind must carry forward still further the policy of the act, greenbacks or bonds, every dollar must be paid, | be done. it was provided that the greenbacks might be exchanged at once for bonds; and then, by paying the interest of the bonds in coin, instead sooner or later, or be ignobly repudiated. By Immediately after the close of the war, as the smoke of battle was disappearing, but the act of 11th July, 1862, it was further pro- of greenbacks, the annual increase of the debt before the national ledger was sufficiently vided that these very greenbacks " may be paid to this extent is prevented. But the principal examined to justify a comparison betweev liain coin," at the direction of the Secretary, remains to be paid. If this be attempted'in bilities and resources, there was a generous instead of being received in exchange for greenbacks, it will be by an issue far beyond inclination to proceed at once to the payment bonds ;-thus treating the bonds as the equiv all the demands of the currency. There will of the national debt. Volunteers came foralent of coin. The subsequent repeal of these be a deluge of greenbacks. The country must ward with their contributions for this purpose, provisions does not alter the testimony to the suffer inconceivably under such a dispensation. l in the hope that the generation which suppressed character of these bonds. Thus, at every turn, The interest on the bonds may be stopped by the rebellion might have the added glory of we are brought to the same conclusion. The the substitution; but the currency will be de- || removing this great burden. This ardor was dishonor of these obligations, whatever form preciated infinitely beyond any such dishonest momentary. It was soon seen that the task it may assume, and whatever pretext it may saving. The country will be bankrupt. In- was too extensive, and that it justly belonged adopt, is nothing but repudiation. convertible paper will overspread the land, to to another generation, with aggrandized popu. the exclusion of coin or any chance of coin lation and resources, in presence of which the The word repudiation, now so generally for some time to come. Farewell, then, to existing debt, large to us, would be small. Here used to denote the refusal to pay national oh- specie payments. Greenbacks will be every || the census has its instructive lesson. According ligations, has been known in this sense only where. The multitudinous mice that swain to the rate of increase in past years, our popula. recently. In the early dictionaries of our lan. the Rhine and devoured Bishop Hatto in his | tion will advance in the following proportion : guage, it had no such signification. According tower were not more destructive. The cloud In 1870. 42.323,341 to Dr. Johnson, it meant simply “ divorce, of locusts described by Milton as " warping In 1830 56,967,216 “ rejection, as when a man put away his on the eastern wind” and “darkening all 76,677,872 wife. It began to be known in its present In 1900 103.208,415 the land of Nile," were not more pestilential. 138,918,28 sense when Mississippi, the State of Jefferson Davis, dishonored her bonds. From that time the word has been too familiar in our public I am now brought to the practical question, The resources of the country, already so to which I have already alluded, how the pub- | Population increasing beyond example; im vast, will swell in still larger proportions. discussions. It was not unnaturalthat a State lic burdens shall be lightened. Of course, in this work the Public Faith, if kept sacred, will proved systems of communication expanding in every direction; and the mechanical arts, tice, it easily rejected the obligations of Public Faith. Slavery was in itself a perpetual repuerfulin itself and powerful also in its reën force with their infinite activities, old and new-all these must carry the Nation forward beyond any ment of all other agencies. diation, and slave-masters were unblushing present calculation so that the imagination tires repudiators. Such an example is not fit for our Nation at this great period of its history. It will not seem trivial if I insist on system- || fore, to the future we may tranquilly leave the in the effort to grasp the mighty result. ThereIt is one of the calamities of war, that, while atic economy in the administration of the final settlement of the national debt, meanwhile the , it Government. All needless expenditure must discharging our own incidental duty, so that the be lopped off. Our swollen appropriations Public l'aith shall be preserved. quently an insensibility to the obligations in Here is a notable difference between the curred. A national debt shares for the timelessness, so natural during a period of war, United States and other countries, where popuexceptional character of war itself. Con must give way to moderation and thrift. Ali lation and resources have arrived at such a tracted bastily, it is little regarded except as this, without any denial of what is just or be. point that future advance is very gradual. 3 burden. At last when business is restored neficent. The rule should be economy without With us each decade is a leap forward ; with and all things assume their natural proportions niggardliness. Always there must be a good them it marks a gradation sometimes scarcely it is recognized in its true character. The reason for whatever we spend. Every dollar, || appreciable. This difference must not be for: country accommodates itself to the pressure. as it leaves the national Treasury, must be able gotten in the estimate of our capacity to deal This time is now at hand among us, if not to exhibit its passport. Doubtless, the Army with a debt larger than that of any European arrested by disturbing influences. Unhappily and Navy can be further reduced without det. Power except England. But we must confess the demands of Public Faith are met by big riment to the public service. Beyond this great our humiliation, as we find that our debt, with gling and chaffering, and we are gravely re. saving there should be a constant watchfulness its large interest in coin, secured by mortgage on minded that the “ bloated bond-holders" against those schemes of public plunder, great the immeasurable future of the Nation, is less expect more than they gave ; forgetting that and small, from which the Nation has latterly regarded abroad than the English debt, with they gave in the darkness of the war, at the suffered so much. All these things are so its smaller interest and its more limited secuappeal of the Nation, and to keep those armies plain as to be little more than truisms. rity. Our sixes will command only seventyin the field through which its existence was four per cent, in the market of London, while preserved; forgetting also that among these Another help will be found in the simplifi the three per cent. consols of England are bond-holders, now so foully stigmatized, were cation of our system of taxation, so that it shall freely bought at ninety-four per cent. One of the poor, as well as the rich, all giving accord- be less complex and shall apply to fewer objects. our bonds brings twenty per cent. less than an ing to their means. It was not in the ordinary In Europe taxation has become a science, ac. English bond, although the interest on it is spirit of money-lending that those contribu- cording to which the largest possible amounts one hundred per cent. more. I know no subtions were made. Love of country entered are obiained at the smallest possible inconven: stantial reason for this enormous difference, into them and made them more than money. ience. Instead of sweeping through all the high- except in the superior credit established by If the interest was considerable, it was only in waysand by ways of life, leaving no single thing England. With the national credit above susproportion to the risk. Every loan at that time unvisited, the English system has a narrow picion, our debt must stand as well, and, as was a contract of bottomry on the Nation, like range and visits a few select articles only. I our multiplying resources become known), even inoney lent to a ship in a strange port and con- see no reason why we should not profit by this better still. Thus constantly are we brought ditioned on its arrival safe at home; so that it | example, much to the convenience of the Gov to the same lesson of Public Faith. failed entirely, if Slavery, by the aid of For. ernment and of the citizen. he tax-gatherer In spite of the general discredit of our eign Powers, established its supremacy. God will never be a very welcome guest; but he may national stocks abroad, Massachusetts fives, be praised! the enemy has been overcome. be less of au intruder than now. A proper payable in 1894, sell at the nominal price of It remains now that we should overcome that tax on two articles, whisky and tobacco, with 84, with the pound sterling at $4 44, equal to other enemy, which hardly less malignant than proper securities for its collection, would go 942 in our gold with the pound sterling at war itself, would despoil the Nation of its good far to support the Government. $4 83. There can be no other reason for this name and take from it all the might of honesty. higher price than the superior credit enjoyed by And here to every citizen, and especially to Still another agency will be found in some Massachusetts; and thus again is Public Faith ECONOMY. blunts Pehe moral sense and breeds too tre buste pe compressed. Extravagance and reck now SIMPLIFICATON OF TAXATION. THE DIMINUTION OF INTEREST ON THE NATIONAL DEBT. TITE FUNDING BILL. NECESSITY OF SPECIE PAYMENTS. THE PUBLIC FAITII AGAIN. exalted. Why should not the Nation, with its mended itself on careful examination. On its sell or buy a farm; uobody can build or mortiulinite resources, surpass Massachusetts ? face it provides for a system of conversion and gage a house, except at an unnatural hazard. reconversion. The holder of lawful money to Salaries and all fixed incomes sutfer. The pay The bill before us proposes a new issue of the amount of $1,000, or any multiple of of every soldier in the Army, every sailor in bonds redeemable in coin after twenty, thirty, || $1,000, may convert the same into the funded the Navy, every office holder from the Presiand forty years, with interest at five per cent. debt for an equal amount; and any holder of dent to the humblest postmaster is brought four and one half per cent., and four per cent. the funded debt may receive for the same at under this tyrannical iniluence. Harder still, in coin, exempt from State or municipal tax- the Treasury lawful money, unless the notes innocent pensioners, wards of the Nation, must ation and also from national taxation, except then outstanding shall be equal to $100,000,000. bear the same doom. Maimed soldiers, be. the general tax on income; these bonds to be If bonds in the funded debt shall be worth reaved widows, helpless orphans, whose cup is used exclusively for the conversion of an equal more than greenbacks, the latter would be already full, are compelled to see their scanty amount of the interest-bearing debt of the converted into bonds, according to the ordi- dole shrink before their sight till it seems ready United States, except the existing five per cent. nary laws of trade. The latest relation of to vanish in smoke. bonds and the three per cent. certificates. These these two is as follows: $100 greenbacks equal A greenback is a piece of paper with a proposed bonds have the advantage of being seventy-one dollars gold; $ 100 five per cent. proinise on its face and green on its back, explicit in their terms. The obligations of equal seventy-six dollars gold. If the green: declared to be money by act of Congress, but the Government are fixed clearly and un backs are convertible into the five per cent., which the Government refuses to pay. It is changeably beyond the assaults of politicians. | they will, of course, be converted while the “ failed paper” of the Government. The mis. A glance at the national debt will show the above relation continues. This must be so long | chief of such a currency is everywhere, envelopoperation of this measure. The sum total on as the national credit is maintained abroad and ing the whole country and penetrating all iis the 1st of February, 1868, according to the the demand for our securities continues there. parts. It covers all and enters all. It is a disstatement from the Treasury was $2,504,845,- | By this process our greenbacks will be gradually credit to the national name, from which ibe 373, being in round numbers twenty-five hun absorbed and those that are not absorbed will Nation suffers in whole and in detail. It dred millions. Out of this may be deducted be lifted in value. It would seem as if bonds weakens the Nation and hampers the citizen. legal-tender and fractional notes, as currency, and greenbacks must both gain from this busi- There is no national enterprise which it does amounting to $388,405,565, and several other ness, and with them the country must gain also. not impede. The Pacific railroad feels it. smaller items. The following amounts repre Here would be a new step to specie payments. There is not a manufacture or business which sent the portions of debt provided for by this The bill closes with a provision authorizing does not feel it also. There is not a town, or bill: contracts in coin, instead of greenbacks, accord | village, or distant place, which it does not visit. Six per cent., duc 1881.. $283.766,600 | ing to the agreement of parties. This authority A practical instance will show one way in Six per cent., five-twenties. 1,398,188,850 is in harmony with the other provisions of which individuals suffer on an extensive scale. Seven and three-tenths Treasury notes the bill, and is still another step toward specie || being generally those who are least able. I convertible into five-twenty bonds at maturity..... 214,953,850 follow an ingenious merchant, Mr. Atkinson, of Boston, whose figures sustain his conclusion, $1,897,209.300 I am now brought to the last branch of this when I insist that our present currency, from its discussion, in which all the others are absorbed; unstable character, operates as an extra tas of This considerable sum may be funded under I mean the necessity of specie payments, or, in more than one hundred millions annually on the proposed bill. other words, the necessity of coin in the place || the labor and business of the country; and this of inconvertible paper. Other things are means vast sum is taken from the pockets of the peoIf this large portion of the national debt, to this end. This is the end itself. Untilthis || ple, not for the support of the Government, but with its six per cent. interest in coin, can be is accomplished financial reconstruction exists to swell the unreported fund out of which the suuded at a less interest, there will be a corre- in aspiration only and not in reality. excesses of the present day are maintained. sponding relief to the country. But there is The suspension of specie payments was ori- There are few business men, who would not prut one way only in which this can successfully be ginally a war measure, like ihe suspension of the annual loss in their affairs, from the factna. accomplished. It is by making the Public the habeas corpul8. It was so declared by my. tion in the currency, somewhere from one to five Faith so manifest that the holders will be in- self at the time it was autliorized. Pardon me per cent. One per cent. is the lowest. Mr. duced to come into the chanye for the sake of if I quote my own words in the debate on the Hazard, of Rhode Island, pntsitattivo percent. the longer term. All that is done by them Now,the aggregate sales in the fiscal year ending must be voluntary. Every holder must be free "It is a discretion kindred to that under which tho || June, 1867, were over eleven thousand millions to choose. He may prefer his short bond at habeas corpus has been suspended so that citizens ($11,000,000,000) in currency, excluding sales six per cent. or a long bond at five per cent. have been arrested without the forms of law; kin- of stocks or bonds. One per cent. on this or a longer at four and a half per cent., or still been declared to be in a condition of insurrection, so | prodigious amount represents a tax of one huna longer at four per cent. This is his affair. that all business with its inhabitants is suspended; dred and ten millions, paid annually by conThere must be no compulsion. Any menace kindred to tbat which unquestionably oxists, to ob- sumers, according to their consumption and of compulsion will defeat the transaction. It instead of the free offering of volunteers; kindred to not in any degree according to their ability. will be nothing less than repudiation with a that under which private property may be taken for This is one instance only of the damages an. certain loss of credit, which no saving of in public uses; and kindred, also, to that undoubted nually paid on account of our currency. If we terest can repay. You must continue to borof the transcendent right of self-defense.” estimate the annual tax at more than one per row on a large scale; but who will lend to the As a war measure, it should cease with the cent. the sum total will be proportionally larger. repudiator, unless at a destructive discount? war, or so soon thereafter as practicable. It Even at the smallest rate, it is many millions Any reduction of interest without the consent should not be continued a day beyond positive more than all the annual expenses of our Gorof the holders will reduce your capacity to bor- exigency. While the war lasted, it was a neces- ernment.immediately preceding the rebellion. A forced reduction of interest will be | sity, as the war itself. Its continuance now Fluctuations in the measure of value are as like a forced loan. While seeming to save | prolongs into peace this belligerent agency inconvenient and fatal as fluctuations in the interest, you will lose capital. Do not be de and projects its disturbing influence into the measures of length and bulk. A dollar which ceived. Any compulsory conversion is only most distant places. Like war, whose greatest has to-day one value and to-morrow another is another form of repudiation. Itis tantamount | engine it was, it is the cause of incalculable no better than a yard, which has to-day one to this declared crime. It is the same misdeed, evil. Like war, it troubles the entire nation, length and another to-morrow, or a bushel, taking still another shape--as Proteus was the deranges business and demoralizes the people. which has to-day one capacity and another tosame Heathen god in all bis various transform- As I hate war, so do I hate all its incidents and It is as uncertain as “ Equity," ations. It is repudiation under an alias. long to see them disappear. Already in these measured by the varying foot of successive chan Happily the bill before us is free from any remarks I have pictured the financial anarchy | cellors, sometimes long and sometimes shori, such damning imputation. The new bonds are of our country, the natural reflection of the according to the pleasant illustration of Selden authorized; but the bolders of existing obliga political; but the strongest illustration is in a in his Table-Taik. Such fluctuations are more tions are left free to exercise their judgment in disordered currency, which is present to every than match for any prudence. Business is making the change. I am assured by those, | body with a dollar in his pocket. turned into a guess, or a game of bazard, wlio, from practical acquaintance with busi- The derangement of business may be seen at where the prevailing anarchy is overruled by ness, ought io know, that these bonds will be home and abroad. It is not merely derange accident: rapidly taken for the five-twenties. ment; it is dislocation. Everything is out of "Chaos umpire sits, joint. Business has its disease also, showing And by decision more embroils the fray, By which he reigns: next him high arbiter The same bill, in its second section, sets itself in opposite conditions; shrunk at times, Chance governs all." apart $185,000,000 annually to the payment as with paralysis; swollen at times to unhealthy | In such a condition of thing, the gamblers of the interest and the reduction of the prin- | proportions, as with elephantiasis. The first have the advantage. The stock exchange cipal of the national debt; and this is to be in condition of business is stability, which is only becomes little better than a faro-bank. By lieu of a sinking fund. This is an additional another form of security; but this is impossible such scenes the country is demoralized. The security. It is another assurance of our determ- when nobody can tell from day to day the value temptation of excessive gains leads from the ination to deal honestly. of the currency. It may change in a night. || beaten path of business. Speculation, withThe third section of the same bill is newer The reasonable contract of to-day may become out money, takes the place of honest industry, in its provisions, and, perhaps, more open to onerous beyond calculation to-morrow. There extending from the stock exchange every doubt. But, though uncertain with regard to is no fixed standard. The seller is afraid to where. The failed paper of the Government it in the beginning, I have found that it com- sell; the buyer afraid to buy. Nobody can teaches the lesson of bankruptcy. The Goy bill : row. morrow. FUNDING BILL AGAIX. |