The Standard (Clarksville, Tex.), Vol. 1, No. 16, Ed. 1 Friday, February 27, 1880 Page: 1 of 4
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Established 184:3.
Clarksville, Red. Hiver County, Texas, Feb. "2 7,1SSO.
New Series, ]S"o 16.
County .Directory.
W. E. Wootten County, Judge.
J. R. Johnson, Sheriff.
A. 1*. Coi ley, Comity Clerk.
K. M. Bowers, District Cierk.
U. K Con ley, Comity Attorney.
\V. K. Hamilton, Assessor.
David liainey, Collector.
G. L. Moorman, Tnasnrer.
J.T. Fleming, J. P., precinct no 1.
J. C. Jirown, Constable, "
W.a . Manldin, J. P., precinct 110 2.
J. A Dickson, Constable. "
J. K. Horner, J. P., precinct 110 3.
W.J. Grunt, Constable, "
K. W. Tow nes, J. P., precinct no 4.
J. E. Dooley, Constable, "
F. M. White, J. P., precinct no 5.
I. J. Buekner, Constable, "
F. 51. (Jiililinjja, J. P., precinct 110 G.
K. W. Mow my, Constable, "
P. W. Senter, J P., pi-ecinct no 7.
Kob S. Pope, Cousta' <le, "
E. M. Posey, J. P.; pr ecient no 8.
J. A. Birge, Constable, "
county commissioners.
Precinct no 1
« " *2.
" " 3.
11 11 4_
G. K. Cheatham.
J. W. Baker.
S. H. Teel.
J. F. Grooms.
M. L. SIMS. W. J. MCDOXAL D
SI MS & McJDONALD,
ATTORNEYS AT LAW,
CLARKS 7ILLE, TEXAS.
Will practice in tlie Courts of the 5th Distric
and in tlie Supreme and Federal Courts held iu
the State. . 1-ttf.
J. W R^IISTEY.
PHYSICIAN and SURGEON
clarksville texas,
otters his services to the public, in all branches
of his profession.
lie will be found at Goldberg's drng stcre, or
at liis residence iu south Clarksville.
Nov. 1st 1j?79.
E. S. LOOK, M. D.
PHYSICIAN • AN1J SURGEON,
CLARKSVILLE, RED RIVER CO. TEXAS.
Speeial attention given to Surgery, and disease
of women and children. Office one door South of
the Post Office.
Oct. 4tli 1879. no.l-tf
El GL LANE
PHYSICIAN
Not, lf>t; i87!>r f
\ J'l.M.: —
and SUKGEON.
Claieksville, Tkxas.
DO.I-tf
DENTISTRY.
. BE. Z. B. MOORMAN,
Resident I>entist '
Can always be found at the Bank building,
office iip stairs. All work warranted. Teeth ex
tractod for fifty cents, all other work in propor-
tfoii.
C'^arksvillo, Nov. 1st. no-l-tf.
ip.w. jcxmsrs,
PHYSICIAN and SURGEON,
4 ' CLARKSVILLE, TEXAS.
Tenders his professional services to the peo-
ple of Clarksville and vicinity,
Office at Goldberg's Drug Store. Can be
found at night, at the resid encc of Mrs. Alice
Clark, North of the square. no.2-ii
J. L. REED,
WHOLESALE AND RETAIL DEALER IN
DRUGS
AND
BOOKS.
Headquarters for Reed's celebrated
CHILL CTJKE.
In ther Bank Building, South side Square,
Clarksville, Texas.
NOTICE TO EVERYBODY
Now is yonr time to get Goods Cheap!
«J. P. DALE
Ott'ofi."to"the Public, the cheapest lot of
(Mill, DRV GOODS
Notions,
BOOTS, shoes; hats atcd
GROCERIES,
to l>e found at any house in the City. Call and
ee for yourself. nov. 1st 1879, nol-tf-
G. "W. 6AITHEE
WATWKGR & JEWELLER.
Soutb-went corner Pnblic Square, with J. P
Dale, lias just received a fine assortment of Jewel
iy, Spectacles, Eye-glasses, Sun glasses,
f
Gents GTiiuiMkChnmis, Rings.
Se-TfirtJf'lJNWnes, Needles and oils, lie has
the latest improved tools for repairing Watches,
Clocks and Jewelry,
Plain Gold rings made to order. All work
proiufttly 1I0110 and warranted.
Clarksville, Nov. 1st, 1ST!). no-l-tf.
SCOW PATENT -SHEET-IRON
ROOFING.
Firo, "Water, Wind and
Rust Prooi:
No Nails or Screws through,
-tile Plates.
This -Splendid roofting is far superior to tin
comes coated with paint; can be put on in larg
r small sheets, and will last thirty years or more
and y«st costs little more than shingles. Call on
me and See specimens..
OTTO GLOSNOP,
Clarksvillle. January, id ltf-S).
SPEECH OF HON. JAMES B- BECK
OF KENTUCKY-
la the Senate of the United States-
Mk. President : It has been my good fort-
nne to agree so often with the views of the
Senator from Delaware [Mr. Bayard] that I
cannot help regretting that I am compelled
to differ with him 011 the important question
the Senate has to consider. I desire to as-
sure him in advance that whatever I may say
iu opposition to the resolution, against the
passage of which I felt it to be my duty to
report, and whatever may be my opinions as
to tlie objects and purposes of those who are
clamoring so loudly for its passage, I am
sure that he is actuated solely by an earnest
desire to promote the pnblic welfare and to
return at the earliest possible moment to the
safe constitutional methods of the fathers of
the Republic. I feel, however, that the reso-
lution is unnecessary, unwise, ill-timed, and
calculated to disturb the prosperity which. I
hope, is dawning upon the country. His
proposition is not a new one- It was voted
down with unusnal unanimity by both Hous-
es of Congress less than twenty months ago.
In May, 1878, the House of Representatives,
by a vote of 41 to 18, passed the following
bill, which was approved by tlie President
May 29, 1878. See United States Statutes,
volume 20, page 87 :
An act to forbid the further retirement of
United States legal-tender notes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of
Rapresentatives of the United States of Amer-
ica In Congress assembled, That from and lif-
ter the passage of this act it shall not be law-
ful for the Secretary of the Treasury , or oth-
er officer under hitn, to cancel or retire any
more of the United States legal-tender notes.
And whi n any of said notes may be redeem
ed or be received into the Treasury under
any law, from any source whatever, and shall
belong to the United States, they shall not be
retired, canceled, or destroyed, but they shall
be reissued and paid out agaiu and kept in
circulation : Provided, That nothing herein
shall prohibit the cancellation and destruction
of mutilated notes and the issue of others of
like denominations in their stesd, as now pro
vided by law. All acts and parts of acts in
conflict herewith are hereby repealed. Ap-
proved May 31, 1878.
That law is a very distinct expression Of
the will of congress, and a very clear asser-
tion of its power, in time of peace, to reissne
and keep in circulation all the then out-
standing legal-tender notes. The President
and his advisers had no doubt as to the right
and power of Congress to do so. The ap
proval. of the act was prompt, and
there was no pronounced clamor against our
constitutional authority to pass it from any
quarter. When that bill was before the Sen
ate the Senator from Delaware moved the
following amendment to it:
Provided, That the said notes when so re
issued shall be receivable for all dues to the
United States excepting duties on imports,
and not to be otherwise a legal-tender, and
any reprint of the said notes shall bear this
superscription.
He sustained it in one of the ablest and
best considered speeches he ever made; yet
only eighteen Senators supported it, and for-
ty-one voted against it. Among the latter
were six out of the nine members of the
present committee on Finance; I being one of
tliem. That amendment, it will be observed,
is in substance and almost in words the reso-
lution the Senate is now asked to pass.
Neither the President, nor the Secretary of
the Treasury, nor the distinguished list, of pe-
titioners whose gilt-edged and morocco-
bound petition is paraded before us with
snch a flourish of trumpets, nor the bankers,
brokers, and bondholders who are so much
alarmed lest the country be dishonored and
the Constitution shattered by the re-issue of
legal-tender notes in time of peace, exhibited
any of the anxiety they now profess to feel,
although' these notes were then at a discount,
were not redeemable in coin, and were sub-
ject therefore to denunciation as irredeema-
ble currency, afoiced loan, dishonest money,
rag-babies, and the various other epithets
which the adherents of the money power in
their prtended zeal for the dear people de-
ight to indulge in. It seems to me then was
the time, when a new assurance was being
given to the people that tlicir money should
be maintained at its then volume and that
the denomination of the notes should not be
changed, for the distinguished petitioners to
have given to Congress the advice they now
so freely volunteer, and to have pointed out
the dangers to constitutional liberty and law
and to the best interests of the people for
which they at this time so feelingly plead.
Now gold and silver coin of the standard
value prescribed prior to July 14, 1870, and
nominated as the measure of payment at the
dictation of the money power in all the bonds
since i?sned, can be demanded and obtained
from the Government for the face value of
every one of the notes of the United States.
The Secretaay of the Treasury tells us in his
last report that ho has over §225,000,000 of
gold and silver coin and bullion in the Treau-
ury, $160,(100,000 of which is available for all
purposes. Other official reports show that
the enormous taxation we have endured since
the war has produced revenues that have en-
abled us to .reduce the public debt from $2,-
773.236,173, as it stood in July 1,1866, to $2,-
011,798,504, as it stood January 1, 1880, be-
ing a reduction of $761,437,669. The Secre-
tary in his report December 3, 1877, showed
that the maximum amount which it was possi-
ble to claim July 1, 1877, as necessary to
comply with all the obligations of the sink-
ing-fund law was $475,31 S,888, and we have
been applying all our surplus revenues to
that fund ever since, so that it is safe to say
that we have exceeded up to this time all the
obligations of the sinking fund by at least
$250,000,000. These debt statements ex-
elude all tlie great floating war debt on
which hundreds of millions have been paid
out of the proceeds of the sales of our ships,
horses, mules, wagons, and all the other vast
materials purchased out of the appropria
the right to use the proceeds as they pleased
to pay the debts these Departments owed,
and they paid lavishly to their pets and
friends in ways that Congress knew nothing
of.
Mr. President, if one-half of the vast sums
which reached the Treasury in gold (forget
ting all that was stolen and squandered) from
the taxes taken trom the pockets of the peo>
pie had been retained, inssead of being used
to pay the principal of the public debt, with
the premiums, double interests, and costs of
that operation, and the Greenbacks had not
been repudiated at the custom-houses, re-
sumption would have come of itself years be-
fore it was forced on the country. Nobody
was demanding payment of the principal of
our debt; its burden was diminishing by be-
ing let alone in propoition as our wealth and
population increased.
The Secretary shows that he has a large
and increasing surplus fund from excess of
receipts over expenditures, so that all dan-
ger of the non-payment or depreciation of
the United States notes is at an and. The
coin in the Treasury held as reserve cost the
people in commissions, expenses, and double
interest at least 6 per cent., or $13,500,000. It
is worth 4 per cent, per annum, so that it is
held at an annual cost of over $8,000,000 in
order to remove all possible doubt, uncer-
tainty, or apprehension as to the absolute
equality in value and convertibility of these
notes into coin. In addition to all this, the
Secretary claims that under the resumption
act of 1875 he has the power now to sell as
many 5 per cent, bonds of the United States
from time to time, and at any time he pleas-
es as will enable him to obtain and retain
coin in the Treasury to pay every outstand-
ing note on demand. If $500,000,000 is in
his opinion (and he is the sole judge) neces-
sary he cau sell them ; indeed, there is no
limit to the security except the tax-paying
capacity of the people of the United States.
With these vast sums and enormous powers
held and given to protect these notes it is ab-
solute folly for any set of men to pretend
that there is any sort of doubt that they are
and always will be as good as coin. The
Secretary, after telling Congress that he can
easily maintain resumption with the present
volume of notes outstanding, gives the high-
est evidence of the confidence of the people
in them when he says:
Tlie great body of coin indebtedness has
been paid in United States notes at the re-
guest of the holder. • * • But little coin
has been demanded on the coin liabilities of
the Government during the same period,
(from January 1 to November 1,1879,) though
the amount accruing exceeded $600,000,000.
Yet the New York petitioners, in their
gilded memorial to Congress urging that
these notes be degraded by having their
legal-tender quality destroyed, and that they
be forever repudiated by the Government re-
fusing to receive them lor taxes at its cus-
tom-houses, say:
We believe that this measure, if enacted
into law, will encourage evejy legitimate bu-
siness enterprise; will revive confidence in
permanent investments; will give extended
employment to labor in all industrial pursuits;
will secure to honest toil its just rewards;
will be a sheet-anchor to stability in every
department of business, and discourage that
spirit of uncertainty which breeds disastrous
fluctuations in prices.
The petition is signed by a highly respect-
able body of men. Governor Eobinson, Mr.
Belmont, Messrs. Drexel, Morgan & Co., Mr.
Oppenlieimer— Jew and Gentde—all the
money-kings are tlieie. "All the honorable
men."
It presents a shap contrast to the simple
petition from the working-men of Philadel-
phia, presented yesterday by the Senator
from Alabama, [Mr. Morgan,] which bears the
mark of the anvil and the work-shops, bat is
all the more entitled to consideration as an
honest protest made against the passage of
the resolution, because made by the sons of
toil, about whose welfare the money-kings
appear so anxious. I am glad it is here, so
the representatives of the people can consid-
er their case as well as that presented by the
distinguished gentleman from New York. I
deny all the assumptions of the New York
petitioners. I deny that the passage of the
resolution will have any one of the effects
claimed. Surely confidence in permanent in-
vestments needs no revival when our 4 per
cent, bonds were at a premium of 3 per cent,
the day after the interest was paid, and are
over 4 per cent to-day. Honest toil asks no
other reward than a chance to earn the notes
as they are; the complaints against and
abuse of them have never come from men en-
gaged in honest toil. If any dissatisfaction
has been expressed anywhere since tlie law ol
May, 1878, was passed; if any petitions to
Congress have been presented seeking to de-
stroy any quality now possessed by the legal-
tender notes prior to the change of front by
the President and his Secretary when this
session of Congress opened, or prior to the
introduction of this resolution, I failed to
observe the fact.
It is always a safe and generally a wise
policy to let well enough alone. It seems to
me to be both safe and wise not to disturb
the currency used by the people when their
business, after years of disaster, is improving,
and not to alarm men who are just beginning
to rally from stunning blows. Nothing prove8
that to be our present, condition more satis-
factorily and conclusively than the contrast
between the business failures now and for the
last few years.
After the people have been compelled by
Congress to sufter and endure all these thingB,
and after they have supplied and placed in
the Treasury snch enormous sums of gold
and silver coin to assure all men everywhere
that the notes of the United States shall be
and forever remain equal to and be converti
ble into coin, it would seem to me that the
crushing of the contraction wheel might
case, and they might at least be allowed a
little while without further congressional in-
terfere to ascertain whether the prosperity
they have so long hoped and prayed for is to
continue, or whether with the carrying trade
tions so lavishly furnished during the years of the country in the hands of foreigners
of strife. The War. Navy, and Tieasury De- with protective tariffs cutting off nearly all
partments claimed all these things as their exports of manufactures and doubling home
property, on the ground that they were prices, with enormous debts, Federal, State,
charged with them, when the original appro- municipal, corporate, and individual, upon
priations were made, and therefore they had us, we can rely on agricultural exports alone
and continue to prosper. I think the chanesc
aw all against us unless we change many of
our laws. Much apprehension is expressed
by the combinations of the money power, lest
tlie people may rush into wild speculations
and again bring about the ruin from which
they are just escaping, if they are allowed to
use their present resources in the way they
think most conducive to their own interests
the wise men of the East seek to constitute
themselves the special guardians of the igno-
rant masses and protect them from all such
danger by taking control of the finances o*
the Government and arranging them so as to
guard against overtrading, unwise specula-
tion, and the dangers of a redundant curren-
cy.
Mr. President, we have had too much med-
dling; that is at the bottom of all our troub-
les. If this is to continue to be a Govern-
ment of the people, for the people, by the
people, they must be allowed freedom from
the dictation of any class of men, to manage
their own affairs in their own way and have a
chance to obtain the money which tliey think
is necessary to transact their business. It is
the merest pretense that we have a redundan-
cy of currency for the wants of the people,
and it is the most arrogant presumption to
assert that the regulation of the amount re-
quired is safer in the hands of national bank-
ers or Treasury officials than in the hands of
the Representatives of the States and people
in Congress assembled. Let us look at the
first proposition. The monthly-debt state-
ment for January 1, 1880, shows that we can-
not have, even if every dollar ever issued
was in existence and available for business
purposes, more than $750,000,000 in legal-
tenders, national-bank notes, and silvei of
all denominations. The gold is a mere
Treasury reserve to secure and niuke good
tlie other circulation. But call that $150,000-
000 more, which is not true in any proper
sense. With our present population of fifty
millions that is $18 to each individual; witli-
out|tlie gold it is $15. How does this com-
pare with the money in use among the lead-
ing commercial nations of the world 1 Turn
to Executive Department No. 5, first session
of the present Congress, and examine a re-
port to Congress on the state of labor in Eu-
rope, made by the present Secretary of State,
dated May 17, 1879, and Senators will find
that France has eight thousand millions of
francs, or $1,600,000,000, in circulation now
in gold and silver coin, of which it is not pos-
sible that less than $600,000,000 is in silver,
and she has over $450,000,000 in notes of the
Bank of France, all of which are a full legal-
tender for all debts, public and private, and
each is at par with the other, making a total
of §2,050,000,000 of circulation—$40,000,000
more than our whole national debt; and this
in a country much smaller than the State of
Texas, with thirty-six millions of population,
at least fourteen millions less than ours, with
a limited seacost and only 12,7^0 miles of
railroad, while we have nearly ninety thous-
and mileB and an almost boundless continent,
containing more' territory than all Europe, in-
cluding Great Britain and Ireland, exclusive
of Russia, by 1,240,088 square miles, The
people of France have nearly $60 per capita,
almost four times the amount we have. She
is admitted to be prosperous, although she
paid within the last ten years $1,000,000,000
in gold to Germany, and was conquered and
overrun by hostile armies.
Secretary Evarts shows i that report that
the bank-note circulation of Belgium is 661
francs, or over $132, to each inhabitant of
that kingdom. These notes are a full legal
tender for all debts, pnblic and private. The
people of Belgium are among the most en-
terprising and intelligent in Europe. Their
products are found in every quarter of the
globe. A few days ago the English papers,
corroborating the Secretary, announced that
magnificent iron depots and bridges made in
Belgium Were being erected over the Clyde
and in the city of Glasgow. They have a
circulation per capita of nearly $8 to $1 and
are prosperous.
Mr. fivarts shows further that Germa-
ny with her forty-two million of popula-
tion has a circulation iu coin and notes of
$714,000,000. or $17 per capita, even af-
ter slie had ia an evil hour demonetized
her silver, which, prior to the payment of
the French indemnity, was her only coin
circulation. Her notes are a full legal ten-
der for all debts public aud private. She
has few sea-ports, only 18,229 miles of
railroad, yet her recent distress has beeu
such from the contraction of her currency
that Hon. William D. Kelley, of Penn-
sylvania, in his recently published letters,
tells us that the leading bankers iu Ger-
many and Prince Bismarck assured him
that the country had lost oue hundred
million of marks, or $25,000,000, by the
process of demonetizing her silver, while
the general injury to the people and their
business has beeu beyoucd calculation.
He was assured that the sales of silver
had been stopped and its use would soou
be restored.
I have his letters before me, carefully
revised. On page 30 ot his letter from
Germany he says that he told Prince Bis-
marck in substance that in his opinion the
demonetization ol silver in Germany had
worke'd badly, and the reply was:
Yes, in that matter we have gone too
fast and too far. We have not been wise.
* It is clear we did not need to
abolish silver money—we should have
supplemented it with gold coinage. The
sale ot silver has reduced the price of that
metal, has cost the empire an immense
sum, and cannot be continued without
iuinous loss, as You Decheud, president
ot the Reichs Bank, has shown, and I
have therefore prohibited further sale*.
After a somewhat detailed conversation
as to the probability of a convention of
the nations, and as the course the United
States would otherwise take on her own
responsibility, Bismarck said:
In this matter you must not act alone.
Others must co-operate with you. I have
told you that no more silver will be sold,
and you may also know that the people
want the coins for busiuess, aud that they
will go into sirculation again. It is already
ordered.
It seems, therefore, that Germany is
likely to seek relief from her contraction
of the currency, which, though now great-
er than ours, has by a process similar to
that we have pursued brought her people
to the verge ot bankruptcy. The Secre-
tary shows that the people of Great Bri-
tain, numbering thirty-two millions in a
country less thau half the size ot the sin-
gle State of Texas, with only 17,263 miles
BRITTAN,
Keeps constantly on liand aBfull assortment ol slielf and lieavy hardware;
SASH AND DOORS
QUEENSWARE, STOVES, AND AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS,
AGENT for all kinds of Mill and Farm machinery, Avery Plows. Iron, Wa-
gon wood work, and Wagon Irons, Nails, Bolts, Cutlery, Augers, Chisels, Table
Butcher and Pocket Knives—every Tool warranted.
The (debated Hall's Giii. The Plantation Press with self return-
ing Screw.
DIST0.YS & LIPPfflCOTT'S SAWS, E .11. BBITTAX'S LOM STAR AXE.
FINE GUNS AND AMMUNITION.
m
A large assortment of Cooking and Heating stoves always on hand, including the American, the cheapest and
best in the market—the Welcome, Lone Star, and any other brand wanted, also shovels, tongs, and all stove ware.
^^QITEEBffiBWABlE Full Jlssortliieilt.
Tin Roofing and Grntteving-, a specialty-all tin work warranted.
Clarksville, Nov. 1st. 1879. no.l-tf.
of railroad, have a. circulation of $905,088;-
000, or about $30 per capita, nearly
double the amount even now allowed to
the people of the United States, yet in
the face of all these and many other like
facts the moneyed organizations of the
Bast and such newspapers as they control
denouce all of us who are unwilling to
still further curtail and cripple the small
amount of currency we have as inflation-
ists, secret rcpudiators, and everything
that is vile. But, Mr. President, we have
not anything like the amount of circula-
tion we are els suged with having on the
books of the Treasury. For example, turn
to the last monthly .statement of the pub-
lic debt made by the Secretary of the
Treasury on the first day ot this month
and year and you will find in making up
the sum of $393,711,070 of United States
notes, certificates, &., that we are charged
with having $15,074,303.78 of fractional
currency in circulation, when in tact there
is not exceeding $1,000,000 of that amount
in existence. Senators will recollect the
debate in May last, when provision had to
be made for the payment of the arrears of
pension. The Secretary ol the Treasury
then insisted on having authority given
him to increase the interest-bearing debt
by authorizing the sale of $18,000,000 ot
4 per cent, bonds. The leading members
of the Committee on Finance ot the Sen-
ate sustained him; I and others opposed.
We convinced a majority of the Senate
that the luiul, then about, $8,500,000,
held for the redemption ot outstanding
fractional currency might as well be used
to pay arrears of pensions as not, and we
so applied it. The now known facts have
justified our action. The fractional cur-
rency presented during the last year has
been' leas than the interest at 4 per cent,
on the sum held for its redemption, and it
is apparent now that about 814,000,000,
perhaps more, of fractional currency charg-
ed as outstanding, being one-third of the
whole issue, is gone and never can be pre-
sented for redemption.
What is now known to be true as to the
fractional currency is equally well known
to be the fact in regard to the legal-tender
notes, though not to the same extent in
proportion to the amount issued. The is-
sue of the legal-tenders reached the high-
est point in 1804 and 1805, when there
were $433,100,509 of them in circulation.
At that time there was only $22,894,877
of fractional curency issued. That curren-
cy did not reach its maximum of issue till
July, 1874, when it was $45,881,295. As
it is now known that from 30 to 33 per
cent, of the fractional currency has perish-
ed, it is fair to assume that at least 10 per
cent, ot the legal-tender notes arc gone.
Years of war during which they were paid
to soldiers and sailors in dangerous service
followed their issue. Fire and flood have
destroved millions of them. Since the war
they have gone through reconstruction
aud strife, in the hands of nieu unused to
the care of money. It is clear to my mind
that there is not $300,000,000 of them in
existence now. 1 do not know what pro-
portion of that $300,000,000 is in the
hands of the people. In May last I wrote
to the Comptroller of the Currency lor of-
ficial information on that subject, and re-
ceived the following letter, which 1 then
read for the information of the Senate:
Tbeasury Department,
Office of Comptroller of the
Currency,
Washington, May 0, 18 <9.
Sir: In response to your request, I send
you herewith statements of the Treasurer
showing the amount of legal-tender notes
outstanding by denominations on April
30, 1878. I also inclose statement of the
Treasurer of May 1,1879, and an abstract
of the reports ot the national banks for
January 1, 1S79, the date ot the last com-
pilation of their reports. From the state-
ment of the Treasurer it will be seen that
he reports the amount of United States
notes in the Treasury ou May 1, $70,444,
S23. The amount of legal-tender notes
held by the banks on January 1, exclu-
sive ot United States certificates ot depos-
it, was 870,501,233. Tables are given iu
my report for 1878—pages 103, 104, and
100—which show that theamouutofTreas-
ury notes and bank notes held by the
State banks, trust companies,and savings-
banks was at the dates given, $48,398,738;
the amount held by private bankers is
estimated at $28,000,000; which mviKes an
aggregate of 70,398,738. If one-half of
this amount was in legal-tender notes
then the whole amount of such notes held
by banks and bankers other than national
banks was say, $38,000,000; which would
give the aggregate amount of legal-tender
notes held in the Treasury and by all the
banks and bankers of the country, $79,
000,000; leaving an aggregate of $107,075,-
000 held by other parties.
Very respectfully,
Jno. Jay Knox.
Comptroller
Of course these amounts vary from time
to time. I tlunk it likely the sums held
now are smaller than those held at that
time. It will be seen from the above how-
ever, that there were at that date some
eight mouths ago, upon the assumption
that there were.thenoutstanding legal-ten
der notes to the amount of $340,081,000,
only $107,075,000 in actual circulation
among the people. It I am right in as-
suming that the actual amount iu exist-
ence does not exceed $300,000,000, then
there was only $120,994,000, being very
many millions less than there is gold and
silver coin lying idle and unproductive in
the Treasury, held there under the pre-
tense of possible, necessity to redeem
tliem. The statement referred to by the
Comptroller as to the denominations of
the legal-tender notes outstanding was al-
so read by me, and will be found in the
liecoi d of the proceedings of May 0, 1879.
It shows that there were then $100,855,-
980 ol these notes in denominations of
$100 and upward, which made, them in
no sense currency for common use in the
ordinary transactions of life among plain
people. Of these the Comptroller says
$31,940,980 were one-hundred-dollar bill;
$31,279,500 were five-thousand dollar bills;
$2,010,000 were ten-thousand-dollar bills;
total, $100,855.980—all of which might as
well be bonds of the United States locked
up in bank or Treasury vaults as pretend-
ed circulation; and these denominations
cannot be charged. 1 have no means of
knowing what denominations constituted
the $179,000,000 held by the Treasury
anil the banks. If they were of the small-
er denominations they about exhausted
them; if of the larger, it still lctt the mis-
erable remnant I have shown to meet the
wants of fifty millions of the most enter-
prising, energetic, and restless people on
earth; yet we are called inflationists if we
dare to protest against'the further destrue
tion of their usefulness and paying capaci-
ty-
Ill protesting, as I do, against striking
out the legal-tender quality of the green-
backs, their further degradation, and the
destruction, of their usefulness by a new
declaration that they shall not be receiv-
able by the Government for custon -house
taxes, their receipt for these dues now
being, as I think, the wisest and best of
the acts, legal or illegal, of the present
Secretary of the Treasury, I must not be
understood as indorsing or as asserting
the constitutionality ot the original acts
under which they were issued. I have
never believed that Congress, either in
time of war or peace had any power to do
more than coin gold and silver and regu-
late the value thereof; and I have always
thought it ought to provide for the coin-
age of either metal upon equal terms and
in such quantities as the people may pre-
sent bullion at the mints for coinage.
That opinion I have often expressed in the
Senate and elsewhere as forcibly as I
could; but the Supreme Court of the Uni-
ted States—I care not how or for what
purpose its change of front was effected—
decided against my views and I submit to
the decision and make the most of it. I
have, since my career in Congress began,
seen many laws passed which seemed to
me to be in palpable violation of the Con-
stitution ot the United States, ltecon-
struction acts, constitutional amendments
aud all sorts of legislation have become
parts of our system against my protest;
but I sustain them as faithfully now as it
1 hail originallv approved thetn. I have
always believed and now maintain that
the act of March, 1809, requiring the prin-
cipal of all our bonds to be paid in coin
and repudiating our legal-tender notes
was not only declaratory legislation be-
vond the scope of legislative authority,
ing principal and interest payable in coin
of the then standard value, and when
they have been so refunded I admit that
fin; credit ot the Government can only be
maintained by a strict compliance with
the obligations entered into. Disclaim-
ing all iuteutiou to be offensive, I may
say that I have never believed that the
present President of the United States
was legally elected to the high position he
holds but no Senator would deprecate
more than 1 would any suggestions took-
ing to the raising of even a doubt now as
to the legality of his title. So with tho
legal-tender notes. They were issued at
i time when Congress assumed that the
exigencies of the public service required
the issue of such notes, and whatever else
the Supreme Court- has done or left nil-
done, it has never been silly enough to
declare cither that Congress had certain
powers over the currency of the country
in time of war which it does not possess
in time of peace, or that the Court sits as
a revisory body over Congress,to deter-
mine when exigencies do or do not exist
on which Congress may or shall not act.
It admits that wherever and whenever
Congress can act when an exigency arises
Congress is the sole judge of the exigency
requiring its action 'whether it be in time
of peace or war. It must not be forgotten
that in all the acts authorizing the issue
ol legal-tender notes the following was
part of the provisions concerning them:
And any of said notes when returned
to the Treasury may be reissued from time
to time, as the exigencies ot the public ser-
vice may require.
Congress must be the Judge of the ex-
istence of any exigency requiring legisla-
tion. It may have information even now
which the Supreme Court has no right to
know anything about as to the objec-
tions foreign nations may have to our pro-
posed action in regard to an interoceanic
canal, or as to the peculiar relations of
the western provinces of Mexico to our
great railroad and mining interests. Can
the court say we must tell them and pub-
lish to the world all our reasons for re-
garding an exigency as existing, or like-
ly to arise, before wc can pass upon
questieus of currency which in certain
contingencies the court would say it was
our unquestioned right to do? 1 deny that
that the court ever claims any such power.
In regard to the legal tender notes Con-
gress has, since the war, exercised itsdis-
cretionary power over them iu every var-
iety of form; it has con traded their volume
and stopped contraction; it has increased
the amount in circulation, and prohibited
its Treasury officials from changing the
denominations existing; the act of May
1878, was perhaps a less notable exercise
of the recognized power ot Congress than
the action taken iu 18<4. Under the au-
spices of Secretary McCulloch legal-tender
notes had been by action ot Congress re-
tires) and canceled fill Congress interven-
ed iu I ebruary, 1808, and stopped further
contraction leaving $350,000,000 of them
then outstanding. In October, 1872, tho
acting Secretary of the Treasury issued
$5,000,000 in excess of the $350,000,000.
The legality of the act was at once 'con-
trol erted, and Secretary Sherman, as
chairman of the Committee on Finance of
the Senate, made, a report, January 14,
1873, proving, to my mind conclusively,
that the action of the Secretary was whol-
ly without warrant of law. Some very
good lawyers, however differed with him,
the distinguished Senator from Vermont
[Mr. hn^iUNDS] being one holding that
the act of the Secretary was not illegal.
Mr Hayard. The committee reported
against the legality ol the Secretary's
act.
Mr. Heck. That is just what I want to
show. The committee,as the Senator from
Delaware says reported against the legal-
ity of the 1Missue of thefive millions. That
was in 1873, 0111 he 14th of January. Hut
in September. 1873, when the failure of
Jay Cooke «S: Co. alarmed the countryand
shook public confidence iu all bankers, the
President and his Secretary of t he Treas-
ury, iu defiance of the Sherman report,
aud, as 1 think, in plain violaf ion and defi-
ance of law, issued $20,000,000 of legal-
tender notes iu excess of the $350,000,000
but a fraud of the deepest dye upon all on the urgent demand and perhaps irresis-
the tax-payers of the country; yet when tible pressure upon them by the money
the act of July 14, 1870, was passed an- power of the eitv of New York, doubtless
thorizing the refunding of $1,500,000,000 of many of the men who are now so abu-
of our bonds at low rates of interest, mak- [rmicliidcd on fourth page. |
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DeMorse, Charles. The Standard (Clarksville, Tex.), Vol. 1, No. 16, Ed. 1 Friday, February 27, 1880, newspaper, February 27, 1880; Clarksville, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth234648/m1/1/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History.