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CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



widows and orphans for the lives of husbands 

 and fathers ; and yet you provide no means by 

 which to give it a standard value, even by 

 offering to pay interest upon it. 



" Now, the proposition is simply to allow 

 the people of the United States to go to their 

 Government and say, ' We have taken your 

 money ; we desire that you will at least pay 

 us interest on it until you redeem it in actual 

 value.' The answer has been made, * Your 

 scheme will not be effective, because no man 

 will take the 3.65 bonds ; because there are other 

 and higher rates of interest for money in legal 

 tenders which can be obtained.' I therefore 

 said, in order to make it desirable for the peo- 

 ple to take these bonds, they should be con- 

 vertible into money and the money reconvert- 

 ible into bonds at the pleasure of the holders. 

 They should have this quality ; so that, when 

 men desire no longer to hold the bonds, they 

 should have back their money. If they think 

 they can make better use of the money than to 

 obtain 3.65 interest for it, they should have 

 the opportunity. But, when the money of 

 the Government which they hold will not 

 yield them 3.65 interest, they should have the 

 opportunity to pay back the money and take 

 the bonds. And with the money which the 

 Government received for its 3.65 bonds it 

 could either buy gold or redeem our bonds 

 now out at 6 per cent, interest which we have 

 pledged ourselves to redeem in gold, unwisely 

 and unjustly, as I think and have always 

 thought a proposition which I almost alone 

 contested on this floor; a decision unjust to 

 the people and unwise in the Government. 

 But it now being the contract of the United 

 States, that contract must be kept in solemn 

 faith, however unwise and however unjust. 

 We have made it ; we are bound by it. Others 

 have acted upon it ; and I never desire to go 

 back one jot or one tittle from any obligation, 

 public or private. But this is not the only- 

 thing in which the 3.65 bond, if adopted, will 

 be of advantage to the country. What is all 

 business suffering from to-day? What is it 

 that shuts up every mill in Massachusetts, or 

 makes it run only on partial time ? Why is it 

 that sixty thousand men in that State who de- 

 sire labor to-day cannot get it; and ninety 

 thousand men in the city of New York, as it is 

 said ? In Pennsylvania there are hundreds of 

 thousands thrown out of employment. Why 

 is it? Why is all business enterprise crippled ? 



" It is not for want of money. Oh, no ; there 

 is not a member on this floor who cannot go 

 into New York and with Government bonds 

 obtain at three per cent, on call as many millions 

 as he chooses to make a deposit of collateral 

 for. But if he goes there and asks for a loan, 

 as a business loan, on six months' time, he 

 cannot borrow a dollar at less than seven, 

 eight, nine, or ten per cent, a year inter- 

 est. You cannot borrow money on time for 

 any interest at which any business can be car- 

 ried on. And why? Because it is under- 



stood that the Congress of the United States 

 and the Executive of the United States are 

 determined to reduce the currency of the 

 country until we get to specie payments. 

 Specie payments! There never were specie 

 payments; there never will be specie pay- 

 ments. Specie value we shall get to, and all 

 the sooner if you give specie value to your 

 greenback. 



" This contraction of the currency reduces the 

 value of all business enterprises until they are 

 not safe security for investments or loans. 



" What is the objection to contraction ? If all 

 the property of this country would go down 

 equally and together, I would hold up both my 

 hands to contract it until we got to specie 

 value, if you please. But what is the fact? 

 Statisticians tell us, with more or less of accu- 

 racy (and I am not here to quarrel whether it 

 is accurate or not it is accurate enough for all 

 my purposes), that there is $16,000,000,000 of 

 private property in this country. Be it so. A 

 little more or a little less makes no difference. 

 I think that is an under-estimate ; but such is 

 the estimate of the statisticians. 



4 * Now, one-quarter of all the property of this 

 country is in invested debt bonds and mort- 

 gages, securities of various descriptions. Of 

 this there can be no doubt. Now, then, the 

 difficulty is that we are striving to bring down 

 the property of this country to a specie valua- 

 tion; and already we have brought down real 

 estate in New York thirty-three per cent. ; in 

 Massachusetts at least twenty-five per cent. ; 

 and the case is the same all over the country ex- 

 cept in the granaries of the farmers of the West. 

 How is it in Chicago ? That city, after the fire 

 had swept over it and left it desolate, was large- 

 ly rebuilt upon money obtained on mortgage ; 

 and those mortgages are now coming home. 

 The property upon which such securities rest 

 has therefore already been brought down 

 something like thirty per cent. ; but invested 

 debt never comes down never, never not 

 one dollar. We are bringing down 30 per 

 cent, the value of the active productive prop- 

 erty of this country for what purpose ? For 

 the purpose of getting at 'specie payment.' 

 What does ' specie payment ' mean ? The pay- 

 ment of this invested debt the other quarter in a 

 currency worth ten or twelve per cent, more 

 than the money in which it was contracted, and 

 in some cases forty per cent, more if the debt 

 was contracted when gold was at a high pre- 

 mium. You are thus bringing down the value 

 of three-fourths of the property of this country 

 to raise the other quarter the invested capital, 

 the property of the men who live on usury 

 ten per cent, higher. Is there anybody who 

 can deny this? Have I not stated the fact ex- 

 actly as it exists ? I am not here to quarrel 

 with men about their opinions upon finance ; 

 but I ask them to look at this stubborn fact 

 which no man can deny or doubt. 



"What is the consequence? The conse- 

 quence is that we are eaten up by interest. 



