204 



CONNECTICUT. 



Lower House of Congress; and the course 

 which he there pursued in regard to questions 

 relating to the civil war was highly com- 

 mended by his political opponents. He was 

 elected Governor over Joseph E. Hawley, and 

 then twice 1868 and 1870 over Marshall 

 Jewell, who, in turn, defeated him in 1869 and 

 1871. At the congressional election held in 

 April, 1873, Mr. English was the Democratic 

 candidate in the Second District in opposition 

 to Stephen W. Kellogg, the Republican candi- 

 date, who was elected. He has since served 

 again in the Lower House of the State Legis- 

 lature. Mr. English has always been a stead- 

 fast Democrat. 



An association was recently formed in Con- 

 necticut by a number of citizens, and desig- 

 nated as "Greenback men," or party, com- 

 prising all who are in favor of paper currency 

 under certain conditions. They met in con- 

 vention at New Haven on February 22, 1876. 

 Some two hundred members were present, 

 about one-half of that number being residents 

 of the city of New Haven or its vicinity. 



The following declaration of principles was 

 reported, and adopted by the convention : 



Whereas, The present financial condition of the 

 country requires immediate, wise, and careful legisla- 

 tion on the great questions which are of such vital 

 importance to the welfare of the people : believing 

 the national finances to be in a deplorable condition, 

 the friends of currency reform of Connecticut recom- 

 mend the following principles as important to the 

 welfare of the nation : 



_ We earnestly invite a severe scrutiny of the prin- 

 ciples and measures which we think would restore 

 the country to prosperity, and ask a candid consider- 

 ation of the grave problems that now challenge the 

 attention of every thoughtful citizen. 



Under a government based on universal suffrage 

 it is essential that all important public questions be 

 fully and openly debated. The financial issues of 

 the hour have never beentruthfullv presented to the 

 American people. We have been denied a fair hear- 

 ing by the majority of the press, and falsely called 

 inflationists and repudiators by men who are incited 

 by ignorance, by love of political party, or by those 

 who, in order to fatten on the misfortunes of others, 

 wish the people deceived. As the intelligent union 

 of labor and capital is the only legitimate source of 

 wealth, government should foster industry and care- 

 fully guard the rights of producers. It should set 

 an example of wise economy, discourage all forms of 

 monopoly, and enact laws for the benefit of the whole 

 people. Class legislation should not be tolerated in 

 a free nation. To suppose that a financial system is 

 perfect merely because it has hitherto been generally 

 so considered is as fallacious as a belief that medicine, 

 law, or the mechanic arts, have reached perfection. 

 Mankind is steadily progressing in knowledge, and 

 all arts and sciences are sharing in the general ad- 

 vance. 



1. We oppose the act fixing an arbitrary time for 

 the resumption of specie payments, not because we 

 have any objections to our paper-money being made 

 worth its face in gold, but because that act, by cre- 

 ating distrust of the future, has paralyzed enterprise, 

 thrown the producers of wealth out of employment, 

 and thus postponed the day when it shall become 

 possible to maintain our paper-money at par with 

 coin without creating the wide-spread bankruptcy 

 which an attempt to enforce the resumption act will 

 inevitably produce. Our paper-money should be 

 appreciated to par with coin by rectifying the de- 



fects in our monetary &ystem, and by producing 

 general prosperity, not by creating general prostra- 

 tion of business and by robbing electors to enrich 

 creditors under the hypocritical cry of "honesty." 

 We want immediate and practical measures which 

 will create confidence in the future and supply the 

 conditions under which time, industry, and economy 

 will place our country in a sound financial condition, 

 and make a paper dollar equal in value to a gold 

 dollar at the earliest practical period. To fix an ar- 

 bitrary time for specie payments is as absurd as it 

 would be to fix a day for a patient's recovery. We 

 therefore ask for the immediate and unconditional 

 repeal of the resumption act, and demand that all 

 similar trifling with the interests of the nation for 

 political purposes be branded as a crime against hu- 

 manity. 



2. The Government should not dishonor its own 

 promises as it now does. In the language of Thad- 

 deus Stevens, "The greenbacks were discredited 

 before they were issued " The national note should 

 be made a full legal tender for all public dues, and 

 for the purchase of Government bonds at par with 

 gold coin. 



3. We should have a stable currency, as uniform 

 as is possible in its rate of interest and'exchangeable 

 value. The issue of money and the regulation of 

 the value thereof is a matter of national concern a 

 prerogative of sovereignty which should not be del- 

 egated either directly or indirectly to corporations. 

 The national-bank notes should be gradually retired 

 from circulation, and the General Government should 

 have nothing whatever to do with banking; bank- 

 ing should oe entirely free, but no paper-money 

 should be allowed in circulation except that issued 

 directly by the United States. The national paper- 

 money should be issued by a bureau of the United 

 States Treasury only when paid for by Government 

 banks. Congress should simply adopt a system 

 under which the volume of the currencv would au- 

 tomatically regulate and limit itself. No one can 

 tell how much currency is needed at any particular 

 time. Its volume should be left like that of every- 

 thing else, entirely free to contract or expand in re- 

 sponse to the requirements of trade. This \vould 

 facilitate cash salts and discourage an undue expan- 

 sion of private credit. 



4. As all the national currency is a part of the 

 national debt, the Government should at all times be 

 ready to exchange its interest-bearing notes for 

 its non-interest-bearing notes. The legal tenders 

 should, therefore, be exchangeable for interconvert- 

 ible bonds bearing a low rate of interest, but suffi- 

 ciently high to maintain them at par with gold-coin. 

 We are opposed to the present policy of increasing 

 the amount of our foreign debt, which steadily 

 drains our country of gold, menaces our financial 

 stability, and is a far more serious burden than a 

 domestic debt. A policy should be adopted, the 

 tendency of which would be to diminish our foreign 

 obligations, and to have the American debt owed to 

 American citizens. 



5. We believe that a national policy in accordance 

 with our principles would soon extinguish the pre- 

 mium on gold ; would give us a stable currency un- 

 affected by foreign wars and panics; immediately 

 revive our drooping industries and give labor em- 

 ployment at just wages, and rescue our country from 

 the unfortunate position in which it has been placed 

 by an extravagant Administration and incompetent 

 legislators. We invite every good citizen, irrespec- 

 tive of previous party affiliations, to unite with us 

 for political resistance against the ignorant war now 

 being waged on the many for the benefit of the few, 

 and to this end we counsel our friends to cast every 

 vote for that party whose platform shall be most in 

 accord with the sentiment of justice and the prin- 

 ciples herein set forth. 



In case both of the existing parties refused 



