CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



185 



matum, contraction. Specie was a mere 'de- 

 coy ' to lead the unsuspecting productive class- 

 es into their meshes. Their capital was fixed, 

 and they desired to convert it into products of 

 labor, and they must first shrink the value of 

 those products to bankrupt rates. 



"They have triumphed! The agitation of 

 the question sent labor down, sent real estate 

 down. Then, through their influence, came 

 the demonetization of silver, then the resump- 

 tion law; each with a view to contraction; 

 and as the coils of the anaconda tightened, a 

 wail went up throughout the land a wail ri- 

 valing the wail that went up throughout Eng- 

 land, and which is described as making the 

 'blood run cold.' The failures in business 

 have been innumerable ; the loss from shrink- 

 age in values has been incalculable ; the suffer- 

 ing from reduced wages has been appalling. 

 Homes, comforts, and even the necessities of 

 life, have passed forever from once happy 

 families. Hard and grinding poverty is press- 

 ing our citizens in every section of the country, 

 in every avenue of trade and production. Rail- 

 roads and banks are being wound up by re- 

 ceivers ; savings institutions are disappearing ; 

 furnaces and factories are suspended ; mining 

 property is a burden to the owners ; merchants 

 are being driven by the thousands into volun- 

 tary or involuntary bankruptcy; employees 

 are standing ' all the day idle,' because no 

 man is able to hire them. The farmers the 

 strength of the country, the primary source of 

 all wealth have been reduced to the greatest 

 straits. The farmers of the South are not real- 

 izing from the sales of their cotton the cost of 

 production. In many of the States, after pay- 

 ing for labor and fertilizers and other expenses, 

 they find themselves inextricably in debt. 

 Georgia, the leading Southern State in all the 

 elements of agricultural and manufacturing 

 wealth, and whose citizens, in every industry 

 and enterprise, are without a superior, decreased 

 in taxable property last year $15,902,134; Ten- 

 nessee decreased over $31,000,000 ; and these 

 are the most prosperous in their material in- 

 dustries of all the Southern States, Texas alone 

 excepted. It is much worse among the pro- 

 ductive classes in the West and in the North. 

 The shrinkage there has been greater and the 

 suffering more intense. For while the South 

 is not accumulating, and can not until contrac- 

 tion is arrested or until it touches its lowest 

 depths, yet there is no one starving there as in 

 the North. There are no riots there ; there are 

 no strikes there ; every man, white or black, 

 can, if he will, have 'food and raiment.' But 

 there is financial distress there, as in the North 

 and West ; this distress must continue while 

 contraction of the currency continues. Why 

 all this distress? Why all this forced poverty? 

 Simply to enrich the few, 



"It is said by the friends of resumption 

 that the panic of 1873 came before the resump- 

 tion act passed ; but these special pleaders must 

 remember that during the Forty-first Congress, 



in March, 1869, an act was passed in these 

 words : ' And the United States also solemnly 

 pledges its faith to make provisions at the ear- 

 liest practicable period for the resumption of the 

 United States notes in coin,' and also all other 

 obligations of the United States except where 

 it is expressly provided to be paid in lawful 

 money or other currency. Here was an assu- 

 rance of speedy resumption which destroyed 

 confidence in the paper money of the country, 

 and the contraction which had been going on 

 since 1865 now went on more rapidly, until all 

 confidence was lost in the panic of 1873. Here 

 was a repudiation by the Government of its 

 own lawful money ; and can we be surprised 

 that all men discredited that money ? 



"Confidence! We hear continually about 

 the restoration of confidence. Confidence in a 

 ship while the scuttlers are at work to send it to 

 the bottom 1 Confidence in a ' promise to pay,' 

 while the sappers and miners are removing the 

 foundations of value upon which that promise 

 is made ! 



" The following extract from the ' Report 

 of the Silver Commission ' should be remem- 

 bered : 



It is maintained by many that existing evils are 

 the results of a loss and lack of confidence, and that 

 the sufficient remedy would be found in its restora- 

 tion. On all occasions they portray in glowing phrase 

 the abounding prosperity which would follow if 

 moneyed and other capitalists would freely exhibit 

 confidence by inaugui'ating industrial and commer- 

 cial enterprises. But it is to be observed that they 

 content themselves with recommending confidence to 

 others, while they are careful not to make a practical 

 exhibition of any on their own part. They seem to 

 be unconsciously influenced by the view that, while 

 they might profit by the confidence of others, confi- 

 dence on their own part might involve them in loss- 

 es. The real mischief is not the lack of confidence, 

 but the lack of any legitimate grounds for confidence ; 

 and there neither will be nor ought to be any revival 

 or extension of confidence so long as the volume of 

 money continues to shrink and prices continue to 

 fall. 



" The gentleman from New York (Mr. Chit- 

 tenden) on yesterday from his perch (Mr. Chit- 

 tenden stood at the Clerk's desk while speaking) 

 announced to the country that loafers, gam- 

 blers, and bankrupts, the worst elements of so- 

 ciety, favored the repeal of the resumption law. 

 Is the gentleman already designating the class- 

 es of society which favor or oppose this repeal, 

 putting the rich on one side and the poor on the 

 other side ? I know not whether these char- 

 acters advocate or oppose repeal. One thing I 

 do know, every millionaire, every man who 

 owns two or three hundred thousand dollars in 

 Government securities, is opposed to repeal, 

 and advocates a system of hard and grinding 

 poverty for the debtor. 



" I suppose the gentleman means by 'bank- 

 rupt' a man who is unable to pay his debts, 

 which inability has been brought about by 

 this system of contraction which he advocates. 

 Still the ruinous work of contraction goes on, 

 and millions of ' greenbacks ' are being retired 

 and destroyed by the Government monthly, 



