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CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



and the national banks are likewise retiring 

 their circulation by millions, in preparation tor 

 the proposed day of resumption. Still the ruin- 

 ous work must go on until 1879 ; and false com- 

 forters assure us that k light is ahead,' that the 

 margin between greenbacks and gold is very 

 small, that the chasm is almost filled up, and 

 that all these things will ' right themselves.' 

 Yes! I know these things will right themselves. 

 Look at that storm-driven ocean. Darkness 

 and hurricane are upon the deep. Signal-guns 

 of distress are heard through the gloom. Ships 

 are going down by the hundred, and thousands 

 of precious lives are being ingulfed. In the 

 midst of this ruin there stand the * wreckers ' 

 (pointing to Mr. Chittenden, who was standing 

 near) awaiting their prey and comforting them- 

 selves with the words : 'These things will right 

 themselves.' Yes, sir; I know that the morn- 

 ing sun will rise brightly upon a calm sea. 

 Every wave shall have subsided. The frag- 

 ments shall have floated off to some neighbor- 

 ing shore and the dead will have been forgotten. 

 Things have righted themselves on that sea." 



Mr. Chittenden : " I will not return to the 

 argument. There is no man who knows my life 

 who does not know that when I went to the 

 unusual place of the Clerk's desk to speak yes- 

 terday, I went to speak the truth according as I 

 understand it. The gentleman from Georgia 

 has referred to me as a capitalist if I under- 

 stood him correctly as owning Government 

 bonds, and therefore personally interested in 

 this question. It is about eight years, Mr. 

 Speaker, since I have held or owned a Gov- 

 ernment bond ; and, although I spoke favor- 

 ably yesterday of national banks, I parted 

 with my last share of stock in national banks 

 more than five years ago. I therefore say 

 that any man that aims blows at me as a 

 holder of Government securities or as being in- 

 terested in the national banks mistakes the 

 mark. The bonds I hold are to a large extent 

 those of defaulting railroads and States, and 

 my own case fairly represents the condition of 

 my constituents. I have not come here, sir, 

 without experience and knowledge of this 

 question of currency. I have not come here 

 and dared to utter anything on this subject 

 that I have not carefully considered. If I had 

 time I could expose the fallacies, the errors, 

 and the absurdities of the last speaker, so that 

 no man who is capable of forming an honest 

 judicial opinion upon any great question could 

 possibly make any mistake about this one/' 



Mr. Davis, of North Carolina, said : " Let us 

 see what is the cause of this disease which has 

 brought so much distress upon the country. 

 It is to be found in the financial policy now 

 prevailing, which has enriched the few and 

 impoverished millions. While it is the duty 

 of the Government to coin money and regulate 

 the value thereof, and while it has been held 

 in these latter days to be in the constitutional 

 power of Congress to make legal tenders of 

 paper money as well as of coin I say while 



that has been held to be legal, it must become 

 more and more the duty of the Government to 

 give to the country a good financial system 

 which will be just to all classes and meet the 

 demands of a great industrial people, such as 

 we are. But, sir, what has been done? In the 

 first place there is a banking law which gives 

 a monopoly of banking business to the nation- 

 al bondholders. This law, by a tax of 10 per 

 cent, on the circulation of all banks other than 

 national banks, gives them the exclusive privi- 

 lege of banking, and this tax was imposed sole- 

 ly for this purpose. It was not for revenue, 

 for not one cent of revenue was realized. It 

 is an unjust and odious discrimination, prevent- 

 ing all free competition, which is the life of 

 all free and healthful trade, thus giving to one 

 class of men the power to control absolutely 

 the currency of the country. You may have 

 your gold, but you can not bank upon it. You 

 may have your land, but you can not bank upon 

 it. Y^ou may have any other species of prop- 

 erty than those national bonds, and you can 

 not bank upon it and can not get credit upon 

 it. And yet the gentleman from New York 

 (Mr. Chittenden) said he was in favor of free 

 banking, and that would bring relief to the 

 country. His free banking is a tax of 10 per 

 cent, on all other banks except national banks, 

 and nobody to bank except those who can get 

 the national bonds. That -is what my friend 

 on the other side of the House means by free 

 banking. If he means there should be com- 

 petition in this as in every other business, and 

 that it should regulate itself by the law of sup- 

 ply and demand, there is no difference between 

 him and myself. Save us from his kind of free 

 banking! We have had it for fifteen years, 

 and it has laid the country prostrate and in 

 ruin. 



"Another evil has been contraction, and con- 

 traction in a wonderful degree. I heard on 

 this floor to-day a gentleman, with whom I 

 have not the honor of an acquaintance (Mr. 

 Bacon), declare that he was in favor of honest 

 money, and that his State was in favor of hon- 

 est money. The gentleman from New York 

 (Mr. Chittenden) said that half a million of 

 his constituents were ready to come down here 

 and protest in the name of honesty against our 

 action on the silver question. Honest money ! 

 Why, sir, are not the ' greenbacks ' honest 

 money? The gentleman held up one of them. 

 Is not this honest money ? If it is not, pray tell 

 me where are the men who put it upon the 

 country? Were they dishonest? Does the 

 gentleman mean to insinuate that this money, 

 put into the hands of the people by an act of 

 Congress, contaminates the holder, and that it- 

 is a fraud and a sham to use it in paying pri- 

 vate or public debts ? The gentleman from New 

 York (Mr. Chittenden) has said it was a fraud 

 and a sham. Who enacted the sham, and who 

 perpetrated the fraud, and upon whom was the 

 fraud perpetrated ? The gentleman from New 

 York talks about gentlemen on this side speak- 



