488 THE IMPENDING REVOLUTION. 



to buy the bonds at the premium to which his wretched 

 policy has boomed them. This is something worse than 

 folly. By this policy he boomed the price of the bonds in 

 the hands of the bondholders, and now you propose to buy 

 these bonds back at the increased price. 



Well, indeed, may the secretary of the treasury hesi- 

 tate. He was authorized, if he saw proper, to buy under 

 the law of March 3, 1881, but he was never authorized by 

 any law to first boom the bonds and then buy them back at 

 the increased premium. 



If this proposition passes and the secretary undertakes 

 to call in this money, I say to the business men of the 

 country they had better prepare to stand from under. You 

 all know that as well as I do. What shall be done then? 

 Ah, I will tell you the remedy. What power have we 

 over these bondholders? I wish I had every tax-payer of 

 the country within the sound of my voice. What have 

 we the power to do? More than $2,400,000,000 of inter- 

 est have been paid by the people to the bondholders since 

 the close of the war, and more than $1,600,000,000 of 

 principal, making $4,000,000,000 a sum as great as the 

 present national debt of England ! 



What is the present proposition? It is that we shall 

 compel the people of the United States to pay over twen- 

 ty-five per cent, premium on the bonds held by these bond- 

 holders. Why, that is not a statutory obligation. Have 

 we ever contracted to pay it? We have the money in the 

 treasury and we have the moral right to insist on payment 

 at par under the sovereign power possessed by the govern- 

 ment. 



England at one time insisted upon this right and 

 exercised the power. You will find the whole matter ably 

 set forth in Senator Sherman's speech on the credit- 

 strengthening act and the funding bill previous to the issue 

 of these very bonds. 



Mr. Chairman, at the proper time I will move as a 

 substitute, that which I ask the clerk to read. 



The clerk read as follows: 



u Be it enacted, etc., That the secretary of the 

 treasury is hereby authorized and directed to apply the 



