6//- Class .£lXZZ__ SPEECH OF HON. GEORGE W. MORGAN, DELIVERED AT Canal Trover, Ohio, A-Ug-ust 7^, IST'S. [published by order of DEM. STATE EX. COM.] Ladies and Fellow-Citizens of Tuscarawas County : I ask your indulgence in the opening of my remarks until my voice becomes accustomed to the place in which I am to speak. It is true, as you have been told, that Governor Allen is not with us in person, but his heart and thoughts and best wishes are with us, and he sincerely regrets that he is not hei'e to greet you. I am one of those, my fellow-citizens, who believe that the great body of the Amer- ican people, irrespective of party, are honest, intelligent, brave and patriotic. In my youth and the ardor of early convictions I was, perhaps, not so tolerant in my views, but experience and observation have taught me a truer appreciation of American character, and I now understand how it may be that honesty and error may exist together. Had I not such a faith I would •despair of the possibility of maintaining free institutions. Our country belongs to no party, but to the whole people, who hold it as a sacred trust for our children and our children's children after we have passed away. Parties aro essential to the existence of free institutions, but it is always necessary that jhe party in power should have a party out of power to watch its administration of public affairs, and if that administration has been wise and honest it should be continued and upheld. On the other hand, if it becomes corrupt, there should be a change. We are assembled to-day, fellow-citizens, for the purpose of discussing a question of vital importance to us all — a question afl'ectiug not only the Democrats, but the Republicans as well — affecting, in fact, the welfare and prosperity o:£ the whole people, and I shall endeavor to present facts for your consideration with as much gravity and decorum as if I were rising in the halls of Congress to address the legislators there assembled. Before proceeding, how- ever, I wish to say a few words as to a false issue which Republican leaders seek to introduce into this canvass, in order to withdraw the attention of the people from the wrongs they have committed and the evils they have brought upon the country at large. You all know that the Convention that made the Constitution of Ohio under which we live had a Democratic majority, and that William Medill, afterward a Dem- ocratic Governor, was its President, and that William H. Gill, its Secretary, was also a Democrat. You are aware that this Democratic Constitution was ratified by an over- whelming majority of the voters of Ohio, and that to-day it is the fundamental law of our State. The Republican leaders, through secret circulars, seek to create the impres- sion that the Democratic party desired to divide the school fund, and give a part of it to one religious sect. I have just shown you that the Constitution was made by a Demo- cratic Convention, was adopted when Ohio was a Democratic State, and is, in its pro- visions, a Democratic instrument, and we will see what it says on that subject. Article VI., Section 2, says : " The General Assembly shall make such provision by taxation or otherwise as, with the income arising from the School Trust Fund, will secure a thorough and ethcient sys- tem of common schools throughout the State ; hut no religious or oiher sect or sects shall ever have any exclusive right to, or control of, any ^art of the school fund of this State." Certainly it will not require argument to prove that if six hundred millions conld be collected, as they were collected in the year following the war, that the same amount could have been raised with much greater ease before the country was exhausted by the drain of war — before a million of men had been withdrawn from production and converted into consumers This fact not being open to dispute, I will proceed I o demon- strate that if the natural system of finance had been adopted the expenditures of the war would have been fully paid without the creation of one dollar of interest- bearing debt, and that by the ".Wth of June, 18(58, there would have been afloat only a little over a thousand millions of currency, instead of the twenty hundred millions which was ont- standiug at the close of the war, and with a public debt of twenty-six hundred millions on the aOth day of June, 1868. (See Finance Report, page 49fi.) Now, for the facts, and, once for all, I refer you to pages 490, 491, 492, 493 and 494 of the Finance Report for 1874 In th^ first year of the war the expenditures of the Federal Government were $456,000,000, while the taxes collected amounted to only $52,000,000, thns making a grand stride toward that marvelous blessing — a public debt. Had the Federal Go-^ernment, in the first year of the war, issued ,|500, 000,000 of greenbacks, and collected $500,000,000 of taxes, the greenbacks would have gone into circulation in the payment for supplies, and been returned to the Treasury in the payment of taxes ; and at the close of the year there would have been a balance of $44,000,000 greenbacks in the Treasury, and there would not have been one dollar of bonded debt. During the second year of the war the expenditures amounted to $694,000,000, while only $112,000,000 of taxes were collected ; and another big stride was then taken toward th6 creation of the public debt. Had $150,000,000 of additional greenbacks been issued, and $500,000,000 of taxes been collected, there would have been money enough, includ- ing the balance in the Treasury, to have paid every dollar of the expenditures, and created no bonded debt. In consequence of the inflation induced by the system of reckless borrowing, in the third year of the war, the expenditures ran up to eight hundred and eleven millions, while only two hundred and sixty-three millions of taxes were collected, and a public debt of eighteen hundred millions had been built up. If during that year five hundred millions in taxes had been collected, and an additional two hundred millions of green- backs been issued, there would have been a floating debt of only one hundred and eleven millions, and no bonded debt, while the entire currency would have amounted to only eight hundred and fifty millions. By the continued process of borrowing and inflation, the expenditures of the Govern- ment in the fourth year of the war amounted to $1,2X4,000,000, while only $323,000,000 of revenue were collected, and " the blessing of a public debt " had swollen to the respect- able sum of about $2,700,000,000. If during the last year of the war $500,000,000 of taxes had been collected, and $200,000,000 of additional greenbacks been issued, and applied upon the floating debt of the preceding year, and on the expenditures of the last year of the war, as a result, at its close, there would have been a fl,oating debt of only $625,000,000, with $1,050,000,000 of currency, and no bonded debt. But as the finances of the country were managed, at the close of the war there was $2,000,000,000 of currency and a public debt of $2,700,000,000. This brings us to the first year of peace. Now, you will remember, citizens, that I have shown you that in the very first year of peace the revenues of the Federal Government actually did amount to $620,000,000, or within $5,000,000 of what the entire debt of the country might have been (not including the greenbacks) at the close of the war. Then, to ascertain what wouLi have been our condition at the close of the first year of peace, had the taxation system been adopted, ■we must add the net expenditures of the Government for the first year of peace, which were $385,000,000, to the sum of $625,000,000, which would have been the amount of the floating debt, and there would have been to pay the amount of $1,010,000,000. To meet this there was the actual net revenue of $620,000,000 for that year; upon applying it to- ward the payment of the $1,010,000,000 there would have been left at the close of that year a floating debt of $390,000,000, and no more. Now, the actual revenues for the second year of peace amounted to $490,000,000 ; and if we add the net expenditures for that year, which actually amounted to $206.000,0ar, and they are not yet satisfied. On the 14th of January last they passed a law throne h Congress entitled " An act to provide for the resumption of specie payments" — a law which bears a lie ou its face, for the law does not provide that the banks shall redeem th