,s?^ 
 
pennulipe* 
 pH8J 
 
sipieegh: 
 
 n— OFi 
 
 HON. M. I. SOUTHARD 
 
 Canal Dover, Ohio, Angiist 7th, 1875. 
 
 [printed by order democratic state executive committee.] 
 My Fellow-Citizens : The two 
 
 parties in Ohio have held their Con- 
 ventions, put in nomination their can- 
 didates, and declared the principles of 
 their political faith. 
 
 The election is for State officers, 
 yet, in view of the approaching Pres- 
 idential contest, it has a wider signifi- 
 cance. The whole country is enlisted 
 in the result — and National poli(-ies 
 are naturally and properly brought 
 under review. 
 
 ■ More than fourteen years ago the 
 Republican party took hold of the 
 reins oi the Government. Ever since 
 it has held unlimited sway. Its ad- 
 vent to pf)\ver was signalized by ffuir 
 years of desolating civil war. War 
 itnplie force — begets arbitrary power 
 and disregard of legal and uifconsti- 
 tutiouiil restraints. I shall not, how- 
 ever, dwell upon the events of that 
 dark period. They belong to the past, 
 and are irrelevent to the present iss^ues. 
 
 Ten years have elapsed since peace 
 was proclaimed. What grand oppor- 
 tunities were then presented for true 
 
 and to guide and control its action. 
 The results are before the country. 
 While I would not detract one jot 
 from the just laurels of the party, I 
 would hold it responsible for its mis- 
 takes, follies and crimes. AVIiat evi- 
 dences of capacity has it left upon 
 record during these ten years of peace? 
 The National debts stands in almost 
 its original proportions ; taxation 
 weighs down with increased force upon 
 the shoulders of the people ; economy 
 is banished from the public service ; 
 extravagance and corruption are 
 everywhere prevalent; and business 
 and trade are utterly paralyzed. Mil- 
 lions of treasure are squandered upon 
 useless objects and millions more find 
 their way into the pockets of thieving 
 favorites of prominent efficials. To 
 have our country disgraced by the 
 frauds of the Credit Mobilier, Di.-trict 
 of Columbia, Pacific Mail subsidy, 
 and Postoffice, Custom-house, AVhisky 
 and Indian rings, has been reserved 
 for recent years and Republican rule. 
 Indian agents are fattening upon the 
 
 statesmanship! To repair the ravages { ])ublic moneys. This they are doing 
 of war; to eradicate the feelings of j while professing to evangelize the In- 
 hostility; to restore harmony, good j dian. In fact, they are "Stealing the 
 
 will iind fraternal relations ; toreunite 
 the people of the South with the in- 
 terests, hopes and destinies of the com- 
 mon country — these were the hi^ih 
 achievements held out to the Repub- 
 lican party, to inspire its patrio.Lism, 
 
 livery of heaven to serve the devil 
 in." The Indians get little of the 
 beef and blankets designed for their 
 use. The agents draw upon the 
 Treasury for double the amount sup- 
 plied and at twice the value. 
 
Lg 
 
 ADDITION, DIVISION AND SILENCE 
 
 The exact sum of these frauds can 
 not be told. It can only be approxi- 
 mated in 'he annual increase in ex- 
 penditures. In 1870 they amounied 
 to $3,295,729. Since 1870 they have 
 averaged overseven millionsannually, 
 and for the yearlo73-4 they reached 
 $6,692,462. Three railli(ms it may 
 be for honest outlay and three mil- 
 lions more for stealings. The esti- 
 mate for the present fiscal year is 
 $7,500,000. There is no necessity for 
 this large increase. We are at peace, 
 and have been for years, with all the 
 tribes. Their number have decreased, 
 and the territory to be guarded is of 
 less extent than in former years. 
 
 Like extravagance appears in other 
 branches of the ];)ul)iic service. In 
 1871 the navy cost $19,431,027, and 
 in 1874 it cost $30,932,027; in 1871 
 the war expenditures were $35,372,- 
 150, and in 1874, $42,313,927; in 
 1871 the miscellaneous list amounted 
 to $60,481,916, and in 1874, to $85,- 
 141,593; and the net ordinary ex- 
 penditures in 1871 were $157,583,- 
 827, and in 1874 they ran up to 
 $194,118,985. Such is the official 
 exhibit of this party of pretended 
 economy. How long will the people 
 tolerate it? How long will they per- 
 petuate its power? 
 
 But extravagant expenditure is not 
 the only difficulty. Through the de- 
 pression of business the revenues, in 
 the meantime, have largelv fallen off. 
 Customs receipts have decreased from 
 $206,270,408, in 1871, to $163,103,- 
 833, in 1«74; and the internal revenue 
 from $143,098,152, in 1871, to S102,- 
 409,784, in 1874. They have so far 
 diminished that last year they were 
 insufficient to defray the ordinary ex- 
 penses of the Government. To meet 
 this exigency, prudence would have 
 dictated a curtailment of expenses. 
 But a Bepublican Congress did not 
 pursue this wise course. Instead of 
 diminishing expenditures, it increased 
 taxation. By iliC a(,'t of last winter 
 it added to the taxes thirty millions a 
 year. The labor and toil of the pro- 
 ducing classes must supply the waste, ^ 
 
 and the dance of extravagance must 
 still go on. Parties never reform 
 themselves, and the only relief for the 
 people is a change in the Adminiotra- 
 tion. 
 
 The reconstruction policy has 
 proven worse than a failure It has 
 blighted the "sunny land of the South." 
 A policy so inconsistent with the 
 spirit of our free institutions — so re- 
 pugnant to all those notions of right 
 and liberty which so (lee|)ly pervade 
 the American heart and mind— could 
 not be expected to be productive of 
 good. It. has set vice and ignorance 
 over intelligence and virtue, and by 
 Federal dictation and military force, 
 kept pampered pimps of party in au- 
 thority, to harrass, oppress and plun- 
 der the people Such wholesale ra- 
 pacity has never before been revealed 
 in the history of any country. The 
 valuation of property has diminished 
 one-half", taxation increased f)ur-fo]d, 
 and the aggregate debt of the States 
 enhanced more than two hundred 
 millions of dollars. With a property 
 valuati(m in 18(50 of $4,333,757,942 
 in the eleven Southern States, the 
 total State taxation amounted to only 
 $8,165,486, while in 1870, with a val- 
 uation of. but $2,026,440,971, the 
 State taxation amounted to $12,813,- 
 615. And the county taxation, on 
 the valuation of 1860, was $3,115,- 
 184; whereas, in 1870 it reached the 
 fabulous sum of $14,298,630. These 
 estimates appear from the minority 
 report of the Committee on Southern 
 Affairs made to the Forty-second 
 Congress. What like example can 
 be adduced of fraud and extortion? 
 Under the name of taxation the pro- 
 perty of the citizen has been subjected 
 to absolute confiscation. The extor- 
 tion of eighty millions from the in- 
 habitants of Sicily by Verres, the Ro- 
 man Proprietor, which consigned him 
 to the shades of lasting infamy, pales 
 in comparison with the enormity of 
 this rapacity in the South. 
 
 These wrongs we propose to remedy 
 by enforcing the wholesome and time- 
 honored principles of local sclf-gov- 
 erumeut. Confiue the General Gov- 
 
3 
 
 ^ eminent within its proscribed consti- 
 
 Q^tutioiml limitations; take away tlie 
 
 "^tinailed hands of your Grants, your 
 
 ■^ Wdliamses and your Slieridaiis, and 
 
 '^ the [)eo|)le of the South will see and 
 
 v^.seek their true interests in the prac 
 
 ^;tice of honesty, ihe cultivation of 
 
 <vy peace, and in buihling up their lo.st 
 
 industries. 
 
 Tlie financial policy has been full 
 of evil, both in the raan;igement of 
 the bon'ied debt and the currency. 
 Capital has been aggrandized and 
 labor oppressed. "Public credit" 
 and "National honor" have been 
 the catchwords of the Shylocks while 
 they have mercilessly torn off the 
 pound of flesh. The Democratic 
 party never proposed to weaken that 
 credit or tarnish that honor. It has 
 insisted u]Jon paying the public debt 
 in accordance with the contract. No 
 Government ever lost its credit or 
 honor by doing this. To pay less 
 than the bond stipulates is dishonest ; 
 to pay more is extortionate ; and to 
 pay in strict accordance with the let- 
 ter is just, equitable and honorable. 
 The express letter of the law made 
 the five-twenty bonds redeemable in 
 legal-tenders. I need not stop to 
 elucidate this. You are all familiar 
 with this truth. When that law was 
 enacted, and these bonds issued, one 
 contract was made and understood 
 between the people and the bondh(jid- 
 ers. That contract was that those 
 bonds should be sold for greenbacks 
 and redeemed in greenbacks. The 
 people carried out their part of the 
 agreement. They sold the honds for 
 greenbacks, which were then depreci- 
 ated one-lrdf. But this done, the 
 bondholder refused to comply with 
 his part of the agreement He in- 
 sisted upon payment in gold. At his 
 demand Congress passed the act of 
 1809. requiring payment in gold. A 
 new contract was thus made by Con- 
 gress, without the consent of the peo- 
 ple, giving the bondholder twice what 
 he had agreed to take. Who, there- 
 fore, violated the public faith ? Who 
 was the repudiator? 
 
 By issuing and selling these bonds 
 
 upon a doprcciated currency basis, 
 and afterward iciuiring jjaynient in 
 coin, millions have beei^ ndd^d to the 
 public debt, and every doiu« tij^g 
 improperly added to the amount i.^ 
 jnst so much slavery imposed upon 
 the laboring and producing classes of 
 the country. 
 
 To promote the prosperity of the 
 people, a sound and sufficient medium 
 of exchange is indispensable. This 
 the Republican party has failed to 
 furnish, and business is prostrate. It 
 is now nearly two years since the be- 
 ginning of the financial crisis. It 
 still continues. Its heavy hand is 
 upon all the industries— the manu- 
 factory, the workshop, and the field 
 have lost their iife and activity. The 
 laborer«and mechanic are out of em- 
 ployment, and many are reduced to 
 penury and want even in a land pos- 
 sessed of all that is capable of sus- 
 taining and adorning life. 
 
 What measures of relief are pro- 
 posed? The policy of the Republi- 
 can party is to force resumption of 
 specie payments through further con- 
 traction of the currency. It favors 
 the retention of the National Bank 
 notes, and the retirera<-nt and cancel- 
 lation of all the legal-tenders. To 
 this policy the party is clearly com- 
 mitted by the act to provide for the 
 resumption of specie payments, ap- 
 proved on the 14lh of January last. 
 That act authorizes and requires the 
 Secretary of the Treasury at once to 
 begin retiring the legal-tenders, and 
 to Continue until the whole amount 
 outstanding is reduced to three hun- 
 dred millions ; and that on and after 
 the 1st day of January, 1879, he shall 
 retire and cancel the remainder of 
 the three hundred millions. For the 
 eighty-two millions of legal-tenders 
 first to be retired, so as to reduce the 
 amount to three hundred millions, the 
 Secretary is required to issue National 
 Bank notes in their stead ; but no 
 such provision of law exists as to the 
 remaining three hundred millions. 
 This eventually takes out of exist- 
 ence the whole of the legal-tenders, 
 and reduces the volume of currency 
 
three hunrlred millions, unless the 
 National Bank notes sliall hereafter 
 be extencle<l to supply the deficiency. 
 To provide the means for the retire- 
 ment of the lej^al-tenders, the Secre- 
 tary is authorized to issue five per 
 cent, interest-bearing bonds. This in- 
 creases tlie annual interest on the 
 public debt twenty millions of dollars. 
 
 To this whole policy we stand op- 
 posed, believing it will result most 
 disastrously to business. We say stop 
 the further contraction of the curren- 
 cy, retire the Kutional Bank notes and 
 put legiil-tenders in their stead — -make 
 them equal to the wants of trade, and 
 bring about specie resumption grad- 
 ually and through appreciation of the 
 value of the currency '''by promoting 
 and not desti'oying the business inter- 
 ests of the pe(jple." 
 
 To meet this plain, straight-forward, 
 common-sense declaration of our plat- 
 form, we hear but little denunciation. 
 Our opponents are evidently mad and 
 in a fair way for destruction on the 
 second Tuesday of October. 
 
 "Financial lunacy," "heresy," 
 "worthless rag-money," "repudiation," 
 they cry. But no new doctrine has 
 been proclaimed. Ever since the in- 
 stitution of the National Bank system 
 we have steadily and uniformly op- 
 posed it as a useless and oppressive 
 monopoly. Long ago we have ex- 
 pressed our unqualified preference for 
 the legal-tenders over the National 
 Bank notes. The Democratic Na- 
 tional Convention of 18G8 did this in 
 the language of: — 
 
 " One currency for the Government ynd 
 the people, the lal)orer and the office-holder 
 the pensioner and the soldier, ihe producer 
 and the bond holder." 
 
 The Democratic State Convention 
 of Ohio, in 1870, declared : 
 
 "That we are opposed to the system of 
 National Banks, and demand the immediate 
 repeal of the law creating them, and tliat iu 
 the place of the not"S of such banks Treas- 
 ury notes of the United States should be 
 substituted." 
 
 The declaration of the party last 
 year was equally emphatic, yet the 
 platform of 1875 alone is reserved 
 
 and singled out for special attack and 
 denunciation. I would commend to 
 our traducers a little less petulance, 
 and a litile more political honesty. 
 
 But the volume of currency! 
 There stalks the spectre! "Equal 
 to the wants of trade," snys the Dem- 
 ocratic filatform. Who will say it. 
 should be less? A few y ars ago this 
 was not deemed "heresy" in the esti- 
 mation of either party in Ohio. In 
 1868, when we had far more currency 
 than to-day, the Ohio Republican 
 C.onventi.)n bohily proclaimed as a _ 
 part of its faith : 
 
 "That we heartily approve of the policy 
 of Congress in stopping the contraction of 
 the currency, and we believe that the issue 
 of the currency should be commensurate 
 with the individual and commercial inter- 
 ests of the country." 
 
 Democrats then took no issue on 
 this question, believing, as they did, 
 in the manifest wisdom of the declara- 
 tion, and to-day they insist only upon 
 the like reasonable demand that the 
 currency shall be "equal to the wants 
 of trade." If this be "heresy" now, 
 when did the Republicans learn it? 
 In changing front since 1868, have 
 they acted from reason and conviction, 
 or are they simply dancing to the 
 pipings of the money power? 
 
 But it is said this policy will inflate 
 the curi^encyand depreciate its value. 
 There is no inflation in enough cur- 
 rency More is not demanded. That 
 much the people are entitled to have. 
 The value may be appreciated with- 
 out diminishing the quantity. The 
 discount upon paper or premuim upon 
 gold is not giaduated in strict accord- 
 ance with the volume of the currency. 
 It depends upon a multitude of other 
 circumstances — political and c dnmer- 
 cial — such as the state of })eace or 
 war — the stability of the Nation and 
 the condition of trade and commerce. 
 In the first quarter of 1865, during 
 the progress of the war, the premium 
 on gold rose as high as $2,345, and in 
 the second quarter of the same year, 
 after the pr.>clamation of peace, it fell 
 as low as $1.281 — the volume of cur- 
 rency remaining the same. And while 
 
5 
 
 in time of peace the premium fell in 
 1805 to S1.28g, \l ruse in 18(J8 to 
 $1.50, iiotwithstaiidiiig the currency 
 had been c.)ntiactc<l, in the meantime, 
 more than eight hundred millions of 
 dollars. Since the passage of the 
 Specie Resumption Act of last winter, 
 the volume of curnncy has decreased 
 some seventeen millions, yet the pre- 
 mium on gold has gone up from \2 to 
 17 per cent. Tlie unfavorable state 
 of exchange and high price of gold 
 in England took place even belore 
 the suspension of sj)ecie payments, or 
 any excess of the issue of bunk notes. 
 A mere increase of amount does not 
 imply decrease of value. 
 
 of course there mu;t be reasonable 
 limits. There is a medium in all 
 things. That -wise course we intend 
 to pursue. The adjustment of the 
 amount to these reasonable limits is 
 left to such measures as the wisdom of 
 the future may devise. Whether ii 
 shall be by an interchangeable bond, 
 a gold reserve, or other method, and 
 what shall be the exact character of 
 these future issues, whether they shall 
 be made redeemable at a spircitied 
 time or by a spec. tied fund, or whether 
 they shall be exempt from taxation, 
 and t e like, 1 need not now stop to 
 discuss. 
 
 The original or abstract question of 
 the desirableness of a specie basis tor 
 the circulation is not presented in the 
 present canvass. VVe are not com- 
 bating that theory. The position of 
 the Democracy does not imply that 
 they have lost faith in a mixed cur- 
 rency of coin and paper with specie 
 as a basis. 
 
 But the follies and crimes of Re- 
 publican legislation and administra- 
 tive policy have rendered such a ba.-is 
 impo^sd^le at the present time or near 
 future, except through the ruin of all 
 business. VV'e are dealing with an 
 abnormal state of affairs. Let it not 
 be torgotten, that Republican finan- 
 ciering has given us a depreciated 
 paper currency — a fabulous indebted- 
 ness, and has driven gold from our 
 shores. It is to this diseased condi- 
 tion of the body politic that we are 
 
 called upon to administer. Physicians 
 tell us it is good therapeutics to "so- 
 ber up" <:radually the patient who lias 
 been long intoxicated. So it is sound 
 statesmanship to return gradually and 
 with cautious steps to the specie stand- 
 ard after we have been lung doing 
 busine.ss upon an inflated currency. 
 
 A large paper currency is now au 
 admitted necessity. And until gold 
 can be both procured and kept by a 
 revival of business, trade and com- 
 merce, that currency must rest upon 
 credit as a basis. A ^^ational 'J'read- 
 ury note meets the requirement. But 
 our opponents say it is worthless " rag 
 money." What Democrat wi>uld have 
 dared this stigma a few years ago? 
 Stiaightway he would have been sent 
 to Fort Warren or the Dry 'loitngas 
 for disloyalty. How comes it with 
 Repulilieans now that to denounce the 
 greenbacks as ' rags" is the highest 
 test of loyalty and financ.al wisdom ? 
 Is it true that the greenbacks are 
 " worthless?" For thirteen years they 
 have been good enough to purchase 
 all the prudnctsof the larm, the shop 
 and the manufactory, to pay the debts 
 of individuals and the States, and the 
 bounties and pensions of the sokiiers 
 and sailors who imperiled their lives 
 for tlieir country. 
 
 They are at a slight di-count, to be 
 sure. But why? Not because the 
 people hav^e not confidence in them, 
 but because the Government itself 
 dishonors th»^m. It has prohibited 
 their use in the payment or customs 
 and interest upon the public debt. 
 The English bunk note is receivable 
 for all public dues. It is nut made 
 thus receivable so much because it is 
 at par with gold as that it is at par 
 because so receivable. The green bueks 
 co.-t no annual interest to float them — 
 and they rest for their scturity upon 
 the creilit of a great, wealthy and en- 
 during nation. The same credit which 
 gives Value to the bonds and National 
 Bank notes, gives value to greenbacks. 
 Is credit to be regarded as nothing? 
 Individuals and nations throughout 
 the civilized world do and must trans- 
 act business upon credit. Upon what 
 
G 
 
 does tlie " specie basis" rest except 
 credit? It is the chief conier-stoue 
 of that fabric. The coin in reserve 
 is never equal to more tlian a small 
 per cent, of the circulation. Thirty- 
 three f)er cent, is a large average, it 
 proceeds upon the theory that in the 
 ordinary transaction of business not 
 more than that amount of notes will 
 be presented for redemption at any 
 one time. The business, therefoi'e, 
 rests one-third upon specie and two- 
 thirds upon credit. When financial 
 revolutions come, and the holders of 
 notes grow apprehensive, when credit 
 is weakenc'l or lost, there is a simul- 
 taneous call upon the banks for re- 
 demption, and the inevitable result is 
 suspension of payment When, dur- 
 ing her wars, to stimulate enlistments, 
 the English nation gave out that the 
 fit els of the enemy were hovering in 
 her waters, the alarm of the subjects 
 did not induce them to Hock to the 
 standard as was expected — but to rush 
 to the banks and convert their bills 
 into specie. Immediate suspension 
 followed. The great bullion bank of 
 Amsterdam transacted business of 
 over lour billions a year, yet it never 
 held at any one time over thirty five 
 millions of coin. Its real basis was 
 the credit of the city of Amsterdam. 
 The baidi. was insolvent, and but for 
 the credit of the city would have sus- 
 pended forty years before it did. In 
 1857, and at all former times or' finan- 
 cial embarrassment in the United 
 States, the specie in the banks has 
 been wholly inadequate to protect the 
 note-holder. While credit is so im- 
 portant a factor of security on the 
 "specie basis," it will not do to ignore 
 its value as a basis for the greenback. 
 Especially is this so when it comes in 
 that highest type of the good faith 
 and ability of a great nation like ours, 
 representing forty millions of people 
 and thirty l)illions of accumulaied 
 wealth. I see no good reason, there- 
 fore, why greenbacks should not be 
 substituted for the National Bank 
 Inotes, the present volume of which 
 jcosts us twenty millions a year to 
 float. 
 
 Btit I desire to call attention to an- 
 other matter. N()tably an)ong the 
 many misrepresentations of our op- 
 ponents stands the denial of any con- 
 traction of the currency. Senator 
 Sherman in his speech at Marion, 
 Lawrence county, on the 31st of July, 
 said: 
 
 "Sometimes it is said that tlie recent panic 
 was caused by a want of currency. This 'is 
 a great error. In September, 1873, wben tlie 
 panic commenced, the araopnt of United 
 Stales notes outstanding was S356,000,000, of 
 fractional currency 145,000,000, and Ihe bank 
 circulation $339,000,000 -in all «7 10.000,000, or 
 more than it had ever been before." 
 
 This statement we hear every day, 
 and it is utterly failacjious. It is based 
 upon the assumption that the United 
 States notes, JNaiional Bank notes 
 and fractional currency have consti- 
 tuted the whole volume of currency. 
 The fact is, they embraced only a 
 part Other issues far greater iu 
 amount than the aggregate of the 
 United States notes, iSlational Bank 
 notes and fractional currency, were 
 in existence in I8t)5 at the close of 
 the war. 
 
 The Secretary of the Treasury, in 
 the Finance Report of 1867. pages 3 
 and 4, names the ibllowing amount of 
 issues on the 31st day of August, '(35: 
 Temporary loans, #107,148,713 ; cer- 
 tificates of indebtedness, $85,09.3,000 ; 
 five per cent, legal-tender notes, $'So,- 
 954,230; compound interest legal- 
 tender notei, $217,024,100; seven- 
 thirty notes, $830,000,000; United 
 States notes (legal- tender), $433, 160,- 
 569 ; fractional currencv, $26,344,- 
 742— making $l,732,72o,414. To 
 this must, be added the National Bank 
 notes at that time, $131,452,000 and 
 State b.mk notes at lea.^t $100,000,- 
 00(>, giving a grand total of $1,963,- 
 677,414, as the circulating medium, 
 exclusive of specie. But it is claimed 
 that these interest- bearing notes — the 
 five per cent, compound interest and 
 seven-thirties — were not used as cur- 
 rency. When Judge Bright, of 
 Tennessee, had the floor in the dis- 
 cussion of this question in the House 
 at the first session of last Congress, 
 Ml'. Towuseud, of Pennsylvania, in- 
 
terrupted him, and denied that these 
 issue-^ were used as currency, and as- 
 serted that they were hehl as invest- 
 ments Whereupon, Mr. Maynard, 
 of Tennessee, a Republican, and 
 Chairman of the Committee on Bank- 
 ing and Currency, said : 
 
 '•If my colleague will allow me, I will sug. 
 gest to the gentleman from Penasj'lvania 
 (Mr Townsend) that those issues of which 
 he speaks were engraved and prepared in a 
 form to circulate as money; and as a matter 
 of fact they did so circulate until the inter- 
 est accumulated so as to inake them superior 
 to the ordinary class of currency, and they 
 formed part of the reserve of the National 
 Banks." 
 
 Speaking of she seven-thirty notes, 
 the Secretiirv of the Treasury, in his 
 report for 1865, says : 
 
 "Many of the small denominations of 
 which were in circulation as money, and all 
 of which tend in some measure to swell the 
 inflation " 
 
 And in speaking of the five per 
 cent and compound interest notes, 
 the Secretary, in his report for 1867, 
 says : 
 
 "A very large portion of which were in 
 circulation as money." 
 
 It is settled, therefore, heyond ques- 
 tion, that these interest-bearing notes 
 were used as rtirrency, and they 
 amounted to $1 ,080 884',7?!0— not one 
 dollar of which did Senator Sherman 
 inchide in his estimate. 
 
 In 1865, the policy of contraction 
 was inaucrurated. It was recommend- 
 ed hy the Secrerary of the Treasury, 
 sanetioned by Congress, and immedi- 
 ately put into execution. In the Fi- 
 nance Report of 1867, the Secretary 
 gives a summary of two years' opera- 
 tions as follows : 
 
 "Since the fir.st day of September, 1865, the 
 temporary loans, the certificates of indebt 
 edness, and thw five per cent, notes have aU 
 been paid (with the exception of small 
 amounts of each not presented for pay- 
 menti. Compound interest notes have been 
 reduced from ?2]7,024,160 to $71,875,000 (#11,- 
 660,000 having been taken up with three per 
 cent certificates); the seven and thiee-tenth 
 notes from J830,000,000 to 1337,978,800; the Uni 
 ted States notes, including fractional cur- 
 rency, flom d59,505,311.51 to 5387,871,477.39, 
 and the funded debt has been increased 
 1686,684,800." 
 
 Here we w^itness a contraction in 
 two years of $686,000,000. Under 
 its influence business grew sensitive. 
 Congress became alarmed, and on the 
 4th day of February, 1868, passed an 
 act prohibiting further contraction of 
 the currency. 
 
 Still the policy was pursued. In 
 his annual message of December, 1873, 
 the President says : 
 
 "During the last four years the currency 
 has been contracted directly, by the with- 
 drawal of three per cent, cert'ficaies, com- 
 pound interestnotes,andseven-thirly bonds 
 outstanding on the 4th o( March, 1869, all of 
 which took the place of legal-tenders in the 
 bank reserves, to the extent of «63,000,000." 
 
 Such is the evidence of the steps of 
 contraction. To determine the full 
 evtent to which it has been /-arried, 
 we must ascertain the amount of cur- 
 rencv we now liave. The Comptroller 
 of the Currency, in the Finance Re- 
 port of 1874,' pages 148 and 149, 
 shows that on the 1st day of Novem- 
 ber, 1874, th^re were outstanding of 
 National Rank notes, S?i48,791 ,1 52 ; < 
 legal-tenders, $:^82.000.000; fractional 
 cnrr^ncv, $48,151,024, making in all 
 $778,042,176; and the Secretary of 
 the Trensurv, in the same report, 
 pages 36 and 37, give* the amount of 
 the temporary loans, $78,560 ; certifi- 
 cates of indebtedness, $5,000 ; com- 
 ftound interest notes, $415,210. seven- 
 thirty notes $228,450, which aL'-irre- 
 crate only $727,220. This, ndde.j to 
 the $778,942,176. makes $779,669,- 
 396 as the total pafer circulating 
 medium of every character whatso- 
 ever. Rut of this sum, as appears 
 bv the Finance Report of 1874. page 
 135, $104,528,003 is required to be 
 held in le<:al-tenders as reserves in 
 National Banks. 
 
 AVhat, then, is the summary ? 
 
 On the 31st of August, 1865 $1,963,677,414 
 
 On the l.st of November, 1874 779,609,396 
 
 Amount of contraction $1,184,008,018 
 
 Total paper circulation Novem- 
 ber 1, 1874 1:779.069 396 
 
 Deduct legal tender reserves 104,528,093 
 
 Present available circulation $676,141,303 
 
 With all this acrumuhition of evi- 
 dence fioiu the hiuhorit official sources 
 
r 
 
 LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 
 
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 — from the declarations and exhibits 
 of Presidpnt. Secretary of the Treas- 
 ury and Comptroller of the Currency, 
 is it not remarkable audacity to deny 
 the fact and t(j assail the Democratic 
 party of Ohio for asserting in their 
 platform that there had been a cim- 
 traction of the currency? That con- 
 tiaetion is most clearly established. 
 With its consequences you are all 
 familiar in the blighting and bla.-ting 
 of your industries. However much 
 men may differ as to the desii'ableness 
 of a specie basis, there should be but 
 one opinion as to the injustice and 
 ruin of the financial policy which has 
 obtained for the last ten years. A 
 rapid transition from paper to gold — 
 fluctuation in the circulation — must 
 of necessity unsettle business and lead 
 to bankru toy. All history teaches 
 this Apprehensions of such calamity 
 were entertained when the policy of 
 contraction began, and the Secretary 
 of the Treasury in 1867 congratulated 
 the country upon the fact that while 
 
 credit bridged over the intervening 
 period, but the fatal elements had 
 been summoned, and at last burst 
 forth in all their fury, sweeping away 
 the fortunes of thousands of men and 
 spi'eading disaster throughout the 
 country. With all the uses of money 
 extended, with thousands of miles of 
 additional railroads, with a National 
 debt of over two billions, with other 
 indebtedness — State, county, munici- 
 pal, corporate and individual — of 
 some seven billions more, with dlimit- 
 able territory, with over forty millions 
 of population, with ten billions of art- 
 nual exchaiig.'able products, and with 
 all business adjusted to the gauge of 
 nearly two thousand millions of cir- 
 culation, we have been forced by a 
 single step and almost instan- 
 taneously to a limit of available cir- 
 culation of less than seven hundred 
 millions. Depreciation of values, loss, 
 and suffering, must inevitably be en- 
 tailed by such a course, and we should 
 not think it strange that all ourchan- 
 
 si.K hundred and eighty-six millions i nels of trade are stagn mt. Stop this 
 
 had been taken up and retired, there 
 had been "no commercial crisis," 
 and "no considerable financial em- 
 barrassment" But that period of 
 supposed security and prosperity was 
 delusive — it was the calm which pre- 
 ceded the storm of 1873. Faith and 
 
 further contraction, ad give us once 
 more I'Cal government in the States, 
 honesty and economy in the public 
 service, and a conservative financial 
 policy, w th currency sufficient for the 
 wants of business, and we shall again 
 attain peace, prosperity and plenty. 
 
 Ohio Statesman Print, Columbus, O. 
 
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