The Montrose Democrat. (Montrose, Pa.) 1849-1876, February 04, 1868, Image 1
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'; ,, .._ .. .f. : _ V $... ‘ 3 j.„ . . - -, Z. , . . , A !Cell•C.W l .7 F 4 S'... • 7 . • •.••'• % . • y •-• A, ~,., IF '-'`g I :Zc s, i L1.41 1 - • • . .' -'4 I ....111.1 • . • . . A. J. GERRITSON, Debt and Currency of the Cotintry 13.1= 1 . .115 Ct MX, OF Hon. Geo.W.Woodward, DELI/BRED IN THE HOUSE OF ERPEESEN- TA.TTVES, JAN. 18, 1868. Mr. Chairman : I have somewhat to submit on the debt and currency of the country. When I found myself elected to this Fortieth Congress, 1 felt, and all I saw'and beard tended to confirm the im pression, that the financial condition of the country-was the subject most worthy to engage the attention of a Representa tive sincerely desirous of relieving the in dustry of his constituents from the bur dens and embarrassments that were weighing it down. But the subject was many-sided, and in its details quite complex and intricate ; and, besides, it lay out of the line of stu dies to which my life had been devoted. I felt, therefore,_more sensibly than ever before, the wantbf aguiding band to con duct me through_these unfamiliar mazes of finance. I looked around for an oracle, and I found so many, and beard such dis cordant responses, that instead of being enlightened and guided, I was bewilder ed and puzzled. I doubt if the builders of Babel understood each other sp badly as the men who, through newspapers, magazines and pamphlets, have discussed the fiscal affairs of the country. ' A few weeks ago:a public letter from a distinguished source, marking out a finan cial policy, was extensively read, which an intelligent friend in the eastern part of the Slate of Pennsylvania very earnestly commended to my attention as a wise and comprehensive statement of what was best for us ; and about the same time a friend of equal intelligence in the - western part of the State wrote me to express his,sad ness at the exhibition of mental imbecili ty which the author of that letter had pre ,en ted. This illustrates the contrariety -f opinion which prevails in regard tri:e.v. ..ry scheme of finance that is proposed.— And when I came into this House and lis ;nee) to honorable members, I found the aame diversity of opinion at prevailed outside. A former Ho use, „with s:ngular unanimity, approved of the policy et' the secretary of the Treasury for contracting ii,e volume of paper money; this House suspended contraction. We repeated the tav on cotton ; the Senate virtually re stores it. Some gentlemen insist.de pay :,g the five twenty bonds in greenbacks; ~ ttiers would postpone it. " to the last syl. aide of recorded time." The national ;,,anks are praised and abased as thewis est and worstof institutions. Tariffs.and :ax I#s are made and altered until they become so unwieldy as to defy the best efforts to execute them. Public loans are proposed to consolidate our debt at the same time we are impairing the public credit. And thus we flounder on, con founding and confounded, darkening counsel with words, and setting and ad hering to no stable policy. Lcsiw, sir, in the tuilfst of all this jargon and discord of opinion, I know of no wig.. er course than to recur to certain great first principles which are either universal ly confessed to be true, or which can be easily defended. This in necessary , in nll seasons of denbt. The storm-tossed mar iner corrects his reckonings by the meri dian nue, the mathematician, when lost in the labyrinths of the differential calculus recurs to the axioms and first principles of his science ; and though in moral and political science we have not the same simple and sure standards of truth to ap peal to, yet the habit of frequent recur rence to fundamental principles is as necessary and wise in these departments of knowledge as in the more exact' scien ces. If lam incapable of, seeing how a .particular line of policy is going to affect the business of the country, and ani,there fore, unable tajudge of it by its fruits and consequences, I con bring it to the test of certain great and well ascertained truths upon which our political fabric is built, and if it will not bear .!that• will reject it, however ;=promising its pro posed results, or however Speciolls and plausible the reasoning by which it Is sup ported. , ' . What I proposoto-day is simply to eittr up the pure minds of the:. House to a re membrance of some of the principles of political economy and .of constitutional law in connection with the financial condi tion of the country. I have no scheme of finance to propose. The great political party with which I have the honor to act m out of power end is unableto carry out policy, if it should mark one out never so plainly. When Abo responsibility - of administering the -government is again laid upon the shoulders of that party, as it no doubt will be 'next year , it will be mon enough to develop the line of policy upon which the party shall. move. Mean while the ,responsibility feats upon the RepubliCan party under whose adminis tration the public debt, from about $BO,- 000,000 in 1860, grew in five years to the enormous sum of $2,757,889,59; 43. Ac cording to the report of the Secretary of the Treasury this debt had been reduced on the Ist of Noyember to $262V•02,- 48 02. This may be taken asthe agre-. gate of the pnblie debt` ...as,,avertainek itttled and regletered upon the books of rym:~.~oe~~~~;c:;:ir;`>~~v:.;~-:.-s.~.,:-~arT-__--`"'s~:.'~zaa:~a:~__ _-.x ; ~ ~~:n.;:z .::,.- ~;~_:;~s:s~~..:.:~s:...~{~...~....:~:. the TrcasUry , Departraent, but it does not inclttde numerous, claims upon the Gov ernmentt growing.out of the war, which are as yet unadjusted and insusceptible of even 'an r 'appioxirtiate estimate.• While some:of these , Claims hie ex horbitant; un reasonable, and ,- dishonest, many are doubtless equitable:and just, and such as the cooscieuee of the country will ulti mately acknowledge. Whatever the ag gregate of these claims may be, it will, by - sotntieh, swell the public debt beyond the big figures which now express it. The annual interest we pay on this debt in gold is $143,781,591 91. This was the sum the Secretary stated we paid during . the fiscal year ending' June 30, 1867, but for the quarter ending Septewber 30, 1867, the interest on' the: public debt was stated at $38,515,640 , 47, indicating con siderable increase of interest, if not of debt, for the'current year. Although the debts of some of the principal governments of Europe exceed the aggregate , of our registered debt, the people of this country pay annually a Jar. I ger itecrest • than is extorted from the peoplOof Great, Britain, France, Russia, Austria or Prussia, and a t.um nearly twice as large as was required for all the annual purposes ofthe government before 1860. Yes, sir, the men of this generation grew up:under an-2111MM expenditure by the government, to support the civil list, the army and navy, the pension list, internal ' improvements, and all the other objects to which appropriationswere made, of half the'sum which is required now to defray the single, item of interest. And then di rect taxation was unknown. Now the the land swarms,,with tax gatherers, who eat up the substance of the people like lo custs. The estimates for the War and Nervy departments and the civil list for ; 1868 is $182,000,000, which is more than five times as much as the actual cost of the same service ,in 1860. That the people should be restive and uneasy under such extraordinary burdens i s not t o be wonder e d at. Nor is it strange that this monstrous debt depresses indus tryland enterprise. It rests like au ineu- bus upon the labor of the people, and it' it iS . ever paid : their labor must pay it ; fur, , thongli , lsbor not the only source of val- ' ue (time, place,and circumstances may all : lie sources) yet it is the great, the chief : source ofall individual and nationalwealth ' It, is fasliiOnable'to dis'course largely cn , the wonderful 're''Ffllireeg of this country;' and it is•true, indeed, that a bonntifnl Providence has given us a vast extent of ferti'e lands, and inexhanstable minera's that match the wr,ealtlisif all the world be- I sides, but what are all these resources ex- ! cept as the hand of labor cultivates and develops them ? • The fertile fields, if the farmer plows them not, the rich minerals, if the miner digs them - not. will never pay a dollar of tits debt. .1 want to emphasize this tho't. I would have the government and all its creditors realize bow entirely they depend on the producing classes of the country, the laborer, whether he tills the soil, or delves in mines, or toils in shops and fac tories. 'Even gold itself derives its value from-the labor necessary to produce it.— Were it as common as stones, and as-eas ily picked up, it would , be no more valua ble than stones. And then see what a load of debt we have laid on labor! It has to bear municipal and State taxation, support and educate children,. build up homes and construct highways; and , yet the Federal govefnment taxes the citi zen higher than either' England 'or France tax their 'subjects. 1 have seen a compar ative stitement,of t our taxes and those of England and France for the fiscal year 1866, reckoning both in our currency, as follows: English taxes, $0,09 per et. on - valuation. U. S. taxes, 3,93 " tt English taxer, $10,92 per capita. French taxes, 7,97 per capita. United States taxer, 16,90 per capita. Thus it appears, sir, that we have, in the last few years; outgone the principal nations of the Old World in charging in dustry with annual interest and in impos ing general taxes upon our people. In 7 years we. have built a pyramid of debt like that which it took them more than seven 'Mildred years to rear. And now, the party , 'under Whose administration these burdens have fallen upon the peo ple, have restingbpob them the responsi bility of devising , , measures of relief. To their wisdoni and statesmanship the country has aright to look for such reas onable and practical measures as shall in crease revenues while they lighten taxes, and shall stimulate and .reward industry and enterprise. I,3nt those of us who bave been sent here by Democratic constitu encies 'are bound to contribute our best cohnsels to the dominant party. ' We have no tight to say to the Republicans, your seetionalTrinciples and policy brought on secession and war, and overwhelmed the countrjrwith debt and taxation, and now, without our help, extricate the couhtr r y as'best yon may,-from the diffie.ultiew into which yoir brought it. However just, Such imiguagothight be by a-party out of power when addressed to a party in pow er, &alba ugh' who" are - Placed" in respon sible positions, though they May belong , tos party that is out of power, are bound to Ovise, and-ciouniet, and Waropaceord, ing to their ability, for the good of all MONTROSE, PA.., TUESDAY, ,FEB. 4, 1868 parties and of the whole country. They have no right to fold their arms and let the ship of State drift to destruction be cause they are not at the helm. if they see dangers ahead they are obliged to point them out, and then, if the dominant party will persist in running us upon rocks and sh9ala, all that can be done is for die masters of the crew to throw them overboard and restore the ship to those who have safely guided it through many storms and dangers. In discharge of my personal duty I proceed, therefore, to point out certain general views and prin ciples which ought never to be lost sight of by those who have the power to give shape to public measures—general views and principles upon which the public debt and its incidents and consequences ought to be treated. And first, the public debt should not be regarded as a permanent future, to de scend to posterity, but should be put in process of liquidation, so as to be paid off or reduced within manageable propor tions during the present generation. The author of all mischief never inven ted a, worse falsehood than the saying that a national debt is a national blessing. Debt is no more a blessing to a nation than to an individual, and most of us know how it oppresses the individual man, cramping his energies, depressing his am bition, and virtually making him a slave, if not of his creditor, of his circumstan ces. "The rich ruled, over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender." However congenial a great national debt may be to monarchical institutions which rest upon the principles of primo geniture and an hereditary aristocracy, no representative and popular Govern ment like ours can be truly independent beneath such a load of debt as has been piled upon us. Why, sir, at this moment we are restrained from buying territorial additions, and from exploring the extent of the precious metals in the public do. main, and from other necessary and ad vantageous expenditures, by the presence of this debt. It stands like a hideous spectre in the path of our progress. And suppose we had to resent a national af front, or vindicate a national right, by war; suppose, for example, what is quite supposable, that to compel European na tions to respect the doctrine of expatria tion, upon which our system of naturali zation is built, we would find it expedi ent to adopt a belligerent policy, would not this debt tend to make us timid, ob sequious, self sacrificing? I fear it would make some politicians Crook the preg,nant hinges of the knee, Where thrift may fullow fawning." I have said, sir, that if the debt he ev er paid labor must pay it ; but to enable labor to do its work it must have the as asistance of capital; and capital, habitual ly timid, is scared away from enterprises of pith and moment by this overshadow ing cloud. At this moment every indus trial interest in the country languishes, and every look out into the future dis courages both capital and labor. Be tween capital and labor there is, natural ly, not only no antagonism, but a strong elective aflit.ity, which, if undisturbed by repelling forces, will draw them into har monious co operation. A national debt is the worst of all repellingforces. In Eng land and France individual wealth may be invested in public funds without mate rial injury to labor, because the Govern ment becomes the employer of labor and dispenses the wealth which is lent to it; but with ns the Governinent is and ought to be confined to its appropriate functions as a political power, and can engage in no internal improvements or public works, which are not necessary for common de fense or ordinary governmental purposes. All the wealth, therefore, which the Gov ernment concentrates in public loans is so much withdrawn from the common avoca tions of life and from the rewards of labor. When, as in the instance before us, a sys tem of banking is based upon the Govern ment bonds and the Government ab stracts from the labor of the country a gold interest to pay to the bankers, who sell it at a premium and divide the profits among themselves, the public debt be comes a peculiar curse to the people. The only currency which the banks furnish the people is a depreciated paper curren cy, which has the effect of enhancing the price of all the necessaries they consume, while they return to the banks a coin in terest to swell the profits of these favor ed corporations. But a more comprehensive objection to a permanent public debt is its consolida ting power. This is strikingly illustrated in England, where, under the operation of their public debt and their system of in testacy, an aristocracy has 'grown up which possesses most of the wealth of the country and controls its legislation. This moneyed aristocracy has grbtind the mill ions down into abject poverty. Dwelling itself in mansions of regal splendor, it has sent labor to eat its scant meal and sleep its hard sleep in small and mean cottages, sometimes made of mnd, and often with no roof but a thatch and no floor but the ground. 11l smothered discontent and often Open outbreaks of popular passions have been the consequences of the false relation that exists between capital and. labor in,that:zonotry. Hence the neces sity for a standing army, an ulna pPlicei and a hireling constabulary to keep the pecple'in order and to enable capital to wring the last drop of sweat from the brow Of industry. All this, I repeat, may be well enough fbr a monarchy, but let not otir'bithple i✓epublican institutions fall under thevontrol of moneyed aristocra cy, else the people of this country will share the fate of their kindred in the mother country. Everything which:tends to a consolidation 'of money power, or po litical power, is inimical to the principles and genius of our American liberty. Our system of intestacy is one of the best in stitutions of the country, for it diffuses the accumulated wealth of families ; but charters of incorporation avoid and defeat the operation of the intestate laws. When we see a vast array of banks, based upon a great public debt, and rapidly accumu lating wealth, while the people at large are embarrassed to pay their taxes, we may well take alarm and conclude that if we would preserve and perpetuate repub lican institutions we must get rid of that debt. Ido not propose to pay the debt at once. It is too big to be wiped•out sud denly, but we can place ourselves upon sound principles, which, if steadily adher ed to, will extinguish the debt within the lifetime of living men. And the moment the world sees that we have adopted a system of finance that shall be based upon the world's measure of values, that we have begun to retrench expenses in ear nest, that we have levied such reasonable taxes as can be collected, and that we consider no debt paid until it is redeemed in gold and silver, our debt, great as it. is, will, for all practical purposes, disappear. It will be virtually paid from that hour. My next observation is that Govern ment bonds ought to be taxed as bonds. The text of several of the acts of Con grees under which they were issued ex empts from State and municipal taxation, but not from taxation for the purposes of the Federal Government. The income deprived from them by our own citizens is, I believe, included in taxable incomes, but as distinct forms of propert y they have escaped taxation, while all other forms of property have been laid under contribution to pay interest on these very bonds, aad to support the Government, which gives them all the value they pos sess. This is not equitable or just. But it will be said these bonds were placed in the market and sold with the understanding, express or tacit, that they were not, to be taxed. Sir, the taxing power is vested in Congress as a trust for the people, to be exercised for their pro tection and benefit, but not to be aliened, mortgaged, or given away. No former .Congress could take the taxing power away from this or any other future Con gress. The dead cannot bind the living. This Congress assembled with all its con stitutional functions and powers unim paired by what former Congresses or Treasury agents bad said or done in re spect of the taxing power. "Congress shall have power to levy and collect tax es," says the Constitution, and td argue that we have not this power, because of what our-predecessors did, is to make the Constitution repealable by an act of Con gress or a Treasury circular. The taxing power is the vital breath in the nostrils of the Government. if it may be suspended in respect of one form of property, it may in respect of all other forms of property, and thus be extinguished, which would be suicide of the Government. But if the power exists, it may be ill faith, a sort of repudiation to exercise it. Not so. The public credit& knows what the legislative powers of the Government are when he lends his money, and he takes the risk of a constitutional exercise of those powers. Salaries are fixed by law as solemnly as these bonds promise to pay, and judicial salaries are protected from diminution by the Constitution, yet the Government does not, hesitate to tax salaries, and nobody reproaches it with. repudiation. The fact is, all forms of property, whether they be houses and lands, stocks, bonds, or offices enjoy gov ernmental protection, and theretore owe the correlative duty of support to the Government. This is the principle upon which the foreign bond holder can be justly taxed. His property, so far as it is invested in bonds, is here-to be protected and defended by our Government. What be holds in his strong box across the ocean is only the title deed, the evidence and sign of the thiug signified. The sub stance is here in onr hands, to be guar ded, preserved, and returned; and as all these are governmental duties, whatever and whoever enjoys governmental protec tion is bound to contribute to the support of Government. Nor will there be any expensive - machinery necessary to collect. this tax, for it can be deducted from each coupon as it falls due, and go directly to the relief of the Treasury. It wilt tend also to .equalize end render uniform all public burdens, and thus take away the irritating contrast that is now presented between ,: Government bonds and other forms of property the invidious discrimi nation between bond holders and tax payers in general. My third observation is, that we shoyld fix a time for the , restinption -of Specie payments, first, of all gunaktti:'itesiceeding - twenty-dollars and a more distort day for all tithetqb , Ttie fatiafififglitif this now by a declaratory act would be to give the country notice to prepare for specie payments, and such is the elastici ty and adaptability of our people that they could, with ample notice, prepare for thiS return to our normal condition 'without material sacrifice or inconveni ence. The proposition includes,of course the repeal of so much of the act of Con gress of 25th February, 1862, and of sub sequent'acts, as made Treasury notes le gal tenders in payment of debts. By the act of 1862 $150,000,000 were authorized, and by subsequent acts some five hundred and fifty millions more—making an ag gregate of some seven hundred millions of irredeemable notes that were made legal tenders in payment of debt. How many of these notes have been issued and are still outstanding I am unable to ascertain from the official reports, but they entered at once into the circulation of the country, and were used to pay off all debti that had matured. Ground rents and mort gages were paid off to a vast extent in Pennsylvania—debtors hunting their creditors as keenly as, in other circum stances, creditors pursue debtors. As these notes have not averaged in value more than from sixty Ito seventy cents in the dollar, and yet were made legal ten ders at par, it is apparent that the debt or who used them saved a third of his debt and his creditor lost it. And yet all the debts of the country, except such as stipulated for payment in specific articles, were contracted on the specie basis, and were redeemable, before these acts of Congress were passed in nothing but gold and silver coins. If these coins were ex pressly stipulated for in the contract, of course the legal Obligation existed to ren der them, but if they were not expressly stipulated for the creditor had a right to demand them, for nothing else was a legal tender. When Congress created another legal tender, worth only two thirds as much as that upon the faith of which con tracts bad been made, they tempted every debtor to use the cheaper and baser cur rency to pay his debts, and they annihila ted a third of the debts of the country. If any man would measure the sacrifice and•havoc of private rights which this legislation has caused let him inquire into the aggregate of debts public and private, State; municipal, corporate and individu al, that have been extinguished by green backs, and a full third of that aggregate may be regarded as lost to the' country, confiscated, annihilated. And now it is proposed to pay off the five twenty bonds, which bear a six per cent. interest in coin, with these green backs that bear no interest, and it is ar gued that the text of the act of 1962 authorizes this to be done.. I believe this suggestion originated with Mr. Pendle ton, of Ohio, but it has found an able de fender in this House in the person of the member from Massachusetts,' [Mr. But ler.] The gentleman from Ohio [Mr.Ca ry] also favors the suggestion, and indeed he seems to think greenbacks are a better currency than gold and silver. The gen tleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Butler] is not faithful to the cause ho as espous ed when he admits that the indebtedness of the Government, antecedent to the act of 1802, must be paid in coin, and the rea son he gives, to wit : That that indebted ness was contracted on the specie basis, would have applied to the millions of pri vate and corporation debts that have been paid in greenbacks. Does not the honor able gentleman know that the courts have decided that the act of 1862, the first le gal tender law, applies to all antecedent debts, public and private, even those ex pressed to be payable in coin ? Interest on the public bonds and deities are the on ly exceptions mentioned in the act. All other debts, public and private, are with in its sweep. And though 'loans created by subsequent acts, which stipulated for coin, would not be within the operation of the legal tender acts, these prior loans, which the gentleman so carefully excepts, would be, if we take the acts, as we are bound to tape them, according to the ju dicial interpretation they have received. The question, then, is a somewhat lar ger one than the honorable gentleman seemed to suppose. It is no less than this ' whether not only all the Eve twenties but all prior loans shall be paid in greenbacks? Obviously the interest on these bonds can not be so paid, for the bet of 1862, in es tablishing the paper legal tender, express ly saves interest on Government bonds. This item of interest, being expressly ex cepted out of the enacting clause, cannot be paid in greenbacks and must be paid in coin. Bet as to the principal of all bonds except those issued under acts of Con gress subsequent to legal tender nets, the I question is, does the law authorize the payment of them in greenbacks ? This , question touches the $500,000,000 author- 1 ized by the act of 1802 and whatever had teen.authorized by prior acts, and it must be confessed that the phraseology of the act of 1862 favors the proposition to troika j them payable in greenbacks. It does not prescribe coin for any debts except inter est and duties, and it does make Treasury notes legal tenders -in payment of,' all claims and demands against the United States of every kind whatsoever," except for interest on bonds; and it declares also• that they a shall , be lawful money and a, /col , tea inliglytnen 6 or. all dabts tinb. lie and private within the United States, 11=Eiii VOLUME XXV, NUMBE44:7 except duties on imports add inteiejd aforesaid." It Congress had power to make sable an enactment most, certainly the holden of five twenty bonds, and , of previous bonds have no more right to complete that they are paid in greenbacks.than . ,all other private creditors bad, and, their complaints were unheeded. The words of the enactment are large and eompre' hensive enough to include these bondhol ders, and it is impossible to concerreofany equity they have, above other creditors, to be taken out of the enactment. The gentleman from Maine [Mr. Blaine] was at considerable trouble to show from our current history that the bonds were ne gotiated with the understandingthat they were to be redeemed in coin; but it has been well answered that the advertise• ments and circulars issued by , the Secre tary of the Treasury or any of - his agents cannot alter the tenor of the law upon the faith of which the botutt were, issued: That law was open to the purchaser of tbe bonds, and it must be presumed he pur chased subject to it. The gentleman from Ohio Nr. ICsry] has discovered, at length, that .the bond-. holders did not buy their bonds upon any ; high and patriotic motive, but simply as a speculation.' Then it is no hardship to treat them 'as we treat the soldier. who fought our battles, and the soldiees wid-- ow, the day laborer, and all the other most meritorious creditors of the. Gov,.-. ernment. So long, sir, as you will maintain. two legal tenders, or diverse values. I shall , vote for paying " all debts," not exptess. ly excepted, in the cbeapest of those:tea?. ders. If you will pay the most meritori- ous creditors of the Government in green- backs; they are good enough, in my judg• ment, for those bondholders whom the honorable gentleman from Ohio - Dlr. Ca..- rv] has found to be no more patriotio than other people. But, sir, Ido not believe thatCongress had any constitutional power to make greenbacks a leg al tender. I know the courts of last resort in several States have decided the act of 1862 to be constitution al, by a bare majority of judges, and the . Supreme Court of the United States have not yet passed upon the question. So far as the judicial mind of the cowry has been expressed upon the subject, ',con % fess myself bound to regard the act as constitutional, and would, therefore, ft.': the present vote fur applying it, to all debts, public and private, which are not excepted from its operation; but, believing it to be of evil example, destruCtive of that good faith which should belong to a:1 . contracts, violative of the ecnstitution-1 rights of citizens, and not within the dol. • egated 'powers which we are sent hero to exercise, I would wire all such stains out .. of our Aatute book. The effect of repeal ing that bad legislation would 110 - happy in many respects. It would take away the ugly question started by Mr. Pendle- , 7 ton and so fiercely discussed on this floor, because, instead of leveling the boodhol % der down to - the bther creditors, it would . 1 level the other creditors - tip-,to the band.. holder. It would bring us back to 'gold - and silier, the constitutional ..eurreney,. , which I was sorry to hear the honorable ' gentleman [Mr. Cary] sneer at hard money" and " the idol of the Democratic , : heart." It is hard, to be sure, hard to get and hard to keep, but while you keep it, it is so hard that it will not perish on your bands. That it is Democratic teen- ay is also true, beeause it is constitution- , al, and I need not tell so .intelligent a gentleman as my friend from Ohio that all things which are constitusional are democratic. And if we would repeal thiii law by easy stages, as I propose , _ it would occa-, sion the country no shock; while if it should happen to be knocked in the head in the Supreme Court, the multifarioue , interests that are bound up in it would for a time be greatly damaged. These are my reasons for suggesting immediate . steps for a gradnal repeal of a law that has done us more dishonor and injury than any other enactment of our day. I will not to day argue the constitution al question, but I wish to bring to the notice of the committee the collocation of the thoughts which led to the enactment .• of the legal tender law of 1862, as eon-- taiiied in the report of the Comptroller of ; the Currency, which has been . laid up,orl our desks. If gentlemen will look „into that report they will see that all the lest. ding members of both Rouses,plaped the, law, not upon the Constitution, but 'mon, " uncontrollable necessity," . " the unnsu..., al exigencies of the country," "necessity,. . ; not choke." Mr. Sherman, of Ohio, brolt out sharply the prevailing 'ithonitbkwhen he said, " The Senator frotn,Yern,iont,-, (Ur. Collamer,) whose, °Pluton, is certaini,L. ly entitled to the highest consideration, s , . and who supports it with au ..,able . argn ! ,, ment, contends, that this tneasuie, is an. .. constitutional. 'lnonfess" ho - adds, "ifl did not feel its necessity, I w ould shkehi myself behind his conviction iind.'vote against it," Not a voice seems to . been raised in behalf of the constitntion%b ality orthe measure, but the iseeessigea„ of the time, real or imagined o -kere mitfed Co set aside the Const4ation. gut+ '4 B- . l *li. the line 9 f #90 1 r4k.. Ifiet ~ioiirts,' a y e if necessity 'Were hig her yaw than the Constitution. I will not *Lite?