Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 May 1878 — CONTRACTION. [ARTICLE]

CONTRACTION.

How Mnch Has There Been ?—lnquiry Fully Answered—The Lying Statements of a Pap-Fed Press Refitted—The People Robbed of Their Money to Enrich the Rondlords—Facts Taken from the Official Records. [Compiled from Toledo National and Indianapolis Snn.] In again making a correct statement of the volume of circulation in 1864, we are enabled to strengthen the view of the character of the 7-30 notes, com-pound-interest notes, treasury notes and certificates, which we have heretofore presented, with testimony of a very forcible kind. The amount of money in circulation Sept. 1, 1865, as taken from the official records (not from dictionaries or encyclopaedias), was as follows: United States notes $ 433,160,569 Nati anal-bank notes 185,000 000 State-bank notes 78,867,575 Fractional currency 26,844.742 Compound interest legal-tender notes 217,024 160 Temporary loan certificates 107,148,713 Certificates of indebtedness 85,093,000 Treasury 6 per cent, legal tenders 32,536,991 7-30 Treasury notes 830,000,000 Past-due legal tenders 1,603,020

Total Sept. 1, 1865 $1,996,678 770 Now for the proof that the different items of the above statement constituted a part of the currency at the time named. About the first four items there can be no dispute. That the 7-30 notes constituted a part of the currency at that time we submit the following testimony: 1. Hon. F. E. Spinner, then Treasurer of the United States, says: “ The 7-30 treasury notes were intended, prepared, issued and used as currency.” 2. President Grant, in his message of December, 1873, said: “ During the last four years (from ’69 to ’73) the currency has been contracted by the withdrawal of the 3 per cent, certificates, compound-interest notes and 7-30 bonds outstanding on the 4th of March, 1869, all of which took the place of legal tender in the bank reserves to the extent of $630,000,000.” 3. Hon. W. P. Fessenden, Secretary of the Treasury in 1864, in an official communication, says: “ This statement also shows the currency items operating to inflate prices as follows,” (And here follows a list of all the disputed items in our statement, including the 7-30 notes.) And Secretary Fessenden concludes with these words and figures: “Up to June 30, 1864, total inflation paper issued, $1,155,877,034.” (See Spaulding’s History of Legal Tender, p. 198.) 4. Hon. E. G. Spaulding, author of the “History of Legal Tender,” and Member of Congress in 1862-3 and for years afterward, in the above-named work says: “All of tho channels of circulation were well-filled up with greenback notes. Compound-interest notes, certificates of indebtedness, etc,, before the National-Bank act got fairly into operation.” 5. The following is the testimony of one of the members of a prominent New York firm, in response to a specific inquiry from the editor of the Inter Ocean, Chicago:

Office of Traphagen, Hunter & C 0.,) Nos. 398, 400 and 402 Bowery, - New York, Aug. 9. J Referring to your note of the Bth inst., asking if in my experience the “ so-called 7-30 treasury notes, did or did not circulate as money in the ordinary transactions of commerce,” I have to say that they did so circulate, and were received and paid with the same freedom as the greenbacks were, and to all intents and purposes formed a part of the circulating medium of the country. Chas. E. Hunter. 6. The following is the testimony of a gentleman of large experience as merchant, mannfacturer, banker and Member of Congress, elicited in the same manner as above : First National Bank,) Elizabeth, N. J., Aug. 12. / In compliance witn your request of the Bth inst., that 1 should define the relative position of the 7-30 treasury notes to the general volume of currency in 1865, I have to say that I was then daily in the habit of receiving and paying out the same in the conduct of my ordinary business, the same as greenbacks, and I esteemed their peculiar characteristics (being conducive to elasticity) as not only forming a currency but a currency of especial merit. Amos Clark.

We think this array of testimony with r< gard to the character and use made of the 7-30 notes as sufficient to convince any one less stupid than an ass, that they constituted a part of the currency. These 7-30 notes have all been converted into coin-bearing bonds, and most of them now lie in the vaults of the foreign Shylocks. With regard to the compound-interest notes, in addition to what is above adduced, we have only to say : 1. They were made a legal tender for the express purpose of qualifying them to pay debts and circulate as money. That is what legal tender means. 2. They did circulate among the people. There is scarcely a merchant who, if in business in 1865-6, did not handle them, receive them, and pay them out as money. The 5 per cent, certificates were also legal tender for the same purpose, were used in the same manner by the people and were so considered by officials of the Treasury Department, in their official communications. The latest official figures we have at hand in regard to the circulation are those given below: AMOUNT OF CIRCULATING MEDIUM SEPT. J, 1877. Greenbacks outstanding $ 358,040,097 National-bank notes 315,620,217 Fractional currency, including silver.. 39,172,114 Total Sept.' 1, 1877. $ 712,833,258 Contraction from Sept. 1,1865, to Sept. 1, 1877, (12 years) $1,283,845,412 In the face of the figures and testimony we have presented it seems impossible that any one should declare that there has been no contraction of the currency—but such declarations are made and we are required to meet them. And here is the other side of the picture which will show for whose benefit this systematic robbery of the people is being made: The bonded indebtedness of the United States on the 31st of October, 1865, was:

Six per cent, bonds $ 945,562,512 Five per cent, bonds 218.207,100 Total bonds $1,163,769,612 On which the yearly interest, the greater part of which was payable in legal-tender notes, and not in gold, was as follows: •On 6 per cent, bonds $56,733,750.72 On 5 per cent, bonds 10,910,355.00 Annual interest on bends $67,644,105.27 According to the public-debt statement for Aug. 31, 1877, the total bonded indebtness of the country was as follows : Six per cent, bonds $Bl4 341,050.00 Five per cent, bonds 703,266,650.00 Four-and-a-half per cent, bonds 185,000,000.00 Total $1,702,607,700.00 On which the-yearly interest is : On 6 per cent, bonds $48,860,463.00 On 5 per cent, bonds 35,163,332.00 On 4>tf per cent, bonds 9,325,000.00 Total $93,348,495.00 RECAPITULATION, Bonded indebtedness May 31, 1677. $1,692,064,750.00 Bonded indebtedness Oct. 31,1865.. 1,163,760.612.00 Increase in bonds since Oct. 31, 1865 $528,196,<08.00

Annual interest May 31, 1877 $93,120,219.50 Annual interest Oct, 31, 1865 67,544.105.72 Increase in nniniijijhr in I $25,476,106.78 Total increase iy bonded indebtedness from Oot. 11, 1865, to Aug. 31, 1877 538,938,088.00 Total increase of annual interest from Oct. 31, 1865, to Aug. 31, 1877.- 25,704,698.78 How any intelligent man, after reading the above, can fail in seeing and denouncing the infamous policy of contraction is what we cannot comprehend.