People's Pilot, Volume 6, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 July 1896 — MR. PEFFER SPEAKS. [ARTICLE]

MR. PEFFER SPEAKS.

CHARGES THAT BONDS WXRE ILLEGALLY USED. ■ Stand* for a Paper Money That Neerli No Redeemer And That Will He Good M Long a* the Republic Last*. - ■ ♦ i Senator Peffer addressed the seiia.s May 28 on thb Butler bond bill, and the following appeared in his remar..s: ‘’The discussion that has folio*.ed the introduction of the bill has tui.cn a very wide range. Silver in all us phases has been discussed ably. Gold monometallism has been treated with considerable ability. Both sides oi almost every economic question have been considered. But the only argument which has been presented in opposition to the passage of the bill was that of the senator from New York, Mr. Hill, which was that it is a populist measure. “It appears that the time has come in our history when in the American senate the merits of a measure are to be determined by the politics of the senator who proposes it. I ask if that is democracy, if that is republicanism, that because a senator who is the equal of all his colleagues introduces a bill trenching upon a particular line of party politics it must be discarded, it must be hounded and beaten and abused and ridiculed without touching the merits of the subject involved? “I assert, Mr. president, that in all of our eventful history no president before the year 1894 ever undertook to sell a government note or a government bond without express authority of congress before that time enacted. » • • “This bill has been treated Dy sena tors as if were the first of the kino ever proposed. But that is error. We -—and when I use the word ‘we’ I do not use it editorially, but I mean those of us who are charged with the paternity of bills of this kind —have not been derelict in our duty. The senator from North Carolina, Mr. Butler, coming here nearly two years after the bond-trading business began, very properly seized the first opportunity to press the subject on the attention of the senate, and it is greatly to his credit that he has been able to accomplish so much this soon. I allude to the matter only for the purpose of calling attention to the fact that early, even before the first sale was made, immediately, the next day after the proposition to sell was made, I offered a resolution reciting the facts and asserting as the sense of the senate that the whole proceeding was in violation of law. The next day I addressed the senate on the subject. A few days later the senator from Nebraska, Mr. Allen, delivered a forcible argument to show that such issue of bonds is illegal, and we have not lost an opportunity from that time until the present to denounce the whole proceeding as a grievous usurpation of power. * * * “Not only have the bonds been illegally issued, but there was no necessity for their issue, because there was an abundance of funds in the treasury at the time of the sale of the bonds to pay every debt that was due from the United States, whether we paid it in gold or in silver. There was an abundance of coin in the treasury with which tb redeem all the greenbacks which had been offered at that time, so that absolutely and positively no necessity for the issuance of bonds existed, except only to accommodate the speculators in New York and London.

In proof of that —it is not a mere idle assertion—l took occasion in a speech, delivered by me January 15 last, to collect the figures from the treasury. It appears that, beginning in 18 4 9 with $128,000,000, we go on down to 1894, when there was $154,000,006. In 1889 there was $229,000,000; in 1890, $249,000,000, the largest amount in any one year. Then we come down to the last of January, 1895, with $51,000,000. On the last of January, 1894, when the first of the last three issues was made, there was $65,000,000 of gold coin lying in the treasury. t “It may seem almost revolutionary,, and I have no doubt that if my good' friend the senator from Connecticut, Mr., Hawley, were here he would regard it as revolutionary, as infamous, and anarchistic, but I yet insist with fell candor, with all earnestness, and with a patriotic devotion which I do not believe any senator will doubt, that there was no other demand upon the treasury at. the time when the bond issues were made, except alone from the speculators in Wall street, New York, and their confreres in the city of London, on the other side 'of the Atlantic. I have asserted again and again that the United States gov-I eminent has been forced into partnership with these men, that we are in fact the silent partner. We are expected only to tax the people and raise the money that these men want. The only need that the government has for money is to pay its debts. We promised to pay our debts in coin, and I have shown by the figures that we had an abundance of coin to do it. * * ♦ “The only trouble— and the presi-> dent of the United States is right about it comes from the demand for gold, and it is not because the people of the United States demand gold—l mean the great body of the people of the country. They are not asking for gold. They care nothing about gold coin. Probably ninety-nine out of every hundred would be unable to distinguish at first sight between a quarter eagle and a half eagle In gold coin. The demand for gold comes from one

“stone-wall” before the assaults of ah who seek to destroy us. I again appeal to ypu to organize a legion in every precinct; and if the hosts desiring reform are gathered in and put to work at once we can yet succeed. You must sustain your newspapers, and “stand by each other though the whole world assail us.” I have issued this circular as a sacred duty to warn the rank and ’file, who have a right to know, that a wholesale attempt is being made to deliver us, bound hand and foot, to our bitterest enemies. We warn all honest, sincere men, in all parties, who earnestly desire free coinage and other reforms and hope for an honorable union, that the action proposed would prevent any union whatever. There is no hope of gaining any reform at the hands of either of the old parties, and we cordially invite, as we always have, all true men and women to unite with us to save the nation. Our doors have always been open, and we stand for principle. Fusion or entangling alliances with the debauched or corrupt democrat or republican parties would ruin us. We would lose our organization: our voters would be disheartened and dejected, and many of our papers would be compelled to suspend. The goldstandard democrats would go to the republicans and their nominee would be elected. We have constantly gained ever since our birth, and by our united stand we have divided and disintegrated both the old parties, until today republicans in the west and democrats in the south have to pretend to be populists in order to maintain their organization. There is no party in the nation that is so dominated by foreign influence as the democratic party, and their vote largely come from the saloons, dives and slums, and vicious and criminal classes, and it would be suicide for us to unite with them. We are in the supreme crisis of our history, and, if we all prove faithful, we will save our nation from destruction and gain a- “government of the

people, for the people, and Dy me people.” Our motto should be, “Organize and Educate,” and our best men and women must give their time to the work. Send at once for the papers, and don’t delay a day. Attend your primaries and conventions, and see to your delegates. I earnestly request all our editors, speakers and writers, men and women, each legion and elub, each delegate already elected, and the glorious rank and file, to write me what they think of the proposed union, and what would be the result. I refer the whole question to our party for their opinion and decision. PAUL VAN DERVGORT.