[938] ask who was the first repudiator? The gentleman chooses to cite Mr. Chase as the promisor of this bad note. Be it so; I am dealing only with the indorser, William Pitt Fessenden. He indorsed it and acted upon it. By his decision the seven-thirty notes of 1861, issued when there was no other currency, were caused to be paid in greenbacks, and the gold-paying public creditor was obliged, for his gold paid to the government, either to take his pay in greenbacks or convert his government notes into bonds; and that whole loan was thus redeemed. And on what ground was this so great a wrong on the public creditors perpetrated? It was said by the secretary that this three-year seven-thirty gold loan was a temporary loan only. Oh, then, it is right to cheat the temporary creditors of the government; the hand-to-mouth men, who loan their hard coin for a few days to save the government; but the long-bond creditors of the government you must not cheat; you must let them cheat you. Is not that the proposition? Is there any escape from it? Is not that the Maine doctrine of finance, if you please? [Laughter.] My friend here from Maine [Mr. Blaine], following in the footsteps of the Secretary of the Treasury from Maine, holds it to be in the last degree wrong if we do not pay principal and interest of our debt in gold. He invokes us, in the name of national honor, national faith, and everything else that is sacred, to save the long-bond creditor, who bought our bonds for currency, while the short creditor, who paid for his notes in coin, has lost his gold by the action of the Secretary of the Treasury from Maine. We have had many things good from Maine--among others a “Maine law” --and now we have got Maine finance. I repudiate the last, and I am afraid my State has repudiated the other. [Laughter.]The next authority adduced by the gentleman in support of his contract to pay gold for the five-twenties bonds is Secretary McCulloch. Well, if this House proposes to be bound by the financial theories of Secretary McCulloch I should hardly wish to argue this question further. But even Secretary McCulloch does not undertake to say that there is a contract to pay gold for these bonds. When asked by a foreign banker, “What is the contract as to the payment of the principal of the five-twenties?” what does the secretary reply? Does he say that the contract is to pay in gold? Oh, no; he says that all the government obligations that have fallen due have been paid in gold (he forgot that temporary loan), and that it is the policy of the government to pay all its obligations in gold. I agree with him; such is the policy of the government. But that is not the question. The question is, what has the government contracted to do, and what is it able to do? I wish that we could pay this enormous debt in gold, or in anything else, so that we could relieve the people from taxation.
