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XXV.

ADDRESS ON THE FINANCES.

O nation can go to war without money. It has been called the "sinews of war."

"Which will conquer, the North or the South?" asked a gentleman of one of the Rothschilds at the breaking out of the Rebellion,

"The North." "Why?"

"She has the most money."

It was the statement of a great financier who understood the power of money, and that the South would be soonest exhausted. A war disturbs financial relations, and all governments sooner or later, during a long-continued war, must issue promises to pay. In every country there is always trouble about such promises, as to how and when they shall be paid. Upon no subject have men been so much at sea as upon the finances since the close of the Rebellion. General Garfield is one of the few members of Congress whose views have been clear from the outset. He has given expression to them many times, in Congress and upon the platform. It is conceded by his friends that no abler speech has been made upon the financial question than

one delivered in Faneuil Hall, Boston, September 10th, 1878, on Honest Money. It is a speech which the historian will turn to in the future, for it goes to the bottom of things.

To-day," said General Garfield, "in the foreground, is the financial question. To this I invite your consideration. And this great question has its two faces. One of them looks back to the war out of which it sprung; the other looks forward to the future of the people and to their interests, and the system of finance that settles the issue rightly will respect all the past and provide for the future. The finances of the war, fellow-citizens, can be summed up in a sentence. While the nation went out into all our homes and laid its strong hand upon our bravest and best, and took them into the field to die, if need be, it went out to all the people, and laid the heavy hand of taxation upon them to support and maintain the war. It went to all, rich and poor alike, and asked for contributions to maintain the war. At that time the man who helped the Government with his means was regarded almost equal in honor to those who helped with their lives. If you will read the record of that legislation, if you will read the record of events in the messages of our President, you will find them everywhere praising the patriotism of the citizens that came forward with their money and helped the Government. In 1864, President Lincoln said in one of his messages: 'It is a most gratifying fact that of eighteen hundred millions loaned to the Government of the United States, almost every

dollar has been loaned by citizens.' And he congratulated himself that so many comparatively poor people had put their mite into the loan to help the Government; and he went so far as to suggest in the message to which I refer, that there should be a law in the States for the exemption of a certain amount of bonds in the hands of poor people from seizure for debt, in order that the patriotism they have exhibited in these loans shall not be lost by the hard hand of suffering that may be laid upon them. I recall these facts, be cause we are so apt to forget the events of fourteen years ago. But taxes and loans, great as they were, were insufficient to supply the enormous demands of war.

"When the officers of the Government found they could not borrow money fast enough, in their extremity and distress they took a step the American nation had never taken before since the Constitution was formed. They took the step of forcing a loan upon the people, to meet the immediate emergencies of the war. I want to call your attention to the remarkable fact, that when they took that step in 1862, there are not now known to have been ten men on this continent who did not believe that paper money should be redeemable in coin at the will of the holder. That was a nation of thirty-one millions of Americans. Whatever has occurred since to change the minds of men has occurred within sixteen years. Now let us take that as the basis of the discussion to-night. No man ever understood better than they thought they understood the danger that step led to. The President of the United States that glorious man, so filled with love

for all that is good and true and patriotic

this issue of paper money.

deplored

"Every senator and representative in Congress deplored the necessity that compelled them to abandon, for the time being, the ground of acknowledged safety, and issue a paper that could not be at all times exchangeable for coin. Both President and Congress sought earnestly to avoid the known dangers of such a step.

"In the first act that authorized the issue of greenbacks, they limited the amount, and provided for funding them in a coin bond. Later, when an additional issue was unavoidable, they made it a fundamental condition that the volume should never exceed four hundred millions, and fifty millions additional, for redeeming a temporary loan.

"That Pledge stands in our Law to-day-as yet unbroken, and covers, with its high sanctions, every outstanding greenback. That was not all. They firmly anchored themselves to coin by providing in the same bill that created the greenbacks that all our revenues from customs should be received in coin and laid away, to be held for paying the interest on our debt, and the bonds issued in connection with that, to redeem and take up the greenback currency as soon as possible. Let it not be forgotten that this was the basis on which the men of 1862 started out.

"But another element was added. The men of 1862 saw that the two thousand State banks were bound by no tie of immediate interest to aid the nation; and they sought to bring them to the help of the Government,

and at the same time to preserve those instrumentalities by which the supply of currency should be determined by the law of supply and demand. To meet both these objects, President Lincoln, in his message of December, 1862, recommended the organization of national banks. He declared that such banks would greatly aid the public credit, and 'would at once protect labor against the evils of a vicious currency.' These were Lincoln's words in recommending the National Banking System.

"Great as were the tasks undertaken by him and his associates, they did not claim wisdom enough to regulate the inexorable laws of value and of trade.

"And here, fellow-citizens, let me pause long enough to consider a phrase much used in the political discussion of the day a statement that we want a currency large enough to meet the wants of trade. We do. I concur in that statement. But will any man here tell me what the wants of trade are? Is there any man in America wise enough to measure the wants of trade and tell just how much currency is needed? Who forgets the infinite difficulty to find a man with brain. enough and resource enough to feed an army and to clothe it and to house it? Its house is of the rudest only a piece of cloth; its clothing is of the simplest, and its food is a definitely prescribed ration. But it is considered worthy of the glory of one glorious life to be able to feed and clothe and house an army of a hundred thousand men. Now, fellow-citizens, suppose somebody should offer to take the contract of feeding, clothing, and housing Boston and its suburbs, includ