Funding for the digitization of this title was provided by the R.J. Taylor, Jr. Foundation in partnership with the Atlanta History Center.
About Weekly constitutionalist. (Augusta, Ga.) 185?-1877 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 8, 1875)
tocdilg CoaslitntKntt>. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1875. THE INSURRECTION. Legal Proceedings—A Crowded Court House—Lawyers Employed. ISpecial to the Ccnstltutlonalist.l Tennille, Ga., August 30. The Court House was densely crowd ed with whites and negroes. The law yers are: For the State—Attorney General Hammond, Solicitor General Bobison, W. H. Wylly, Esq., of Sanders ville, and Salem Dutcher, Esq., of Au gusta ; and for the defense—Ex-Unit ed States Attorney General Akerman, (who has not come), J. H. Gilmore, S. G. Jordan, E. S. Langmede, B. D. Evans and Thomas Evans, Esqrs., of Sanders ville, and J. M. Stubbs, Esq, of Lau rens county. Akerman appears for Cordy Harris and all not represented by the other attorneys. Nothing done beyond charging the grand jury. JUDGE JOHNSON’S CHARGE. Mr. Foreman and Genii'men of the Grand Jury ; Having been properly advised that a plot of insurrection, conceived and framed by; a portion of the black, for the indiscriminate murder of the white people of this and other counties, has been detected and exposed and that many have been arrested upon the charge of com plicity with the horrid design, I have called this special term, under the 3245 section of the Code of Georgia, for the purpose of a full Investigation and the trial of those against whom, if any, bills of indictment may be found by your body. Before enter ing upon the task before you, 1 will submit to you a few remarks which may enable you to perform it intelligibly and in the proper spirit. Under our Code (section 4315-6) you have the definition of insurrection ana the at tempt to incite Insurrection, as follows: “Insurrection shall consist in any combined resistance to the lawful authority of the State, with intent to the denial thereof, when the same is manifested, or intended to be manifested, by acts of violence,” and “any attempt, by persuasion or otherwise, to induce others to join in any combined resistance to the lawful authority of the State, shall constitute an attempt to Incite Insurrection.” Under the 4,317 th section of the Code, the penalty for either is declared to be death, unless the jury trying the ac count recommend him to mercy, and then the penalty is confinement in the peniten tiary not less than five nor more than twenty years. You perceive from these definitions that a single Individual cannot commit insurrection, The crime, from its very nature, requires the joint action of two or more. But one person can commit the crime of attempting to incite insurrec tion. The task before you is now to enquire diligently into the matter of this alleged insurrection in order to ascertain (1) wheth er there has, in fact, been any insurrection, or any attempt by any person to Incite in insurrection, and (2) to indict, by bill or presentment, such persons as you shall find to be implicated therein. It is import ant for you to know upon what testimony It will be your duty to find true bills or to make presentments. On this point let me impress you: First—That you are not authorized to find a true bill against, nor present, any one upon mere suspicion. You must be governed by proof. Secondly—That you are not authorized to find a true bill against, nor present, any one upon mere rumor or heresay testi mony. « The law presumes every one to be inno cent until ne is proven to be guilty, and the humblest as well as the highest citizen is entitled to the benefit of this presump tion. No one can be put in jeopardy of life or liability upon mere suspicion, or rumor, or heresay. But while I thus instruct you, you are not to infer that the law requires positive and irrefragible proof of guilt in order to justify you in finding a true bill against, or presenting, any one for the commission of crime. For it is not your province to try parties and decide finally upon their guilt or innocence. That responsibility is de volved by- law upon a petit jury. Investi gations before you are ex parte~ you hear but one side of the ease—that is, such tes timony only as may be produced by the prosecutor or informer. Hence itls impos sible for you to say whether a party is ac tually guilty or not. All you can ao is to find from the testimony before you, as a grand jury, you believe the accused to be guilty. In that case, it is your duty to find a true bill or to make presentment. So far from trying parties yourselves, It is for Sou to say whether they shall be tried. If le evidence adduced before you leads you to believe that the party is guilty you should find a “true bill,” or make present ment, and thus decide that the accused shall be put on trial; otherwise, you will find “no bill,” which simply means that the presumption of innocence in favor of the accused has not been removed or rebutted: that you do not believe he is guilty, and therefore he is not to be tried for the al leged offence. Now as to the amount of proof necessary to show a prime fact! case of guilt, I can give you no definite rule. Each case must stand upon the testimony, viewed in con nection with its attendant circumstances. But in all cases the proof must be sufficient to satisfy your consciences and judgments that the accused according to that evidence is guilty. On this point there is quite a conflict among the authorities. On the one hand it has been contended that the grand jury should be satisfied of the guilt of the defendant. On the other hand, it has been insisted that in case there be “probable evi dence the grand jury should find the bill, because it is but an accusation and the party is to be put upon his trial afterwards.” In my judgment, the safe and true rule is this: suppose you were a petit jury trying the defendant, if the evidence before you as a grand jury be such that if unexplained or uncontradicted you would find him guilty, then you should find a true bill. To this, as well as to all other questions, three kinds of evidence are applicable, to-wit: direct, circumstantial and presumptive. Di rect evidence is that which immediately points to the question in issue. Circum stantial evidence is that which only tends to establish the issue by proof of various facts sustained by their consistency with the hypothesis claimed. Presumptive evi dence consists of inferences drawn by human experience from the connection of cause and effect, and observation of human conduct. In applying these various kinds of testimony to the cases before you, you should first determine whether there is sufficient direct testimony, unexplained and uncontradicted, to show that the ac cused is guilty. If so, find a “true bill.” Or, if there be no direct evidence, or, if any, not enough, inquire whether there have been facts proved which by their consist ency with the hypothesis of guilt tend to establish the guilt of the accused, and sat isfy your consciences and judgments that according to such evidence, uncontradicted and unexplained, he is guilty. If so, you should find a “true bill.” Or, if there be no direct evidence, nor enough, in connection with the circumstantial, to make out a case of guilt, then inquire whether, from all the evidence, both direct and circumstantial, the necessary inferences drawn from hu man experience, from the connection of cause and effect, and the observations of human conduct, uncontradicted and unex plained, you are satisfied of theguiit of the accused. If so, you should find a “true bill.” On the other hand, if neither the di rect, nor the circumstantial, nor the pre sumptive, separately considered, nor all 1 these three kinds of evidence combined be sufficient to satisfy your consciences and judgments or the guilt of the accused, it will be your duty to return “no bill ” You have all served as Grand Jurors be fore this, and you have been instructed by the charge of Court as to your duti s.— Hence what I have said may be unneees bj view of the gravity of this occasion, and being animated with an ear nest anxiety for you to do what is right, I f©el constrained to impart to you these special Instructions that you may act un derstandingly. J And now, gentlemen, I will submit to you a few remarks in relation to the spirit and temper in which you should conduct your investigations. The phraseology of the oath you have just taken is pregnant with instruction. You have sworn that “you will not present any one from envy, hatred, or malice, nor leave any one unpresented from fear, favor or leward or the hope thereof, but that you will present all things trulyand as they come to your knowledge." This language addresses your moral sense and binds your consciences to the throne of eternal justice, wnilst, by it, you call upon the Supreme Being to witness the solemn obligation into which you have entered.— Then, the spirit that should animate you is that of strict impartiality and fearlessness. Ordinarily, this admonition would per haps be unnecessary. But the circum stances which have brought us together are well calculated to excite the indignation of the most prudent and self-possessed. It is impossible to contemplate with compla cency a plot for wholesale, indiscriminate and secret murder of one race by a part of the other race, which two constitute the elements of our social organization. It is difficult to suppress a feeling of vin dictive revenge against those charged with thus plotting bloodshed and slaugh ter. But you and I are here in a ju dicial capacity, to administer justice accor Hng to lair, and not according to human passions. We must not permit ourselves to be swayed In our conduct by any angry impulse, however natural; nor our judgment to be warped by the rumors which may have been circulated in refer ence to the alleged insurrection. We are sworn to impartiality; we are sworn to ex pel from our bosoms every feeling of ha tred, or malice, or revenge; we are sworn to be guided by the light of truth and to enforce the law just as it Is. Those who are alleged to have concocted this plot of insurrection are colored people, lately the slaves of the white race. This f .ct is calculated to inflame the indignation of the latter, and intensify their feeling of inse curity. But we must waich ourselves on this point. They are free, and entitle ito a fair and impartial trial. The law throws over both races the same and equal pro tection. Nor is this any new feature in our Code. It is not the fruit of emancipation. Even when they were slaves they were shielded by law, and could not be punished for violations of the criminal Code without a fair and impartial judicial trial. In this respect emancipation has conferred on them no new boon, nor imposed upon the whites any new obligation. Then, gentle men, in your investigations ignore the fact that the accused are negroes; ignore the fact that they were ever slaves. Deal with them as free, and as if they were white, and award to them their full legal right to your impartiality. Let it be our conscien tious resolve to afford them—that Is, those against whom, if any, you may find true bills or make presentments—a fair trial ac cording to that law of our State to which all are alike amenable. In every community—and, gentlemen, Washington county is not an exception— there is a considerable number of men who, under circumstances like those we are considering, are dlsposod to adopt extreme measures, and some will go even so far as to advocate summary punishment irre spective of the forms ana principles of law. Fortunately in this instance (and it should be recorded to the honor of this county, as well as of all the other connties embraced in the supposed insurrection) not a gun has been ft ed, not an act of cruelty or vi olence has beeu perpetrated by those who were to be the victims of the alleged plot. Such forbearance, under such circum stances. is perhaps without a parallel. It ought to acquit us of the untrue and un kind imputations by those to whom the facts are not known. But, gentlemen, I am now speaking of those among us (if there be such) who may feel impatient of the restraints of law, and who would coun sel extreme and summary action. They may disapprove of much that may be done here. They may complain if you should Ignore bills of indictment that may be preferred, or fail to present any who are supposed to be implicated. Remember that you are sworn to act without fear. Disregard outside influence and outside clamor. Shrink not from duty. Follow where truth and justice and law load, and time will vindicate your recti tude, and in the end your course will re ceive unanimous approval. Duty, impar tially performed, imparls consolation more precious than rubies; but disloyalty to truth and right leaves in the soul a sting that is akin to the “second death.” There i- another class of censors—not of us or amongst us—who impute the whole of this grave affair to the machinations of bad white men, who desire to bring about a collision between the races, that the whites may have a pretext for murdering the blacks. This is contradicted by the fact that throughout the whole affair not an act of violence has been perpetrated against a colored man. But Ido not allude to this calumny for the purpose of refuting it. The investigations on which you are about to enter will show whether or not it is a scheme concocted by white men for any such brutal purpose. But I refer to It to admonish you not to be influenced by it in anv wav or to any degree. Let it not ex cite your prejudice against the black race, nor incline y< u to shape your actions with a view of conciliating our maligners. Be firm and true to your duty. Ignore every consideration calcula ted to divert you from the path of Inflexi ble rectitude. The innocent should not be prosecuted, much less punished; but the guilty must take the consequences of their conduct. It is of the utmost importance that we adhere to the law—follow the law— conform to the forms and principles of law. The law is our sheet anchor. Its mission is to protect property, life and liberty. It guatds with flaming sword the hovel as well as the palace, and throws its tegis over the poor as well as the rich and the mighty. Without law anarchy and revolu tion must reign and society recede to the darkness and cruelty of barbarism. Its su premacy must be recognized and main tained ; and this implies not only the en forcement when violated but also a cheer ful obedience to it by all. Voluntary obe dience to wholesome laws is the very es sence of liberty, and vye/most distinguished characteristic of a gobd citizen, and their firm and impartial enforcement, when vio lated, by a pure and intelligent judiciary is the very essence of good government. Then, bowing before the majesty of the law, let us hold the scales of justice with steady hand and unfaltering purpose. A City Under the Sea. A Kingston (Jamaica) letter tells the fol lowing wonderful tale; In the latter end of the last century old Port Royal disap peared beneath the waves In an earth quake, leaving no other memorial behind than these few patches of reefs. In calm and clear evenings, when there is not a rip ple on the glassy surface of the sea, you may look down into fifteen fathoms of water and see submerged houses, towers and churches, with sharks swimming qui etly in and out of the open windows of their belfries. The work of centuries was destroyed in a few moments by one single convulsive throb of the thin film on which man has lived and speculated for ages past An American diving company, instigated in their enterprise by tales of untold wealth, buried beneath the sea by this sud den shock, rescued no treasures but the big bell suspended in the bell tower, and donated the same to the museum of the island, where it may be seen, with many guzzling inscriptions upon it, which nobody as as yet been able to decipher. 1 LETTER FROM ATLANTA. The Labor Question—Honest Work men vs. Convict Rivals —Civil Rights —The Republican Split—Gen. Gor don and the Mississippi Campaign- Dots. [From Our Regular Correspondent.] Atlanta, August 31, 1875. The city is considerably agitated j ust now over the question of labor. The issue is between the cheap labor of convicts and the honest labor of law abiding citizens. As the matter is of great interest to all, I will give you, in as concise a manner as possible, the cause of the trouble; Certain work, such as the necessary excavation for the new Court House, was given out to the lowest bidder. The lowest bidder was a contractor, a lessee from the State of a number of convicts, for which he pays st>o a year each. Expecting to perform this work with convict labor, this contractor took the job at a very low figure—a price, however, that would pay him a profit with his cheap labor ; but on putting his hands to work he was informed that that kind of labor was not wanted or would be allowed. Having con tracted to do the work, he was forced to procure other hands. In order to save himself from loss he was com pelled to offer only 85 cents per day. Then came the tug of war. It was hon est labor competing with convict labor, and it proved a nauseous dose even for the country freedman. On the first day of . the work only a few laborers could be found who would work for so small a sum.— The colored man and brother looked on with sheer disgust. It rather star tled him, and he wasn’t exactly pre pared for the shock. He had worked for four and five dollars a month in the country hoeing corn and cotton, but to come into town and have to work for the trifling sum of eighty-five cents a day was a sockdolager. He went to his boarding shanty and brooded over the matter. It was a case of work or steal, and the latter was by far the most tempting but for the risk. His friends congratulated him on his grit in refusing the eighty-five cents, and under this soothing balm he slept on his pine board with a dreamy sweet ness. Next day he went down to note developments. He found a few hunger spurred fellows at work. He gazed upon them, and the independent pic ture grew somewhat more pleasing. He thought he might try it himself next day, and sure enough next day he was found there with shovel in hand. That fraud all call pride had come down and he was earning honest bread. But the question is, shall convict la bor be brought in competition with honest labor? If yes, then the law abiding workmen must gather up his duds and migrate to foreign parts; if no, then the convict labor should be carried to mines and farms and rail roads. They should be carried outside the corporate limits of the city and kept from depriving the honest workman of his rights and his living. So much work requiring no skill has been and is yet to be done in the city that constant streams of negroes are pouring in and the cry is still they come. Farmers in adjacent counties complain terribly of their sudden exo dus, and say that their contracts have been violated in almost every instance. They say that rumor of Work in town can spread faster than a plague and is mightily nigh as disastrous, as the ne gro drops his hoe right in the middle of the field and scoots. All this from convict labor in town. lam glad, how ever, to state that bills are being framed for the consideration of the next Leg islature which will not only carry the evil (the evil-doers) out of th 6 city, but afford relief and protection for the un convicted and unsentenced laborers. ’Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished. Civil Rights. An evening paper charges Captain Jack White, late President of the Macon and Western Railroad with some ugly doings, and furthermore says he endeavored yesterday to procure sleeping car tickets for his children by a negro woman. The pa per in question calls it a dastardly out rage and calls upon the people of Pike county, wherein Capt. White lives, to oust him and mete out the penalty due miscegenationists. As the Captain is immensely wealthy and occupies a high social position, the public statement of his private didos will cause quite a flut ter. How Jack will make it all right with a certain bonnie lass remains to be seen. Lack-a-day! he who dances must pay the fiddler. The Attorneyship. No now developments since my last in regard to the District Attorneyship have been made except that it is sur mised that Capt. John Milledge will take Farrow’s place. On what his claims are predicated deponent kno weth not. Lochrane, John’s partner, says there is nothing In the rumor, but others, it seems, are quite sanguine.— Some how or other, Farrow will have to step out, and we are to have anew officer. The mail and wire are in ac tive use by partizans of hankerers for the posish, and it cannot be long before something definite is settled on. Gen. Gordon left for Mississippi Saturday. He goes to take part in the Congressional canvass in that State. As the Radi cals are running two sets of candidates in the same number of districts, besides being considerably demoralized, the General cannot be of much use. He can drink, with Lamar, to the success of the lucky Democrat and fill a bump er to the overthrow of the Radical party in that State —an event likely to occur. Pencilings. The Fulton County Pomological So ciety are packing fruit on ice to be pre served for exhibition at the October State Fair. Mr. E. W. Hack, of your city, was in town to-day. A great many burglaries in the night are committed hereabouts. The wily freedman, having had his summer’s laze, now takes advantage of the creep ing on of winter to add to his pile. The Water Works, by reason of bursting pipes, are not in successful operation as yet. Martha. MOVING EXTRAORDINARY. Two Hundred and Fifty Tons of Brick Wall Carried Eighteen Inches With out Unsettling. [New York World, 25th.] A new and interesting experiment in house-moving was successfully per formed yesterday morning at 116 West Twenty-fourth street, in the presence of a number of builders, General Dis trict Inspector Tallman and Inspector Mac Gloin, of the Department of Build ings. About a month ago the Society St. Vincent de Paul determined to build on the vaeant lots in the rear of their Twenty-third street building. A survey of the land being made, it was discovered that the wall of the five story brick livery stable adjoining oc cupied by S. C. Mott, encroached eighteen inches on their property. The owner was notified to re move the wall to the eastward, and Weeks & Brothers, builders, were authorized to tear it down and rebuild. Mr. Weeks did not like to pull down the wall, and hit upon a plan for mov ing it bodily, which he submitted to F. & S. E. Goodwin, house movers, and H. A. Chesner. The plan was ratified by the three firms, while other builders declared it could not be safely or suc cessfully carried out. Nowhere could be found in the history of building or house-moving an instance where a brick Wall had been detached from a build ing and moved. The wall was thirty seven years old, and built of second hand brick ; seventy feet high, about the same leDgth, sixteen inches wide at the base, and about twelve inches at the top. Its weight was 250 tons. Ten yellow pine timbers, 12x12 inches, planed on the upper surface, were let in horizontally under the wall at equal distances, just above the foundation, and at right angles to its face. “Nee dles,” builders call them. The upper surface of each needle was profusely greased, and a smaller needle planed surface down, inserted along each larger one. Spur-braces fixed at the foot in these upper timbers held the wall plumb. Ten jack-screws, working horizontally, were set at the ends on one side of the ten upper needles. This being done, an eigh teen-inch slice was taken off ver tically from the stable building just inside the wall. At 7 o’clock yesterday morning a man at each jack-screw be gan to work it, and the wall moved in an inch safely. “Go on!” said the boss with some little excitement, and this time one of the ten men did not work his rack as much ns the rest. The overseers were a little nervous at this, but the wall carried the lazy needle along with the rest. By 10 o’clock the 4,900 square feet of wall were pushed up tight against the open side of the stable, and the whole were perfectly plumb and unshaken. The men in the stable pursued their usual avocations during this performance, which at tracted a crowd of interested specta tors. A Hint to the Lean. —The cause of leanness, when there is no positive dis ease which produces it, is an imperfect assimilation of the food. The weight of the body undoubtedly bears a marked relation to, and increases pro portionately to its height, when it is properly nourished with flesh-making blood. Hence, when we see a tall per son with “slab” sides and hollow cheeks, we have a right to infer that his blood is thin and watery and his constitution delicate. Hostetter’s Sto mach Bitters is peculiarly serviceable to thin, delicate people, since it strength ens the digestive and assimilative or gans, and is consequently a powerful auxiliary in the blood manufacturing processes, which in a state of health ought to be, and are, thoroughly per formed. An increase of muscle, as well as fat, is a result of using this sov ereign anti-dyspeptic, appetizing and generally corrective cordial. aug3l-tuthsat&e Ague Conqueber —No Quinine, no Arsenic, no Poisons.— This is strong language, as Physicians and Chemists have for years tried to compound a preparation that would entirely cure Fever and Ague without the use of strong medicines such-as Quinine, Ar senic and other poisons injurious to the system. There is no case of Fever and Ague, Intermittent or Bilious Fe vers, Congestive Chills, Night Sweats, Liver Complaints, &c., that this remedy will not cure at once and permanently. It purifies the Blood, Liver, Spleens, and all secretory organs so effectually that the chills will not return during the season, even when persons have had them for years. Sold by F. A. Beall, M. E. Bowers and Barrett & Land, wholesale dealers. my7-dfeow&c-ly “Phoenix Brand” Pure White Lead. We offer the above Brand of White Lead to the public, with the positive assurance that it is perfectly pure, and will give one ounce in gold for every ounce of adulteration that it may be found to contain. Eckstein, Hills & Cos., Manufacturers, Cincinnati, O. Sold by W. H. Tutt & Remsen. aug2s-d&ctf Notice.— Consumers will consult their interest by bearing in mind that a large proportion of the article sold as Pure White Lead is adulterated to the extent of from 50 to 90 per cent., and much of it does not contain a particle of Lead. The Phoenix Brand Pure White Lead is the best. Sold by aug2sd&ctf Wj H. Tutt & Remsen. Take Notice. —Strictly Pure White Lead, Linseed Oils, Turpentine. Ready Mixed Paints of all Colors, Varnishes, Brushes, Window Glass and Putty, at lowest prices, at W. H. Tutt & Remsen’s. je2o-d&ctsepl3 Leeches. — Two hundred of the finest Swedish Leeches, just received at W. H. Tutt & Remsen’s je2o-d&ctsepl3 Landreth’s Turnip Seed. —All the varieties, fresh and pure, just received at W. H. Tutt & Remsen’s. julld&c-tf. Eureka.—California Water, for the toilet and bath, at jy2s-d&ctf W. H .Tutt & Remsen’s. —— Beautiful Toilet Sets —at very low prices, at W. H. Tutt & Remsen’s. jy2sd-d&etf PAPER TS. COIN. LEGAL TENDER NOTES. Letter from Wendell Phillips on Cur rency—" The People Stand Behind Them.” The following letter from Wendell Phillips has been addressed to Mr. Eu gene Beebe, Secretary of the Legal Tender Club. It gives in forcible lan guage that gentleman’s views on the delicate question of a circulating me dium, and will be read with interest by all who have money or want it: August 23,1875. Mr, Eugene Beebe, Secretary of the Le gal Tender Club: Dear Sip.—l appreciate the great im portance of your agitation to prevent further contraction of the currency, and am sorry I shall not be able to at tend your meeting in September. It It seems to me there are but two ques tions to be considered touching the currency: First—Upon what basis shall it rest ? Second—How much of it shall we have ? A long time ago there might have been a third—of what shall it be made, gold and silver or paper ? But the ex perience of business men long ago answered that inquiry it beyond recall, that througuofil; Christen dom the currency must be paper. It is idle to talk to-day of a specie basis. That gentle hallucination has been en oouraged to quiet timid men and de lude the masses. But the thing itself has not really existed for fifty or a hundred years. Great Britain, where, if anywhere, such a basis could be maintained, has to-day fifty cents of coin to SIOO of paper. (Patterson, Science of Finance, pp. 5,6, 27, 28,37, 38. Edinburgh, 1868.) Any individual may have that fifty cents, provided he does not need it, and provided there is no special reason why he should have it. If at any time his business absolutely requires that he should have that fifty cents of coin, at that time he cannot have it. A specie basis of fifty cents coin to support SIOO paper! It reminds me of that Irish six-bottle toper who always sat down to drink with a small bit of a straw berry at the bottom of his wine glass and kept it there through the evening —“ it gave so fine a flavor to the wine!” Doubtless that fifty cents coin gives a strong specie flavor to the vast system of British paper and makes Bull feel warm and comfortable. Political economy settles very few points by theorizing. Now and then experience decides a question, and it passes into accepted and undeniable truth. In this way business experience has decided that currency, in civilized and commercial nations, must rest on credit and consist of paper. Thus ex perience answers our first question; the currency does rest and must rest on credit. Whose shall that credit be? Shall it be the credit of banks and their customers or the credit of the nation? This question also experience has answered. Before the war we had banks resting each one on its own credit. We all remember the result. The bills of a bank ceased generally to be current a hundred miles from its counter. You lost ten per cent, in changing those of the South and West for Eastern bills; and Horace Greeley demurely told the committee who paid him a handful of Western bills, “If convenient, I should much prefer a well executed counterfeit on some Eastern bank.” What makes our national bank bills good, and equally good, every where to-day? The nation stands behind them. Such notes pass everywhere, and’everywhere at the same value, because the nation guarantees them. All the note cur rency we have rests on national credit, directly or indirectly. No man can give a reason why they should not all rest directly on national credit; why all bank bills should not be withdrawn and legal tenders supply their place. In building a house you do not put a platform between the house and its foundation. Certainly not. Your walls rest directly on your foundation. To day the nation pays the banks $20,000,- 000 or more to allow them to play the useless part of standing between it (the nation) and its own currency. Dr. Franklin’s hero, who asked his victim to pay for heating the poker, was a most reasonable person and a Solomon compared with ourselves in this mat ter. I have heard of an incompetent man put under guardianship and obliged to pay trustees liberally for taking care of his property, but I never heard of one put under guardianship and paying his guardian liberally and then obliged to do all his own business besides, which is exactly our case. We furnish the credit that supports these bank bills and then we pay the banks for using that credit. Bagehot, the highest authority in England, says the public takes Bank of England bills without inquiry or hesitation, because it knows that in any emergency the Government will sustain the bank. Here our bills pass because the Government is distinctly pledged to do >wo great com mercial centres have dinted into a cur rency based, in fact, on Government credit, and they deliberately accept the situation. Our first question—(On what shall our currency rest?)—is fully answered by facts. In commercial nations it rests, and must rest on Government credit. Second—How much currency shall we have? No single man, officer or institution can decide or ever did decide this ques tion. Currency made up of bank bills, deposits, notes, bills of exchange, &c., is like any other article of manufac ture—we make as much of it as we need. The business of a country, when not interfered with, always settles the amount of its currency. Business creates, everywhere and at all times, just such and just so much currency as it needs. Banks and secretaries of treasuries imagine they determine the amount of the currency. As well might I Old Probability claim that he de- ! termined the weather. He and they j only record what mightier forces do. Hats, shoes, wagons rails, cloths,! cotton, wheat—one year we want more the next year less—who decides ? The dealers in the article and the users of it. Does anybody advise going back to other days and having some bow'd of wiseacres decide how much wheat shall be planted and how much cotton, how many loaves or wagons made?’ No such dreamer obtrudes himself on the public. But thousands clamor for al lowing bank directors, and them alone, to settle the amount of the currency”. And they are allowed more control than any other agency. The New York City banks alone increased the cur rency $3,000,000 ($2,957,200) in one month, September, 1874, and decreased it _55,000,000 in one week of March, 1875. This aristocracy in the money manufacture is an odious monopoly, alien to our institutions and harmful to our prosperity. What should we say if 500 men and such friends as they chose were allowed to plant wheat and mine iron while every one else was for bidden ? Yet this is but another name for our present bank system. Let us cease, then, to have any plan either to en large or contract the currency. Let the Government stand ready to issue all the currency any business man wishes and can give good security for, at low interest and convertible into long bonds. If necessary, in order to conciliate existing prejudice, let the capital of these bonds, having, long terms to run, be payable in gold. Make greenbacks legal tender for all pur poses, customs and all Government dues included. There is every reason why this should be done. History is repeating Itself. England never knew more prosperous years than from 1800 to 1820, during which she neither had gold, nor wished to have it, nor promised to pay gold to any one what ever. All that while she extended and contracted her currency without any regard whatever to gold. Her enor mous trade and expenditures were all paper and only paper, resting on credit and nothing else. We had similar pros perity during the war and after, on the same terms. In 1820 England, yielding to theorists and dreamers, tried to put this new wine into old bottles, and dragged her business back to methods a century old—to specie. Bankruptcy, the very history of which makes the blood cold to-day, blighted the Empire. It took half a generation to recover from the mistake. No man can to-day begin to show that such suffering was necessary; that it achieved any good or that it effected any changes which could not have been as well made with out it. We entered that same valley of the shadow of death when, in 1865, McCulloch began contraction. We are hurrying fast to England’s 1820; property sunk to half its for mer value; the streets crowded with un employed men fast rotting into crimi nals; grass growing on the wharves, machinery rusting, wealth alarmed, poverty starving. Woe to the political party which the nation shall finally pronounce responsible for this fatal mistake! No previous merits will avail for its pardon. Its leaders will be buried in curses, as men whom neither history nor their own experience could make wise. We lament, as well as we may, the widespread corruption of business men and office-holders. But where such corruption in high places steals a dol lar, contraction—this well meaning ignorance of bullionists—robs the peo ple of thousands. If this generation is ever bankrupt, its bankruptcy will not be the work of knaves, but of honest men following a jack o’ lantern and dragging us to ruin. Yours, Wendell Phillips. FROM WASHINGTON. Payment of the Elgee Claims Ordered I —Naval News —Gold Transfers. Washington, September I.—Just be fore the adjournment of the Court of Claims, several months ago, an effort was made by certain parties to prevent the payment of the sum of $366,000, awarded in the Elgee cotton case claims. They represented by affidavit and otherwise that the cotton captured on the plantation of Elgee was not his private property, but belonged to the Confederate Government. These pa pers were submitted by the Secretary of the Treasury to the Attorney Gen eral for his opinion, which was given, to the effect that the statements were insufficient to bar payment of the award. Accordingly, arrangements are being made for the payment of the money, less SIOO,OOO, which, it is offi cially said, belongs to the Government, and is therefore retained. The Worcester sails from Fortress Monroe to-morrow, for Aspinwall, to look after American interests on the Isthmus. The Canandaigua has ar rived at Port Royal, from New Orleans. The Treasury Department was in formed, from San Francisco to-day that a little over $500,000 of the bullion fund in that city could be used in the business of coin transfer. Accordingly, Koontz Bros, of New York, get SIOO,- 000 for the Merchants’ Exchange Bank, of San Francisco; the First National Bank of Portland, Oregon, $50,000, and Drexel, Morgan & Cos., and Seligman, of New York, $400,000, to be apportion ed to parties in that city asking trans fers. The applications to-day were largely in excess of the means of ac commodation. The above arrange ment, however, does not exhaust the Government coin at San Francisco. Debt Statement. Decrease during the month, $1,500,- 000 ; in the treasury : coin, $71,025,000, currency, $4,525,000. Redemption of Bonds. The Treasury to-day issued calls for the redemption of $13,000,000 5-20 bonds of 1864, $8,000,oi()0 of which are on account of the sinking fund, and $500,000 on account of the act author izing the refunding of the national debt. Os the entire amount $7,250,000 are coupon and $5,750,000 are regis tered bonds. Interest on said bonds ceases Ist December. From St. Louis to Brazil. The Post Office Department to-day stated that the Mississippi Valley and Brazil Steamship Company propose to run a line of steam packets from St. Louis, Mo., to Brazil, in South America, and asking that the United States mail may be given to their line. The De partment will grant the request and send a mail by their steamers, allowing ocean rates of postage as a remunera tion. They expect to start the first steamer October Ist.
