Con.Gr.Essional· Record-House. August 9
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5368 CON.GR.ESSIONAL· RECORD-HOUSE. AUGUST 9, Congress and the President have continued ever since to unite in act8 ~on, ~d the ~bjection to ~hat date is a hinderance to resumption, and the construe. tion.will be g1ven, and Wl~h some dej!reo of plausibility at ]eagt, that the demo to prevent resumptio?· If Congress bas done it, who is responsiblef cratic party want resllDlption earlier than the day fixed. (Applause.) Is the ~enate responsible 1 We sent to the House a bill that would have lowered your rate of interest on the large mass of the public Such was the statement made by General Ewing at the time. Hear debt 1t per cent. per annum. What attention did they pay to itT the answer of Mr. Dorsheimer: None whatever. What bill have they introduced to carry out the Mr. DORSHEDmB. I d? not. propose to speak upon this matter at length. I pro recommendation of General Grant or Governor Tilden f Where is the pose J;Iere to make a straight 1ssoe between soft and hard money. · [T'rememlous act introdt;ICed in the J:Iouse of Representatives t? accumulate gold cheenng.) By that we ~t.and or fall. [Cheers.) If yon want soft money gi.V'e your yotes to tl~e resolution offered by the most distingoisheu soft. money ~dvo or to provide for fundrng7 None; and now I will tell you why it ca.te m the Uruted St.ates. [Cheers and hisses.) Bot if you want to le:t>e to was not done in the Senate. It was because we knew it would tend the hard-money J?len some chance. to carry thei1· State, then stand by tho re to prevent the introduction of such a bill in the House. I say that port of th~comnnttee, [cheers,] whwh was a compromise so great thnt n. protest such a bill funding United States notes int.o a4 per cent. coin bond was has been ~1gned by every ono of the ens tern democratic States, and to wbich I have pot m~ s1g!latore. [Chee~s . I Here is a milldle gronnd which does leavo some not reported, such a one as we reported in the Senate in 1870, because hop~; out if you declare, u;t the language of the gentleman from Ohio, [Gener:\1 we believed the passage of it in the Senate might tend to defeat it in Ewmg,) for a repeal forthWith, then abandon all your hopes. [Cheers.) ~be ~ouse. We could fairly infer tlJis, because our passage of a fund mg btll to redeem 6 per cent. bonus with 4t bonds by a unanimous No one can read this debate that occurred in the Saint Louis con vote was ignored by the House. I can tell my friend from Delaware vention without perceiving at once that this la t clause was a trick that I couM convince him that we were just.ifi.ed in that belief. a d~vice, w:ith a double meaning, intended to be nsed in tlifl'erent Mr. BAYARD. Every man must act on his own responsibility. sectwn~ With that double meaning. In Ohio and in the \Vestern Mr. SHERMAN. Governor Tilden anaigns.Congress for not in States It would be held.that the rep~a~ of the resumption clause was troducing a bill to provide for funding. He arraigns his own party. ~repeal of th~ resumptwn act, and It 18 alrea~y being so done, while One would Ruppose, in reading this letter of his, that he was arraign m Ne~ York It ~ould be held that the repeal of the resumption clause ing the republicans. Sir, the power has passed from us to the other wa-s smrply to w1pe out of the way a hinderance to resumption, so 1,hat House. We had power in Congress for only six weeks after the resumptwn could come sooner; and this double-dealing is plainly shown by the phraseology of the pl:l.nk itself and by the debate that resn~ptiou act passed, and the democratic House bas had the power for mue months to pass such an act, and yet Governor Tilden arraigns occurred there. Mr. Dorsheimer said: "We have given you all we ca.n or dare do, and ~ve have adopt-ed this phraseology as a compro t~e President for doing what be advises, and in so doing he arraigns h1s own party, the uemocratic House, for not introducing such a mise and ~here ~e w11l stand." ~eneral. Ewing might put his own proposition as he promises, as he favors, or says he favors. Thus we constructiOn on It and :Mr. Dorsheuner nnght put his and this i the have t.he actual fact of a democratic House, representing the demo thimble-rigging manipulation in the presence of th~ people of the cratic masses, showing what they intend to do when they have the United States on a. question that so deeply affects them· we know foil power of this Government, and the mere empty, bald, scolding that will be the result. Governor Tilden's letter the whdle tenor of it, shows a careful balancing of words. He conned and parsed over for wor~ of the presid~ntial candida.te, chosen ~y that party, as to what he w:-n trJ:' to do If Congress wtll .allow h1m to do it. Why, Mr. more than a month words that when you read them one way mean President, It does seem to me that It presents the candidate for the so, and when you read them another way mean otherwise. It was Presidency on the democratic ticket in a very awkward position ca~efully studied. Trained as he is in the school of Mr. Van Buren, arraigning his own democratic associates. ' or m the school o! that greater statesman, Talleyrand, who believed I wish now, Mr. President, to call your aUention specially to the last that wo~ds were mvented to conceal thoughts, the language is care fully weighed and framed so that it. will read well in Indiana and paragraph o~ this pl~nk in f.he democratic platform, which I charge well in New York, bea.ring a different interpretation wherever it is he!e and whiC~ I wtll J?OW prove was an. afterthought .inserted in read, according to the humor and whim of the man who reads it. But this plan.k.agam~t t. b~ wislJes of GovernorT1lden; against his desire as a poh.tiCal tnck mtendrd to carry an election; that he was op Governor Hendricks states distinctly in a letter which was pub posed to It, and yet he devotes nearly one-half of his written letter lished why ~e wants the resumption clause repea1ecl by the House of m -t:r"Ying to convince somebody that tixing a day for resumption was Representatives. He wrote to a Representative in Washington that a. hmderance to resumption. I have read in the Star this evenincr a "a repeal of the resumption clause in almost any form will elect the little paragraph which paraphrases the letter of Governor Tild~n State ticket and carry the Indianapolis district." It was the election in ver.y well. It is the. logic of a bummer applying to his promises the Indiana and in the Indianapolis district which caosed the House after logtc of Governor Til(lcn as to the promises of the United States in eight month.s ?f weary study~ng and doubt to finally tremblingly send · the resumption act: to us a provLSIOn to repeal a smgle clause of the act, and now when you read the act without that clause it is very hard to tell what efi'ect "I have it," remarked an impecunious bummer on the Avenue Saturday pans· that action of the House if adopted would have upon the meaning ~gin~ p~rnsal of TilJen's letter., "I know how to make 'thoughtful m~n ' be· heve I m gomg to pay my debts. Ill take back my specific promises to pay 'em. of the act. That'll fix it. Why the d-1 didn't I think o' that~ These promises o' mine de· Mr. EDMUNDS. If the Senator will yield I move that the Senate s~y_a~ confidence runong thoughtful men, whose judgment will at last sway pub adjourn. · · lic op1mon. .An attempt to act on such promises would be afresh calamity prolific ~ir. DA. VIS. I should like to ask a question before we adjourn. of confusion, distrust, and distress. Yes, sir; that's been my great financial fail. ore-a mak.in' promises." D1d I understand the Senator from Ohio to say that between June 30, 1865, and J nne 30, 1876, the reduction of the debt was $500 000 000! Mr. Tilden believe8 that the best way to keep a promise is to with Mr. SHERMAN. Over 500,000,000. I have given the exact figures. draw it. These notes are outstanding now with a. law upon our stat And then, on motion of Mr. EDMUNDS, (at ten o'clock and fifteen ute-book that yon will redeem them at a certain time. The best way minutes p. m.) the Senate adjourned. is to withdraw that promise! That is his logic; and this, in order to secure confidence, not for the note but for the maker of the note the man who withdraws the promise! ' I proceed t{) show you, :Mr. President, by a reference· to the pro ceedings of. the convention in Saint Louis, that when the friends of Governor Tllden went there they went determined to carry the plank HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.