Is there not bad faith towards creditors, who are compelled to receive what is due in a depreciated currency?
Charles Sumner
The Public Record
Charles Sumner was an American lawyer and statesman who represented Massachusetts in the United States Senate from 1851 until his death in 1874. Before and during the American Civil War, he was a leading American advocate for the abolition of slavery, and after the war he was a key figure in the Reconstruction era, during which he and other Radical Republicans successfully fought to end slavery and ensure basic rights for Black Americans. He continued advocating for racial equality until his death, lobbying in his final days for a civil rights bill that served as a model for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Historians credit Sumner with coining the phrase "equality before the law," which he first used as part of an early attempt to integrate Boston's public school system.
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And just in proportion as this is so, you cannot doubt that we shall suffer alike in character and resources too; for what resource is greater to a nation or to an individual than a character for integrity?
But where shall this vast amount be obtained, and at what cost, when it is seen that we have already undertaken to authorize inconvertible paper as a tender?
And is it good economy to obtain the amount you seek by a policy which will create a disturbing impediment to all your efforts for the larger amounts soon to be required?
Some tell us that making Treasury notes a tender will be most beneficent; others insist that it will be dishonorable and pernicious.
Is not the difference between the currency which you recommend and the assignats just this, that the Government are bound to take back whatever they issue?--Precisely; and that makes all the difference.
Do you believe that the paper which you recommend would be, on the average, of the same value as the present bank-note, which is convertible into gold?--I think that very shortly it would be of a higher value than our present standard.
The pressure in 1797 was undoubtedly, to a considerable extent, connected with political alarm, with the fear of foreign invasion, causing an internal demand for the exchange of notes into coin.
Under such circumstances, there is no measure founded upon principle which can pretend to afford an adequate protection.
But from that view of the subject, again, there is an inference to be drawn of a very instructive and warning character, namely,--to make this Committee very cautious how they extend the issues upon securities.
Strong as we may be against any questionable currency, we must not be insensible to a possible limitation even of this just principle.
Much difference of opinion has existed with respect to the policy of the restriction in 1797; but, considering the peculiar circumstances under which it took place, its expediency seems abundantly obvious.
The run did not originate in any over-issue of bank paper, but grew entirely out of political causes.
So long as the alarms of invasion continued, it was clear that no bank paper immediately convertible into gold would remain in circulation.
And as the Bank, though possessed of ample funds, was without the means of instantly retiring her notes, she might, but for the interference of Government, have been obliged to stop payments,--an event, which, had it occurred, might have…
It is hard, very hard, to think that such a country, so powerful, so rich, and so beloved, should be compelled to adopt a policy of even questionable propriety.
Surely we must all be against paper money, we must all insist upon maintaining the integrity of the Government, and we must all set our faces against any proposition like the present, except as a temporary expedient, rendered imperative by…
If it has my vote, it will be only because I am unwilling to refuse the Government especially charged with this responsibility that confidence which is hardly less important to the public interests than the money itself.
Uncontrollable passions are let loose to overturn the tranquil conditions of peace.
And yet I cannot give such a vote without warning the Government against the dangers from such an experiment.
The medicine of the Constitution must not become its daily bread.
Nor can I disguise the conviction that better than any device of legal tender will be vigorous, earnest efforts for the suppression of the Rebellion, and the establishment of the Constitution in its true principles over the territory which…
Never before has any person appeared to take a seat in this body whose previous conduct and declarations, as disclosed to the Senate, gave reasonable ground to distrust his loyalty.
At this very moment we are engaged in considering if certain Senators shall not be expelled for disloyalty; and it seems to me we shall do our duty poorly, if we receive a new comer with regard to whose loyalty there is reasonable…
Let us at all hazards prevent the extension of Slavery and the increase of the Slave Power.
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