John Sherman

The note holder, the farmer, the artisan, the laborer, whose labor and production is measured in greenbacks, still receives your depreciated notes, worth ten per cent. less than gold you promised him 'at the earliest day practicable.' The…

The notes rose under the stimulus of this new promise, in one year, from seventy-six cents to eighty-nine cents in gold, but no steps whatever were made to redeem them.

Without adding one dollar to the public debt, or the burden of the debt, both bonds and notes rose in value.

If the advocates for specie payment had then supported a restoration of the right to convert notes into bonds, they would have secured their object with but little opposition.

Here again the opportunity was lost to secure the easy and natural appreciation of our notes to the gold standard.

This act, though convenient in its temporary results, was a most fatal step, and for my part in acquiescing in, and voting for it, I have felt more regret than for any act of my official life.

We may well pause to examine how this plain and positive obligation has so long been deferred by a nation always sensitive to the public honor.

No one then questioned either the policy, the duty, or the obligation of the United States to redeem these notes in coin.

This obligation was recognized in every loan law passed during the war; and to secure the note from depreciation the amount was carefully limited, and every quality was given to it to maintain its value that was possible during the…

The promise is specific and exact, and its nature is fixed by the law and announced by the court.

Thus, then, it is settled that this note is not a dollar, but a debt due; a promise to pay a dollar in gold coin.

The dollar note is an engagement to pay a dollar, and the dollar intended is the coined dollar of the United States, a certain quantity in weight and fineness of gold or silver, authenticated as such by the stamp of the government.

I will state its provisions fully in detail, but the main proposition--the essential core of the whole--is the promise, to which the public faith is pledged, that the United States will redeem in gold coin any of its notes that may be…

At the beginning of our national existence, our ancestors boldly and hopefully assumed the burden of a great national debt, formed of the debts of the old confederation and of the states that composed it; and, with a scattered population…

It is the turning point in our financial history, which will greatly affect the life of individuals and the fate of parties, but, more than all, the honor and good faith of our country.

When any practicable scheme to that end is proposed I am ready to examine it on its merits; but we are not considering the best mode of doing the thing, but whether we will recede from the promise made by the law as it stands, as well as…

Let this nomination be thus presented, without any wire pulling or depreciation of others and as a conviction upon established facts, and I believe Governor Hayes can be and ought to be nominated.

He is fortunately free from the personal enmities and antagonisms that would weaken some of his competitors, and he is unblemished in name, character or conduct, and a native citizen of our state.

On the main questions, protection for all in equal rights, and the observance of the public faith, he is as trustworthy as any one named.

As a governor, thrice elected, he has shown good executive abilities and gained great popularity, not only with Republicans but with our adversaries.

He is better known in Ohio than elsewhere, and is stronger there than elsewhere, but the qualities that have made him strong in Ohio will, as the canvass progresses, make him stronger in every state.

They are men of marked ability, who have rendered important public services, but, considering all things, I believe the nomination of Governor Hayes would give us the more strength, taking the whole country at large, than any other man.

Above all, it has positively closed the question of a third term.

All we need is such a presidential ticket as will give assurance that we mean to stand by our principles, and that will administer the government honestly and economically.

Every movement made by this Democratic House of Representatives is an appeal to every man who ever voted with the Republican party to rally to its support again, and to every man who fought in the Union army to vote with us to preserve the…