How little do these Repudiators know the mighty resisting power which they encounter! how little, the mighty crash which they invite! As well undertake to move Mount Washington from its everlasting base, or to shut out the ever-present ocean from our coasts. It is needless to say that the crash would be in proportion to the mass affected, being nothing less than the whole business of the country. Now it appears from investigations making at this moment by Commissioner Wells, whose labors shed such light on financial questions, that our annual product reaches the sum of seven thousand millions of dollars.[101] But this prodigious amount depends for its value upon exchange, which in turn depends upon credit. Destroy exchange, and even these untold resources would be an infinite chaos, without form and void. Employment would cease, capital would waste, mills would stop, the rich would become poor,—the poor, I fear, would starve. Savings banks, trust companies, insurance companies would disappear. Such would be the mighty crash; but here you see also the mighty resisting power. Therefore, again do I say, Repudiation is impossible.
Mr. Boutwell is criticized by the Democracy because he buys up bonds, paying the current market rates, when he should pay the face in greenbacks. I refer to this Democratic criticism because I would show how little its authors look to consequences while forgetting the requirements of Public Faith. Suppose the Secretary, yielding to these wise suggestions, should announce his purpose to take up the first ten millions of five-twenties, paying the face in greenbacks. What then? “After us the deluge,” said the French king; and so, after such notice from our Secretary, would our deluge begin. At once the entire bonded debt would be reduced to greenbacks. The greenback would not be raised; the bond would be drawn down. All this at once,—and in plain violation of the solemn declaration of both Houses of Congress pledging payment in coin. But who can measure the consequences? Bonds would be thrown upon the market. From all points of the compass, at home and abroad, they would come. Business would be disorganized. Prices would be changed. Labor would be crushed. The fountains of the great deep would be broken up, and the deluge would be upon us.
Among the practical agencies to which the country owes much already are the National Banks. Whatever may be the differences of opinion with regard to them, they cannot fail to be taken into account in all financial discussions. As they have done good where they are now established, I would gladly see them extended, especially at the South and West, where they are much needed, and where abundant crops already supply the capital. It is doubtful if this can be brought about without removing the currency limitation in the existing Bank Act.[102] In this event I should like the condition that for every new bank-note issued a greenback should be cancelled, thus substituting the bank-note for the greenback. In this way greenbacks would be reduced in volume, while currency is supplied by the banks. Such diminution of the national paper would be an important stage toward specie payments, while the national banks in the South and West, founded on the bonds of the United States, would be a new security for the national credit.
In making this suggestion, I would not forget the necessity of specie payments at the earliest possible moment; nor can I forbear to declare my unalterable conviction that by proper exertion this supreme object may be accomplished promptly,—always provided the national credit is kept above suspicion, or, like the good knight, “without fear and without reproach.”
Thus, fellow-citizens, at every turn are we brought back to one single point, the Public Faith, which cannot be dishonored without infinite calamity. The child is told not to tell a lie; but this injunction is the same for the full-grown man, and for the nation also. We cannot tell a lie to the national freedman or the national creditor; we cannot tell a lie to anybody. That word of shame cannot be ours. But falsehood to the national freedman and the national creditor is a national lie. Breaking promise with either, you are dishonored, and Liar must be stamped upon the forehead of the nation. Beyond the ignominy, which all of us must bear, will be the influence of such a transgression in discrediting Republican Government and the very idea of a Republic. For weal or woe, we are an example. Mankind is now looking to us, and just in proportion to the eminence we have reached is the eminence of our example. Already we have shown how a Republic can conquer in arms, offering millions of citizens and untold treasure at call. It remains for us to show how a Republic can conquer in a field more glorious than battle, where all these millions of citizens and all this untold treasure uphold the Public Faith. Such an example will elevate Republican Government, and make the idea of a Republic more than ever great and splendid. Helping here, you help not only your own country, but help Humanity also,—help liberal institutions in all lands,—help the down-trodden everywhere, and all who struggle against the wrong and tyranny of earth.
The brilliant Frenchman, Montesquieu, in that remarkable work which occupied so much attention during the last century, “The Spirit of Laws,” pronounces Honor the animating sentiment of Monarchy, but Virtue the animating sentiment of a Republic.[103] It is for us to show that he was right; nor can we depart from this rule of Virtue without disturbing the order of the universe. Faith is nothing less than a part of that sublime harmony by which the planets wheel surely in their appointed orbits, and nations are summoned to justice. Nothing too lofty for its power, nothing too lowly for its protection. It is an essential principle in the divine Cosmos, without which confusion reigns supreme. All depends upon Faith. Why do you build? Because you have faith in those laws by which you are secured in person and property. Why do you plant? why do you sow? Because you have faith in the returning seasons, faith in the generous skies, faith in the sun. But faith in this Republic must be fixed as the sun, which illumines all. I cannot be content with less. Full well I see that every departure from this great law is only to our ruin, and from the height we have reached the tumble will be like that of the Grecian god from the battlements of Heaven:—
“From morn
To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve,