Select Speeches of Daniel Webster, 1817-1845Webster, Daniel
General
Select Speeches of Daniel Webster, 1817-1845
Webster, Daniel
Speeches, addresses, etc., American
circulation will be established. I undertake to say, that no greater
fallacy than this was ever uttered; the thing is impossible, and for
this plain reason. The dues which the government collects come from
individuals; each pays for himself. But it is far otherwise with the
disbursements of government. They do not go down to individuals, and,
seeking out the workmen and the laborers, pay to each his dues.
Government pays in large sums, to large contractors, and to these it
may pay gold and silver. But do the gold and silver reach those whom
the contractor employs? On the contrary, the contractors deal as they
see fit, with those whom they employ, or of whom they purchase. I speak
of what is in proof. A contractor came to Washington last winter, and
received a draft of $180,000 on a specie-paying bank in New York. This
he sold at ten per cent premium, and with the avails purchased funds in
the West, with which he paid the producer, the farmer, the laborer.
This is the operation of specie payments. It gives to the government
hard money, to the rich contractor hard money; but to the producer and
the laborer it gives paper, and bad paper only. And yet this system is
recommended as specially favoring the poor man, rather than the rich,
and credit is claimed for this administration as the poor man's friend.
Let us look a little more nearly at this matter, and see whom, in
truth, it does favor. Who are the rich in this country? There is very
little hereditary wealth among us; and large capitalists are not
numerous. But some there are, nevertheless, who live upon the interest
of their money; and these, certainly, do not suffer by this new
doctrine; for their revenues are increased in amount, while the means
of living are reduced in value. There is the money-lender, too, who
suffers not by the reduction of prices all around him. Who else are the
rich in this country? Why, the holders of office. He who has a fixed
salary of from $2,500 to $5,000 finds prices falling; but does his
salary fall? On the contrary, three fourths of that salary will now
purchase more than the whole of it would purchase before; and he,
therefore, is not dissatisfied with this new state of things.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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