progress of resumption shall not be hindered. Nothing can now hinder it but the brute force of hostile legislation. Fellow-citizens, we have passed through a long period of darkness, but in the darkness there have been some compensations. Men are telling us that there were good times from 1865 to 1873. Were there? What was happening in those years? From 1865 to 1873 this country was running in debt at a rate almost never known before. I do not mean the nation as a nation, but the nation as a people. Do you know that even in our trade with Europe we bought $1,000,000,000,- yes, $1,047,000,000 more of merchandise than we sent back in exchange for it? Our people as individuals incurred a foreign debt in that short time of more than $1,000,000,000. And while we were running in debt by our purchases abroad, we were also running in debt at home. It was the speculative fever that inflation always brings. We were building railroads on credit; State, county, and municipal debts were increasing. The debts of this country, the individual and corporate debts, far outweighed the national debt. Since the calamity of 1873 struck us, we have been quietly and steadily paying our debts. In those five years we have sold abroad over $500,000,000 more of property than we have bought from there. The year just closed brought us $257,000,000 for what we sold more than we paid for what we bought. We are paying debts, we are clearing away incumbrances. All that this country needs is that the black shadow of Congress shall not fall upon it and blast it. Old Diogenes was right when he asked Alexander to ride out of his sunshine. They say we have made the hard times by contraction. I deny that. It is false in fact and it is false in theory. [A voice, "Prove it."] Well, sir, I will prove it. On the first day of September, 1873, there was more paper currency afloat in this country than there had been any day for six years, and the panic struck us when we were at the highest flood-tide of paper currency. And now, fellow-citizens, allow me to call your attention, in conclusion, to another phase of this question. I have been speaking thus far on the hard, dry facts of financial science. I have been trying to get at the truth as well as I might. We have now reached a period when all these questions have struck the public mind with new force, and we should go down to the bottom of them and discuss them before the people. No discussion of the Presidential policy of pacification, or civil service reform, or of anything, however bad or however good, will meet this issue. We must lay aside all embarrassments, and meet this question face to face with the people who are willing to be taught. If the people will hear the truth, and I know they will, you can fearlessly appeal to their intelligence and their conscience. But, in the mean time, there are other elements in this case, not the mere elements of intellectual antagonisms, but worse elements behind. If some man should stand on this historic platform and propose to prove to this great audience beyond controversy that this republic of ours has failed, and must go to ruin, he would prove the most awful fact that could be conceived by an American mind. The next calamity to overturning the universe of God would be the fall of this republic; and yet, not in this country I hope,-but if a vote were taken to-day by the intelligent people of Europe, millions would vote that the American republic must fall. Let us contemplate that for a moment. One of the ablest writers that England ever produced, one whose name is honored in America, has given his reasons for believing that the republic must fall. This is Macaulay's indictment and prophecy. I ask the men of Boston to carry it home and reflect upon it. How shall we answer it? For myself, with all my soul I repel the prophecy as false. But why? I will detain you only a moment to give you my reason. A few years ago I sought to answer this indictment. My first answer was this: no man who has not lived among us can understand one thing about our institutions; no man born and reared under a monarchical government can understand the vast difference between such governments and ours. How is it in monarchical governments? Their society is one series of caste upon caste. Down at the bottom, like the granite rocks in the crust of the earth, lie the great body of laboring men. Above them are the gentry, the hereditary capitalists; above them, the nobility; above them, royalty; and, crowning all, the sovereign; all impassable barriers of caste. No man born under such institutions can understand the mighty difference between such a society and ours. Thank 1 See Macaulay's letter, in the Address entitled "The Future of the Republic," ante, pp. 51-53. God, and thank the fathers of the republic who made, and the men who carried out, the promises of the Declaration, that in this country there are no classes with barriers fixed and impassable. Here, in our society, permeated with the light of American freedom, there is no American boy, however poor, however humble, orphan though he may be, who, if he have a clear head, a true heart, a strong arm, may not rise through all the grades of society, and become the crown, the glory, the pillar of the state. Here, there is no need for the Old World war between capital and labor. Here is no need of the explosion of social order predicted by Macaulay. All we need is the protection of just and equal laws, —just alike to labor and to capital. Every poor man hopes to lay by something for a rainy day, - hopes to become a capitalist, for capital is only accumulated labor. Whenever a laborer has earned one hundred dollars more than he needs for daily expenses, he becomes to that extent a capitalist, and needs to be safe in its enjoyment. There is another answer to Macaulay. He could not understand no man can understand it until he has seen it - the almost omnipotent power of our system of education, which teaches our people how to be free by teaching them to be intelligent. But, fellow-citizens, who has read Macaulay's letter that did not remember it a year ago last July, when in ten great States of the Union millions of American citizens and millions of American property were in peril of destruction,when the mob spirit ran riot, when Pittsburg flamed in ruin and smoked in blood, and many of our great cities were in peril of destruction?- who did not remember the prediction of Macaulay then, and did not anew resolve that the bloody track of the Commune should have no pathway on our shore? I have introduced all this for the purpose of saying that behind the element that now attacks the public faith, — behind the misguided honest men who have adopted the greenback theory, - behind them, and preparing the movement, is Communism, coming from its dens in Europe and this country. If anybody thinks I am an alarmist, let me read a sentence to you which will help to unfold the lesson of the Maine election which has just taken place. What I am about to read was printed as standing matter for weeks before the election in a public journal published in that State. "You see two men walking along the street: one is a rich bondholder, and the other a ragged tramp; the rich man enters the front door of his fine dwelling, the tramp goes in at the back door, demands food or clothing, and if it is not given to him he steals it; and I tell you that tramp is more entitled to honor than the rich man who sits in his luxurious parlor." The man who uttered those words had just accepted the Greenback nomination in one of the districts of Maine. And yesterday he was elected to Congress. Now I say this, to show the men of Massachusetts what this contest means. We do not measure swords with our adversaries without knowing what they are and what they mean. They are making war upon the civil and industrial order of our country. We accept their challenge. We invite all honest men to the fair and earnest and brotherly discussion of this question. We believe the hearts of true Americans everywhere will respond to the right, when they know the right. But to the disturbers of law, to those who would break the peace of this republic, to those who would convert it into a huge anarchy, we say the true men of this Union, who put down rebellion in one place, will put rebellion down in every place. To the men who are misguided and who have left the ranks of our party, or of any party that is in favor of honest money, we say, in the graphic language of Cox of New York, in his curious telegram to Hewitt, "Reverse yourself and resume your judgment." And now, fellow-citizens, standing in this old hall consecrated to Liberty and to Justice, let us enter this contest for honest money, for the public faith, for the nation's honor, not doubting that here, as everywhere, the voice of Massachusetts will be heard pleading for the right. Thanking you for the attention with which you have honored me, I bid you good night. SUSPENSION AND RESUMPTION OF SPECIE PAYMENTS. ADDRESS DELIVERED IN CHICAGO, IN the long struggle against inflation, and for a return to specie payments, an important and honorable part was borne by the Honest Money League, a confederation of financial societies scattered over the country, and especially the West. As the day fixed by the law of 1875 for resumption drew near, the officers of the League of the Northwest thought it fitting to mark the day and the fact by a public meeting, to be addressed by some man of national reputation, who had been a consistent and intelligent advocate of the resumption policy from the close of the war. This thought led to the following correspondence. "OFFICE OF THE HONEST MONEY LEAGUE OF THE NORTHWEST, CHICAGO, ILL., December 20, 1878. "TO THE HON. JAMES A. GARFIELD : — "DEAR SIR,- Having been appointed at a recent meeting of the Executive Committee of the Honest Money League of the Northwest to make arrangements to celebrate the event of the resumption of specie payments by a public meeting in the city of Chicago, we beg to invite you to address the gentlemen of the Honest Money League, whom we represent, and other citizens of Chicago and the Northwest, at such time after January 1, 1879, as may be most agreeable to yourself. "We remain, very truly and respectfully, yours, "M. L. SCUDDER, JR., ' "WASHINGTON, D. C., December 23, 1878. "M. L. SCUDDER, THOMAS A. BONES, and THOMAS M. NICHOL, Committee Honest Money League: "GENTLEMEN,I am in receipt of your favor of the 20th instant, inviting me to address a meeting of the Honest Money League of the |