Government bond

“ In the case of an official bond, even if its benefits are not incidental, it may well be that the legislative body is of the opinion that actions on the bond should be limited to the government in order to secure unified administration of claims. ”

“ We will establish a well-regulated mechanism for local governments to secure financing through bond issuance and make moderate upward adjustments to debt ceilings for local governments with strong financial resources and low debt risks through statutory procedures. Governments at all levels must tighten their belts and spend every sum of money where it can be seen and where it's most needed. ”

“ But if its bonds are to be marketed at heavy discounts and every bond sold is to be accompanied by a gift of stock, as has come to be expected by investors in such enterprises, the traffic will be seriously burdened to pay interest and dividends. I am quite willing to recommend Government promotion in the prosecution of a work which, if no other means offered for securing its completion, is of such transcendent interest that the Government should, in my opinion, secure it by direct appropriations from its Treasury. ”

“ We must be prudent. If we could only get away with the whole sum it would make us comfortable for a year or two.”
“How much is there?”
“Well, there are eight thousand dollars in government bonds, and five Union Pacific bonds of a thousand dollars each. They’re safe as governments.”
“Thirteen thousand dollars!” said Temple, in a tone of gratification.
“Yes, and more, for the bonds are all at premium. However, we must lay back for a reward. It won’t do to negotiate them.” ”

“ Resolved, That it is the duty of the government to a just standard of distribution of capital and labor, by providing a purely national circulating medium, based on the faith and resources of the nation, issued directly to the people without the intervention of any system of banking corporations, which money shall be legal tender in the payment of all debts, public and private, and interchangeable, at the option of the holder, for government bonds bearing a rate of interest not to exceed 3.65 per cent., subject to future legislation by Congress. ”

“ It is proposed that government shall issue this money, but that it shall be convertible into a three per cent. interest-bearing bond; so that when money shall be so plenty that it will be worth less than three per cent. in business, it can be invested in bonds drawing three per cent.; and the bonds to also be reconvertible into money, so that the moment business shall demand more money than there should be in circulation—which would increase the value of money to more than three per cent.—the bonds would be converted into money again ”

“ These banks have been given the privilege of having their names on the money they issue long enough. The money of the banks has ever been Government money. The Government has promised to pay it if the banks did not, and has had the means of paying. Let the Government do as it should: issue all the money. Let it be circulated by banks which give proper security for it. Enlarge the means of securing the Government, by accepting State and Municipal bonds, or even Railroad bonds, to the extent of say 50 per cent, and Government bonds for the other 50 per cent. ”

“ The depositors in savings-banks, the beneficiaries of life-insurance policies, and divers other corporate and private trusts, are now very largely secured by Government bonds, and it is not easy to see why, if the note-holders are to have special protection, these can not with perfect justice ask that they too shall continue to be cared for by the Government. ”

“ Year by year the ability to pay increases in a rapid ratio. But the burden of interest ought to be reduced as rapidly as can be done without the violation of contract. The public debt is represented in great part by bonds having from five to twenty and from ten to forty years to run, bearing interest at the rate of 6 per cent and 5 per cent, respectively. It is optional with the Government to pay these bonds at any period after the expiration of the least time mentioned upon their face. ”

“ But every one of us who holds a policy in a life insurance company, or whose house or furniture is insured against fire, or who has a deposit in a bank or savings institution, or who has a national-bank note in his pocket is as much interested in the value of our National bonds and in a certain sense as much a bond holder as the owner of a bond himself; for if the value of the bonds is attacked and impaired the security of your investment goes, to that extent, by the board. ”

“ Whereas our national economic welfare requires the widest possible distribution of the national debt through the sale of United States Savings Bonds to the people; and Whereas every purchaser of United States Savings Bonds invests not only in the nation's economic welfare, but also in his own personal security and independence, and it is, therefore, to the manifest advantage of Government, Management, and Labor and of every citizen that the sale of such bonds to the people be vigorously promoted ”

“ The bondholder, proud in all the security of the untaxed receiver of other people’s taxes, would see in these fields merely the industry from which he gathers tribute; it would never dawn on his mind that without the opening of those furrows and the hurrying army of children dropping corn his bond wouldn’t be worth the paper it is written on.
Yet it is literally so.
Feed the world, and it can live, work, produce and march on. Starve it, and what becomes of railroads, banks, mills, mines, notes, mortgages and bonds? ”

“ When I came, in examining this question, to see whether or not the law enacted in 1875 was applicable to the condition of affairs in 1893, it was apparent to me, as it must have been to every man, however ignorant he might be of the principles of finance, that the conditions of our country were such that we would not be justified, by public opinion or by the interests of our people, to sell a bond bearing four or four and a half or five per cent. ”

“ So you want our cherished secret, eh, Earthman? The secret of achieving speed greater than that of light?"
"I not only want it," said Gary earnestly, "but must have it. Time is growing perilously short."
"And how do we know that this message is not a trick of your Earth government to save your spying hides? We have no reason to trust Earth." ”

“ The Secretary of the Treasury had devised a plan for offering the five-twenty bonds to popular subscription through the employment of a competent and energetic general agent, who, by a system of sub-agencies, wide advertising, and other business methods, appealed to the mingled motives of patriotism and self-interest and induced the people to lend large sums of money to the Government. ”

“ The time has already expired when a great part of them may be taken up, and is rapidly approaching when all may be. It is believed that all which are now due may be replaced by bonds bearing a rate of interest not exceeding 4 1/2 per cent, and as rapidly as the remainder become due that they may be replaced in the same way. To accomplish this it may be necessary to authorize the interest to be paid at either of three or four of the money centers of Europe, or by any assistant treasurer of the United States, at the option of the holder of the bond. ”

“ Is not the force of our tender-laws destroyed by it? The worthy gentleman from Wilmington has endeavored to obviate the objection as to the Constitution's destroying the credit of our paper money, and paying debts in coin, but unsatisfactorily to me. A man assigns, by legal action, a bond to a man in another state; could that bond be paid by money? I know it is very easy to be wrong. ”

“ It has been the policy of the Department to place the 4 per cent bonds within easy reach of every citizen who desires to invest his savings, whether small or great, in these securities. The Secretary of the Treasury recommends that the law be so modified that small sums may be invested, and that through the post-offices or other agents of the Government the freest opportunity may be given in all parts of the country for such investments. ”

“ The Power to Borrow Money.—We have now seen how money is provided for the government under ordinary circumstances. In extraordinary cases this revenue is not sufficient; accordingly, Congress has been given power by Article 1, Section 8, Clause 2, To borrow money on the credit of the United States.
Money is borrowed in most cases by the sale of bonds. These are of the same nature as the promissory notes by which individuals obtain loans. National bonds state the promise of the United States to pay a certain amount, at a stated time, with interest. ”

“ We confine ourselves in the application of the principle to the facts of the present case, leaving other cases to be disposed of as they may arise; and we hold that a voluntary bond taken by authority of the proper officers of the treasury department, to whom the disbursement of public moneys is entrusted, to secure the fidelity in official duties of a receiver or an agent for disbursery of public moneys, is a binding contract between him and his sureties, and the United States ”

“ Much more suitable, therefore, for the purposes of fiscal administration are bonds which are not limited as to term of payment, but which can be redeemed at their face value at the will of the Government. ”

“ If such an emergency arises, there now exists no clear and undoubted executive power of relief. Heretofore the redemption of 3 per cent bonds, which were payable at the option of the Government, has afforded a means for the disbursement of the excess of our revenues; but these bonds have all been retired, and there are no bonds outstanding the payment of which we have a right to insist upon. The contribution to the sinking fund which furnishes the occasion for expenditure in the purchase of bonds has been already made for the current year, so that there is no outlet in that direction. ”

“ Every business man knows better than that. Nearly $150,000,000 of 4 per cent. bonds have, within two years, been sold. They are scattered all over the country, especially the West; and who owns them? Mostly small people, who consider the Government funds a better depository for their savings than the savings banks, and who thus invested in small amounts, from $50 upward. You honest farmer or laboring man, who put your little surplus into a Government security, are you aware that you have sunk down to the level of the bloated bloodsuckers, who fatten upon the sweat of the people? ”

“ It often happens that administrators receive money which is not to be administered as part of the general assets, but is to be distributed in a particular way. Whether, upon his general bond, an administrator could be held for the performance of such special duty, might depend upon the local statutes of each state; and congress was not obliged to consider whether the ordinary bond would cover the case, or whether a new bond would be required, or whether additional state legislation would be necessary. ”

“ The bonds shall mature in periods of five years, and the board of equalization is authorized to levy a tax in an amount equal to one-fifth of the amount of their principal. The state treasurer is required to establish a bank bond payment fund into which shall be paid moneys received from taxation, from appropriations and from bank earnings. ”

“ When womankind, wearying of man's incessant warfare, finally cast all men save a few breeders from their cities and established a matriarchal form of government, the men rapidly reverted to a life of savagery. ”

“ There have also been redeemed at par $16,179,100 of the 3-1/2 per cent "continued" bonds, making a total of bonds redeemed or which have ceased to bear interest during the year of $123,969,650.
The reduction of the annual interest on the public debt through these transactions is as follows:
The 3-1/2 per cent bonds, being payable at the pleasure of the Government, are available for the investment of surplus revenues without the payment of premiums. ”

“ Article 7 Funds for redemption and interest payments of the Bond shall be put on allocation on an annual basis in the national general budget, and shall be appropriated to the managing bank in advance to be held on deposit in preparation for payment. Article 8 The offering and sale and the principal and interest payments of the Bond shall be managed by the Central Bank. Article 9 The Bond may be freely traded, pledged, or used as guarantee in official dealings, and may serve as guarantee reserve of financial enterprises. Article 10 Interest on the Bond is exempt from income tax. ”

“ This policy has been carefully fostered by other nations, and should be specially so in ours, where every citizen equally participates in the government of his country. The holding of these bonds at home, in small sums well distributed, is of great importance in enlisting popular interest in our national credit and in encouraging habits of thrift, and such holding in the country is far more stable and less likely to disturb the market than it would be in cities or by corporations, where the bonds can be promptly sold in quantities. ”

“ Since the resumption of specie payments there has also been a marked and gratifying improvement of the public credit. The bonds of the Government bearing only 4 per cent interest have been sold at or above par, sufficient in amount to pay off all of the national debt which was redeemable under present laws. The amount of interest saved annually by the process of refunding the debt since March 1, 1877, is $14,297,177. The bonds sold were largely in small sums, and the number of our citizens now holding the public securities is much greater than ever before. ”

“ In considering the question of purchasing bonds as a means of restoring to circulation the surplus money accumulating in the Treasury, it should be borne in mind that premiums must of course be paid upon such purchase, that there may be a large part of these bonds held as investments which can not be purchased at any price, and that combinations among holders who are willing to sell may unreasonably enhance the cost of such bonds to the Government. ”