r letter. My personal
interests are the same as yours, but, like you, I do not intend to
be influenced by them. My construction of the law is the result
of a careful examination, and I feel quite sure an impartial court
would confirm it, if the case could be tried before a court. I
send you my views, as fully stated in a speech. Your idea is that
we propose to repudiate or violate a promise when we offer to redeem
the 'principal' in 'legal tender.' I think the bondholder violates
his promise when he refuses to take the same kind of money he paid
for the bonds. If the coin is to be tested by the law, I am right;
if it is to be tested by Jay Cooke's advertisements, I am wrong.
I hate repudiation, or anything like it, but we ought not to be
deterred from doing what is right by fear of undeserved epithets.
If, under the law as it now stands, the holder of the 5-20's can
only be paid in gold, then we are repudiators if we propose to pay
otherwise. If, on the other hand, the bondholder can legally demand
only the kind of money he paid, he is a repudiator and an extortioner
to demand money more valuable than he gave.

"Your truly,
"John Sherman.
"Hon. A. Mann, Jr., Brooklyn Heights."

On the 26th of March, 1878, I wrote the following letter to Senator
Justin S. Morrill, which was read by him in the debate, and, I
think, was a conclusive answer to the erroneous construction put
upon my letter to Mann:

"My Dear Sir:--Your letter of the 24th inst. is received. I have
noticed that my casual letter to Dr. Mann, of the date of March
20, 1868, inclosing a speech made by me, has been frequently used
to prove that I have changed my opinion since that time as to the
right of the United States to pay the principal of the 5-20 bonds
in legal tenders. This would not be very important, if true, but
it is not true, as I never have changed my opinion as to the
technical legal right to redeem the principal of the 5-20 bonds in
legal tenders, but, as you know and correctly state, have always
insisted that we could not avail ourselves of this legal right
until we complied, in all respects, with the legal and moral
obligations imposed by the legal tender note, to redeem it in coin
on demand or to restore the right to convert it into an interest-
bearing government bond. The grounds of this opinion are very
fully stated in the speech made February 27, 1868, referred to in
the letter to Dr. Mann, and in a report on the funding