The Sun.
London, England, 1864-05-10 00:00:00

tocracy known as "West Pointers," who are jealous
of a man who was not educated qs a soldier, and
whom they look upon as a mere amateur and inter-
loper -In the business that legitimately belongs to
them. Most people admit that Banks is an honest
man and a single-minded patriot; but honesty
and single-mindedness are not the weapons with
which any one can attain or secure a command-
ing position in this country, unless he use them
e,s a merchant in the pursuit of fortune. All
things considered, it is likely that the star of
' General Banks has culminated, and that the Presi-
dential wire-pullers are rather glad than sorry of
the opportunity afforded by his defeat to deprive
him of his command without at the same time pre-
senting him with a grievance or placing him before
the country in the position of an ill-used man.

Gen, Butler is also under a cloud. The West
Pointers dislike him for the same reason that they
dislike Gen. Banks ; while the Administration, glad
to make use of him as far as he can serve their pur-
poses, do not desire by any means that he should
use the position in which he is placed by their fa-
vour and countenance to strengthen his claims to the
Presidency. It is no secret that Gen. Butler is
discontented—that Gen. Grant has no confidence in
his military or personal character, and that he is
likely to be transferred from Fortress Monro to
some other point, where he can play the Provost
Marshal, without derangement of the military plans
of his superiors—or if he persist in seeking a nomi-
nation for the Presidency at the approaching Con-
vention of the Republicans at Baltimore, that he
will be consigned to private life, and to a political
disgrace, of which Mr. Stanton is declared to hold.
and to be determined to use, the documentary justi-
fication.

The trafavourable aspect of the military situation
—the growing discontent of all classes at the ineffi-
eiehcy and ill luck of the Administration—the cer-
tainty that sooner or later a financial crash must
come, and the reckless extravagance of the rich,
which causes an immense and continually increasing
importation of Earopean luxuries, all to be paid for
in hard cash, have combined to raise the premium on
gold to almost as high a point as that at which it
stood when Mr. Chase, 12 days ago, came into the
market as a seller of his reserves. It then stood at
89 per cent, premium, and fell in a few days to 65.
For the past week it has been continually on the
rise, and yesterday reached sa high as 85k. To•day,
after a series of fluctuations, it settied at 811 at the
close of business.

Something of a sensation has been excited, no
only in financial but in wider circles, by the fierce
onslaught just made upon Mr. Chase in Congress
by General Blair, brother of the Postmaster-Ge-
neral, who, in defending himself against a charge
of peculation levelled at him by one of his col-
leagues in the representation of Missouri, took oc-
casion to accuse the Secretary of the Treasury of
personal corruption in the management of the
affairs of his department. He also went the length
of stating that Mr. Chase was not in favour of the
prosecution of the war; that he desired the South
should be let go in peace; and though he had ap-
parently withdrawn his pretensions to the Presi-
dential chair, he was still a candidate, and was
playing off General Fremont against Mr. Lincoln,
with the hope at the last moment of uniting in his
own :person the party vote which neither of those
gentlemen would secure. Immediately after the
delivery of this speech, General Blair, who is a
strong supporter of Mr. Lincoln, was appointed to
the command of the 17th Army Corps, in the de-
partment of the Mississippi. The speech was his
parting, a Parthian shot in the House of Repre-
sentatives, before resialiing his seat, and was aimed,
not so much against his personal detractors, who
accused him of making a profit on whiskey illicitly
conveyed into the army, as against Mr. Chase,
whom be suspected, rightfully or wrongfully, of
being the instigaeor of the calumny.
Both Houses of the Legislature of the wealthy
and hitherto honourable State of New York have
decided that they will pay the interest of the public
debt in greenbacks. They hold that greenbacks
are legal tender ; that Congress has so ordained;
and that as they bear on the face of them that they
are receivable for all debts, public and private, ex-
cept Customs' Duties and interest on the debt of
the United States, they are clearly receivable by
the creditors of the State of New York. Anything
more impudently dishonest than this it is difficult
t ) imagine. A large portion, if not a majority, of
the persons who advanced their money to New York
to enable it to construct its canals and public works
are Englishmen, or other foreigners, not bound in
law or equity to participate is the burdens imposed
upon or assumed by Americans in the prosecution
of their civil war, and who have the rigat to insist
upon payment of the interest in the coin current at
the time the debt was contracted. To pay 100 dots.
in greenbacks to the foreign creditor instead of 100
dols. in gold is simply to rob such creditor of 45 per
cent. of his property, and is not only a first step,
but a very large stride towards repudiation. Last
year the Legislature, having some small remnant of
shame or conscience, paid its foreign creditors in
coin, as it was bound to do, but cheated its fellow-
citizens with depreciated paper. As these latter
were accused of disloyalty, if not of treason, if they
presumed to remonstrate, they submitted to the
robbery with the best grace they could assume ;
and if they made wry feces, said nothing. Embol-
dened by this partial success, the Legislature has
this year completed the fraud, which it began in the
last—both houses agreeing to the proposal, with a
very significant and very shameful unanimity.
Governor Seymour, who it seems has no power to
veto the measure, has done what he could under
the circumstances to recall the members to a sense
of honour, and transmitted a special message, urging
the two houses to reconsider the matter as one of
the highest moment to the welfare and character
of the State. It remains to be seen whether next
year—it is too late this, as the session has closed—
they will have the good sense, and the decency, to
retrace their steps, or whether, for the sake of a
small temporary saving, they are willing to injure
the credit of their State to all future time, and render
it unable to borrow in the markets of the world,
unless at such onerous rates as will cover the extra
risk of repudiation.
New York, however, does not stand alone in its
dishonesty. The State of Ohio, which had a re-
serve in gold sufficient to discharge the interest of
the debt due to its domestic and foreign creditors,
had the meanness to sell at a high premium the
gold which it held in reserve to meet its liabilities,
to pay its nradireira in gropnl-molra at par, and to
pocket the difference. The repudiation of the State
of Mississippi in bygone years was bad enough,
but it was not so shabby as the semi-repudiation
of these wealthy Northern States, which have not
the justification of poverty, or the sorrier pretext
of an alleged illegality in the contraction of the
debt, to plead in extenuation of their conduct.
After a prosperous existence of three weeks, the
Great Sanitary Fair for the benefit of the wounded
soldiers and of the widows and children of the slain,
was brought to a close on Saturday evening. The
total receipts were nearly 1,100,000 dols., inclusive
of a sum of 44,963 dols. for a sword that was not
worth 1,000 dols. In a lucky moment for the inte•
na e
ri
e s
rests of the fair, the givers and makers of this
sword
aunggselasntegd, that,,d”
dnniattsehould be presented, or, in
A
to the Federal general
to whom it should be Noted by the visitors, and that
any person should have the privilege of a vote on
payment of a dollar. The names of a dozen gene-
rals were speedily inscribed on the voting-book, but
it became evident on the first day that the contest
would lie between two only—Generals M'Clellan
and Grani. Had it been stipulated that no person
should have more than one vote, the sword would
have been Gen. MiClellan's ; but when it was agreed
that any one might give a thousand votes on pay-
ment of a thousand dollars, or a hundred thousand,
or any larger number on the same terms, the con-
test became one in which length of purse and per-
sonal zeal would carry the day over a merely nume-
rical majority. Yet up to within half an hour of the
close of the fair General M'Clellan had a majority
of nearly 2,500 votes, and at the shutting of the
books a majsrity of 2,256. This was in reality de-
cisive of the contest. Nevertheless it was deter-
mined by the heads of the Republican party, and
by the contractors, who entertain for M'Clellan a
Hatred which grows in proportion to his popularity