The Sun.
London, England, 1867-10-15 00:00:00

Repudiation, and the Nation's Reply.

The reception given -to the PENDLETON and
BtrrLER plans for wiping out the United States debt
has taught these gentlemen, and the sections of the
parties they represent (if either represents any), that
the question of finance is not the question of the
future, at least as they put it. The nation intends
in good faith to liquidate its liabilities ; and so
heartily have the people signified this, that a bill
will probably be passed in the next Congress, dis-
tinctly enacting that the 5-20 Bonds are to be re-
deemed in gold. This is the result we predicted
for the agitation, scarcely hoping for so speedy
and decisive an answer. When politicians, so
prominent and influential as Mr. PENDLETON
and General BUTLER anticipate support by agi-
tating such questions, we, far away from the
scene of action, suppose they possess a more ac-
curate knowledge of the feeling of their country-
men. They relied too much on the selfishness,
short-sightedness, and dishonesty of human nature.
The national gain in adopting their plans would
have been immediate—the loss prospective. The
individual relief would have been instantaneous—
the general embarrassment remote. Debtors are
more numerous than creditors, and the tendency
of the schemes was to annihilate debts. It requires
more virtue in a people to bear up under the after-
burdens of an expensive war than to conduct that
war to a success. There are thousands who gal-
lantly perform their part in a battle who fail igno-
miniously in enduring the hardships consequent on
a campaign. While the blood is up, and the sol-
dier is inspired by the great events progressing, he
may be foremost in the place of danger—yet lag
behind in marches and counter-marches when the
earth is his bed, the sky his roof, and horse his
diet. So it is with a nation. While the campaign
proceeds military success is the one object to which
all is subservient. The financier who hesitates in
expenditure is lost. With one -voice the people
demand the end for which they strive, and after
considerations, are swamped in the necessities of
the moment. Then follows the time of trial when
the pledges so cheerfully and earnestly given have
to be redeemed. This is the test of the true nobility
of the people. On each falls a portion of the load
which the weak and impatient feel a strong inclina-
tion to shake off. Those who have been the most
reckless in incurring the debt are often the first to
cry out. The community is master of the posi-
tion. There is no appeal from what the people
decree. If they choose to repudiate, there
is no court to c3mpel the fulfilment of their
contract, and they are guided then alone by
their sense of honour and of right. But though
there be no law binding upon nations, save the law
of conscience, which may be construed into an in-
ternational code, there is a moral law not to be
infringed with impunity by any power on earth, the
way in which such liabilities are met, stamping the
character of the nation for all time. At the close
of the wars of NAPOLEON, England was in a finan-
cial position out of all comparison more trying than
that in which the United States now is. The debt
incurred was absolutely crushing when contrasted
with the means. Political economy was little
understood, and the weight was therefore ad-
, justed so clumsily as to gall the people to the
quick. Fearful as the trial was, the people
bore it—and what is the consequence? Eng-
land has become the centre of the earth's com-
merce. The punctuality with which she met her
engagements inspired the world with confidence,
and that confidence has been to her a tower of
strength. her credit is unbounded—and her finan-
cial capabilities, in consequence, almost unlimited.
Heavy as her debt is, whatever loan she required
would everywhere be subscribed on the lowest
terms without hesitation, and she stands forth
an emphatic illustration that " Honesty is the best
policy." The aggregate voice is but the voice of
the individuals that compose a nation ; and if the
people demand repudiation, the commercial honesty
of the individuals who make up the population
at once becomes discredited. The Govern-
ment affairs arc but a trifle in comparison
with commercial transactions—therefore in re-
pudiation, to gain what is a trifling advantage,
the huge interests of the country are sacrificed. It
would be vain for trading houses to throw the blame
on the riff-raff of the population ; it attaches to and
stigmatises them. Were the United States to re-
pudiate the debt, or to pare it down by an unjust
decree, the ultimate result would be to exalt Eng-
land to a pinnacle of commercial greatness, for she
would then stand almost alone as the nation that
had been tried in the fiery ordeal, and had come
out, like a HERRING'S safe, with its securities un-
sc idled. The world expects that the young Republic
now taking the foremost place, will imitate this
illustrious example, and neither impair nor taint the
national greatness by any act which can in the re-
motest degree tarnish its honour. However strong
and imposing the knob-chests looked they were
found to be worse than useless on the day of trial,
and no grandeur or display of wealth would* in-
duce the wary again to entrust valuables into the
custody of a thing experience had proved to fail
when the trial came. Had the United States ever
passed with a good result through such an ordeal
the national bonds would not now be at a dis-
count. The trial has come, and the world
awaits the result. If the PENDLETON and
BUTLER agitation is met by Congress by
an act decreeing the payment of Five-twenties
in gold, and making the law as irreversible as those
of the Medes and Persians, the United States will
have happily seized a grand opportunity which will
more establish their credit than years of strain
in punctual payments. Then General BUTLER and
Mr. PENDLETON will have been the means, however
unintentionally, of performing a national service.
Such an act would at once affect the commercial
credit of the Union. It would give the required
confidence to capitalists whose longing eyes see so
large a percentage for the money now lying uselessly
in their hands. We return thus earnestly to this
subject, for we are persuaded if the opportunity
thus offered be lost, a fortunate chance will be gone
for ever. Let each member of Congress carefullyweigh
the interests at stake in a broad and unselfish spirit.
Let him think what the question really involves.
The United States is about to become the high-way
of the world ; New York to rival—perhaps excel
London as a financial mart—how aro these gigantic
interests to be secured and maintained? There is
but one reply—Merit the confidence of the world,
aud thus obtain it ; and the debt of the United
States will be but a feather when thrown into the
opposite scale to interests so stupendous. Ours is
but a feeble voic but our mission will not be with-
out its results if we can influence, even in the most
remote degree, those in whose hands rests this
question,—Anglo-American Times.