The Sun.
London, England, 1866-06-20 00:00:00

Money in America.

The Spectator's special correspondent in NeW
York writes a very good letter on Money Matters
in America, dated New York, May 25, 1866. Be
describes the effect of the great financial crisis
London as being very slightly felt in Wall-street.
Gold rose from.l3l on Wednesday to 141 on Friday,
the sum exported from Ist May to that date being
22,000,000 dollars. " Nor have I heard," he goes 011
to say, " except in a single instance, any reference to
those somewhat memorable articles upon our final'
cial condition, and especially on our intentions tn'
wards our creditors, which appeared in the Times'
the Saturday Review, and other London Weil'
about eighteen months ago and previously, and Cl9lll
which any cruelly-disposed person may
_obtain some
gratification by compelling their writers to re',
them aloud to a circle of admiring friends."
point of interest in this letter is the medium of Cf'
culation—what, as the writer emphatically states;
is called money. He says, "In the winter of 186'
a gentleman who has a high reputation as a Pub-
licist, both in Europe and America, was discussing
in a company, of which I was one, the proposal to
make Treasury notes a legal tender by Act of Con"
gress. He spoke against the proposition without
qualification ; told how he had entreated Mr. Chase'
then Secretary of the Treasury, and certain mom,
bers of the Finance Committee of Congress, not °
bring ruin upon the country—not to make nom',
even Treasury notes, a legal tender; and at kw'
taking a greenback from his pocket, he held it UPI
saying, " That ' thing' money ? It's a good thil,
in its way—a convenient thing ; but call it moneyLi
The writer shows that events afterwards Prn":
that what his friend flouted so contemptuoVi
was money—not the representative of money, rl.
money as much as any guinea that ever was cow'
and it is in a want of knowledge of this fact that ,
English financial wiseacres have erred so et
ously. He illustrates what he has advanced 110
amusingly. " About a year and a-half ago I ntS
in an omnibus, when a man entered who was plall
a Cuban Spaniard. He offered the driver a sal
gold coin—a dollar, or quarter-eagle—for his faxe",
' What am I to do with this?' said the man ; •
isn't money ! ' We all, except the Spaniard, lauglle
but Jehu was right ; it was not money, and I
could do nothing with it. The Spaniard could
th
speak a word of English, and was moneyless
handful of gold. One of his fellow-passenge
settled the matter by giving the driver a very di
ill-smelling piece of paper, about an inch and 014
square. At another time I found myself
my pocket-book at a restaurant, where I rarely P-
but in my purse I had some coin, which I had 10
ried all through the war, for I confess I liked,.
sight and the feeling of the stamped metal—a 7ci
barons taste of which I have- not been able to
myself—l offered a silver half-dollar, bull altbli
the cashier had his drawer full of money' be td
not give me change for my silver, which I p'i'e
to leave with him and redeem on my WI Pas,
with a fifty-cent ' shin-plaster,' or stamp. I
ture to express the opinion that gold and silver.tg
actually ceased to be coin among a rich and tilto
people, who have plenty of the precious metals anted
spare ; and the thing my political economist irley
scouted so was actually money,,.as actual On
and as good money within the United States its
golden eagle."