The Sun.
London, England, 1868-04-02 00:00:00

GRERNBACK REDE3IP2ION. •

(From the Anglo-American Times.)

'There is no country that manages to give a fuller
expression to opinions on any passing question than
the United States. But it is in the nature of such
expression to be in a measure delusive ; for those
most interested, even when a small minority, make
their voices most loudly heard. We are not able as
yet fully to realize the true strength of the current
now running in favour of " Greenbacl Redemption,"
and its corollary, " Expansion." The facts arc that,
depression having followed as a consequence on the
inflation and waste of war, people feeling hurt, cry
aloud for relief. A tight in my-market, stagnation
in trade, burdensome taxation to make goof the
vast expenditure, press at the very time that old
channels of commerce have been dried lip. It need
not surprise, that men should try to shake off the
weight which bears most heavily, that crude and
unreflecting ideas of finance should be enunciated,
and mislead the ignorant and unscrupulous. In that
portion of the country where the stringency is
greatest, theorigin of the agitation may be looked for
and afterwards its strength. In the Eastern States
there is a glut of money, and interest rules lower
than has been known for many years; but in the
West money is difficult to procure and commands
high terms. It was in the West, that the people
most benefited by the war inflation, and it is there
that the subsequent depression is most felt. Judg-
ing from conventions, from platform speeches, and
from the principles enunciated by the popular can-
didates, we might conclude that a vast majority of
the Western people are in favour of greenback re-
demption, and that the expansion theory, is only
held in alesser degree. SHERMAN'S bill is a proof that
leaders in the United States recognize the overwhelm-
ing strength of the torrent. In effect he says—" We re-
commend you, the bondholders, to divert the tide by
accepting a compromise; a square opposition will bring
its full force upon you, and you will be swept away
altogether. Sacrifice a little, and you may thus
save the great bulk of your investment." It is not
the reduction of the interest from 6 to 5 per cent.
with the guarantee on the face of the new Bond
that it will be paid in gold which alarms the cre-
ditors of the United States ; it is the broken faith
of those on whose honour they must wholly rely—
the beginning of the end—the crevasse in the em-
bankment ! The question is—Does the Govern-
ment offer any better security for the five per cent.
than for the six ?—that is, in surrendering a por-
tian of their claim, are the bondholders to get an
equivalent ? If not, the matter is not one, of corn-
promise; but of coercion, for compromise is a settle-
ment by mutual concession. If it be coercion, who
san tell where that coercion is to stop ? We all
know that the man who can frighten another out
of a portion of his rights seldom rests content till
he has frightened his victim out of all—his suc-
cess being his incentive, and the very surrender on
the part of the other that other's reason for a fur-
ther concession. What holds of individuals, holds
of corporations and of nations. The bondholders,
though not guaranteed repayment in gold on the
face of their Bonds when issued, which in the igno-
rance of Legal-Tender notes was then thought imma-
terial, were in all other ways thus guaranteed by the
authorized Ministers of the nation, by their agents,
as well as by the clear statements of the Represen-
tatives and Senators who introduced and supported
the loan bill. If advantage can be taken of an omis-
sion on which to ground a compromise forcing a
concession from the creditors under a threat of
using the omission against them, what is to prevent
similar action in the future? The Govern-
ment will have committed an act, which, to
say the least, is questionable ; those who lose
character as a rule desire to get an equivalent
for the loss, and the odds therefore are in
favour of a further attack on the bondholders. They
can never afterwards consider themselves safe; for
any depression in trade will end in their being
mulcted. It is then advisable for the creditors to
make a strenuous stand against the first step, and
it is worth while considering what chances they
have of prevailing in such a struggle. In the first
place, they have the benefit of a moral right. Hear
what a former Chairman of the Committee of Ways
and Means publicly said on the floor of the House
at the time of contracting the debt—" A dollar in
a miser's safe, unproductive, is a sore disturbance.
Where could they invest it ? In United States
loans at six per cent., redeemable in gold in twenty
years—the best and most valuable permanent in-
vestment that could be desired. . . But widows
and orphans are interested, and in tears lest their
estates should be badly invested. I pity no one
who has money invested in United States Bonds,
payable in gold in twenty years, with interest, and
semi-annually." It does not lessen the force of our