The Sun.
London, England, 1868-09-07 00:00:00

711 E LEGAL-TENDER AC7.

(From the Anglo-American Times.)
The Supreme Court of the United States is about
to deliver a judgment on the constitutionality of
the Legal-Tender Act of 1862. Those who best
understand the composition of the Court are con-
vinced that it will decide against the legality of the
Legal 'fender. Of the eight judges, four are De-
mocrats, whose party always affirmed the uncon-
stitutionality of the irredeemable currency, and two
incline towards that party. The judges, DUDLEY,
FIELD, GRIER, CLIFFORD, and NELSON, will, it is be-
lieved, pronounce the Act to be invalid, so it is pre-
sumed will Judge DAVIS and even Chief Justice
CHASE, who, though the author and nicknamed " Old
Greenback s," will, it is said, favour the same opinion.
The effect of such a judgment will be momentous
and ramify over Europe, where millions of the
national Securities are held. The greenback con-
troversy would then cease, and the question of re-
pudiation assume a naked form, and cease to be
disguised for the benefit of those tender consciences
who desire to be dishonest, but require a plausible
pretext. Should the Court, from which there
is no appeal, pronounce this judgment, the.
Government could not tender to its debtors
as money that which the law of the
United States decided not to be money, and
Repudiation, narrowed to its simple issue—to be,
or not to be—would require its advocates to stand
forth shorn of all disguise. Then, too, would dis-
appear, the contrast so generally used to excite a
mischievous feeling, " one currency for the rich
and idle bondholder, and another for the poor hard-
working labourer." It is not easy to realize what
the immediate effect would be. The greenback
promises to pay must, of. course, be fulfilled ; but
those who carried these notes to the Treasury to be
exchanged for gold would merely lose their time,
for though the Treasury can manufacture green-
backs it cannot manufacture gold. An inconvert-
ible paper currency quickly attains the one end of
sending the precious metal out of the countyr, for
it depreciates the money it replaces, while the
metal retains its value elsewhere, and according to
the laws of trade the discrepancy is equalized by
its flow elsewhere. In case of the anticipated
judgment, the old currency having evaporated
while the new is declared to be no currency, what,
under such circumstances, is that great nation with
its great trade, thus deprived of every medium to
b lrter, to do ? Legal or illegal, the people would
be compelled to circulate greenbacks, and as such a
decision will force the Government to redeem its
depreciated paper at par, it ought to enhance, not
lessen, its value. So many more additional millions
of obligation would press for immediate settlement,
and the holders would be compelled to hold till
the Treasury could meet the claim. It is not by
affecting the value of greenbacks that the decision
would be felt, but in the innumerable transactions
of barter, and what that effect would be is impos-
sible except for those intimately acquainted with
the trade of the United States to predict. The law
which made greenbacks a legal tender sacrificed
millions to one class in•expunging a large propor-
tion of the liabilities of debtors. Men who had
lent gold on mortgage received back perhaps half
the sum as the legal repayment, and in a country
where one man's surplus is readily lent to develope
the property of his neighbour, theloss to the lending
class was enormous. The expected judgment would
exactly reverse this, making the lender the gainer,
for the sum he gave in greenbacks must be re-
funded in gold. Twice the Senate passed a bill for
• allowing contracts to be made for payment in gold,
but in each case the house of Representatives re-

fused to concur. With such a judgment hanging
over the country men.will fear to lend, to borrow,
or to make any contracts which bind them to a
money payment at a distant period. had the
Senate's bill been passed this danger would have
been avoided, for the contracts could then have
been made in gold and legally be enforced, whereas
now if gold be specified the contract is binding in
honour, but not in law. Perhaps in saying this we
go too far, as we understand that the Courts have
lately inclined to enforce specie contracts, which
with care may be so drawn out as to be legally bind-
ing. Security and a power of accurate calculation are
main elements in the prosperity of trade, in which
there are risks and liabilities enough without any
legislative addition. Although we cannot fully esti-
mate the derangement likely to ensue on such a judg-
ment, we are convinced that among so acute a people,
who so readily adapt themselves to circumstances,
they will quickly► devise expedients to meet the
case. One thing, however, looms through that
mist—a forced return to specie payments. This
will be severely felt, breaking hundreds of paper for-
tunes, and searching out everything weak and de-
ceptive. It would be a strange end for the finan-
cial quidnuncs of the United States to have arrived
at if the Supreme Court pronounces the Legal Ten-
der Act unconstitutional, that the national trade,
the second only in magnitude on earth, should be
without a currency.

A KENTUCKY JOURNAL.

From the Lexington Observer and Reporter, a semi-
weekly paper now in its 60th volume, may be
gathered the doings and politics of Kentucky. Of
course in that most Democratic of States the newspaper

is Conservative—the SEYMOUR and BLAIR " ticket"

Ln large letters preceding the leading article. The
blooming majority" given by Kentucky for

STEVENSON is alluded to with thankfulness, pride,
and exultation. From 102 counties the majority as
officially reported was 88,122, and, as ten more re-
main to be heard from, 90,000 was anticipated.

Tne estimate for the electoral vote for President is

so made up as to open the eyes of the Radicals. No
only are such doubtful States as Ohio and Pennsyl

vania calculated for SEYMOUR, but Illinois, Indiana,
Michigan, New Hampshire among the Northern,

and Alabama, Georgia, Texas, and Virginia among
the Southern. Strange to say, too, Nevada, which

even Republicans hesitate to count upon, is by the
Lexington Observer awarded to the Radicals. The
result is highly gratifying to the Kentuckians, and
must be very encouraging indeed to SEYMOUR
and-1111,Am, who are assured that they will
have a clear majority of 111 out of 315.
Mr. RANCE, the editor, is prepared either
by himself or through his friends to bet on
his list. A notice is conspicuously given that $750
had been deposited in the office to back the follow-
ing States to cast their votes for the Democratic
Presidential candidates ; "New York, Pennsylvania,

Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Connecticut, Oregon, New
Jersey, Nevada, Delaware, Nebraska; Minnesota,
Maine, and New Hampshire. From $5 to $5O
will be offered on each State, but the whole number
must be taken." The Observer is careful that
there should be no mistake about its opinions,

which in the utmost extreme are pronounced and one-
sided. Not content with its own, it everywhere culls
the most decided it can elsewhere find. Who is
organizing our negro militia ? it asks. " They who
have done so have placed Tennessee on the eve of a
terrible and most desperate struggle, which, once
begun in earnest, will only end in the utter exter-
mination of the blacks, and the heartless wretches
who urge them to their doom." " These Radicals"
seem to be panting for the inauguration of a ser-
vile war lhey want a pretext to

flood Kentucky with troops," and the article closes
with these words—" If we let the arming go on, we
may find before the November election that
these few little grains of trouble have grown
into a broad • purple harvest of death."
This has reference only to the negroes, but the fol-
lowing quotation from one of its exchanges has more
general application :—" Before we fight to regain
our liberties, let us have recourse once more to the
ballot. If we are not allowed a fair election in all
the States,
.GOD have mercy on our oppressors."
The National Intelligeßcer is quoted with evident
satisfaction, as giving " an excellent summing up
of the iniquities of Radicalism—the party of cant
and spoil, of frauds, treachery, and imposture."
To the death of THADDEUS STEVENS an article is
devoted ; " the great, bad man who has taken with
him (the editor does not say where) the brains and
hopes of the Radical party." He sighs as " he looks
back at the long black path of ruin and desolation
THADDEUS scorched and burnt into this land, and
mourns over what might have been if he had given
to patriotism what he gave to fanaticism ; if he had
thrown the heavy weight of his influence and talents
on the side of the Constitution, justice,and humanity."
There is a tone of respect for the consistency and
honesty of the deceased, which cannot be traced in
any allusion to General BUTLER. The Richmond
Examiner furnishes some enjoyable matter regard-
ing " the Beast," as it calls him, who, " though the
most callous and impenitent of thieves, has been
made to roar like a pricked bull-calf." " From all
sections of the country, from Maine to Alaska—
from the North, the South, the East, and the West
—worthless old spoons of wood, bone, horn, pew-
ter, tin, iron, and brass, pour in upon him at all
hours. The plague of spoons is becoming more un-
endurable to BUTLER than a plague of frogs. Bas-
kets of spoons are brought to him from the Post-
office, and the express carts are constantly deliver-
ing them at his door. And the donor of each spoon
accompanies his present with remarks by no means
flattering to BUTLER'S integrity. And as the spoons
are utterly worthless, they are said to drive " the
Beast" almost mad with rage. Let the people of
this country keep up this wholesome custom of
sending BUTLER spoons. Let him be reminded
every hour and day of his life that he is everywhere
remembered as a robber of plate chests. Let every
family make annually the votive offering of
a broken and battered old spoon to B. F.' "
The following gentleman then comes in for his
share :—" Ex-Governor BROWN, of Georgia, the pro-
jector and superintendent of the Andersonville pri-
son pens and overseer of Wirz, has been pardoned
by the Radical Congress, and is now president of a
GRANT club. And all the ' loyal' whelps whine
4 Amen !' " Grant is made the subject of an histori-
cal parallel, and to get one of sufficient atrocity
the history of England is ransacked to the acces-
sion of Richard 1., when a furious persecution of
the Jews took place, ending in the s-Af -destruction
of 500 of the Israelites. This furnishes a parallel
to GRANT'S edict, but the writer hopes an antithesis
also, as the Jews, instead of committing suicide, are
going to vote en masse against the tyrant.
The State news, as any one would expect in
Kentucky, begins with a free fight. A man is
found dead at the style block of his mother's resi-
dence, how, is evident by a shot hole through his
neck, and the cause of the shot hole is explained by
an attack made the previous night on the house
of Mr. MASON LUCAS, a mile distant. The vic-
tim and two brothers of Mrs. LUCAS intended to
chastise Mr. LUCAS for improper treatment of his
wife. When they arrived at the house they began
firing through the windows, and Mr. LUCAS, utterly
ignorant who were his assailants, threw himself
into the fight. Bullets were flying about in the
dark, and one of them went through JAMES Pourr-
DEXTER'S neck. In large letters an article is headed
" Ku-Klux in Paris." Here's a go ! we thought.
We have the Fenians in London, and no small scare,
but what has the French metropolis done to bring
the Ku-Klux there? A glance at the article re-
assures us, the Kentucky and not the French Paris
being meant ; and we are further assured by
the declaration, that no such organization exists
even there. Indeed, the Observer says that it
does not exist in the State, being a mere creation
of the Republican imagination to get arms for the
Southern Radicals, and to alarm the negroes into
using them. We draw the attention of subscribers
in arrears to the following use to which the Ku-
Klux may be put. The Hartsville Vidette strikes
terror into delinquents after this fashion :
Ku-KLux.! KU-KLUX !

head Qrs. Everywhere !
Dark Of The Moon ! ! ! -
Heavy Times ! ! !
Halt and Listen ! Read and turn pale in the

face ! ! Delinquent Subscribers hear your doom !!!
Pay your Subscription. The Vidette is looking for
you ! Death to Traitors !!! Send the $3 00 ! !
Pay for your Advertisements ! Look out ! Mule
in the Cellar I Dead man in the Loft ! Guilty of
Sedition if you don't send the Money ! ! !
By Order of
Two Cyclopses,
(Big Ones.)
If this produc:s any result, we shall have a pleasing
recollection of what the Ku-Klux have done for as.
But the Observer is not content with a hint
to subscribers only. Alluding to STEPHEN GIB'
nAnn, it shows that he made his immense
wealth by a lavish and judicious system of
advertising, which he considered to be the great
medium of success in business, and the prelude to
wealth. "And I have made it an invariable rule,
too, to advertise iu the dullest times as well as the
busiest, long experience having taught me that
money thus spent is well laid out."
" Our city," says the Editor, " has been the
Athens of the West'—just stop a moment and
listen how finely that sounds —' Lexington, the
Athens of the West.' Grand isn't it ? Makes
one feel proud, don't it? Well, this same
Athens has a public library, that after a°
existence of more than sixty years can nail'
ally
-boast of no less than eleven thousand volumes,
two hundred yearly readers, and a probable yearly
addition of a hundred books. Look at it again.
Only eleven thousand volumes accumulated in
sixty-seven years ! Only two hundred readers out
of a population of over twenty thousand souls, and
the insignificant number of one hundred volumes
added each year. Does that sound very Athenian?
It strikes us that one puncture of that needle
ought to cause the expanding bubble pf our pride
to collapse at once. What liberal-minded citizen
will not blush to see this mortifying staterael
which shameful as it is is none the less true.
From this interesting subject the editor turns
" chicken thieves, who are getting thick again, or
rather continue thick, for they have never decreased
in number. We are constantly hearing of numbers
of chickens being stolen, and the thieves don't sea'
to hesitate to almost walk right into the house of ter
them. If some of our citizens could succeed is
' peppering' some of these light-fingered gentor
pretty soundly it would be a good thing.
the meanwhile we would advise chickens to roost
high and sleep with their legs drawn up and one
eye open." We like to pick up stray papers fr°lll.
the Union, where they grow and disappear lik;
mushrooms, although the one we now discuss is 0!
beyond the average life of European journals. 31/
skimming their contents we get more actual infor;
mation of what is going on in the neighbourhood
than in any other way, and thus treated, then foll
novel and amusing reading.—Anglo-Anzerican

Captain Joseph J. Comstock, best known in cons
nection with the steam coasting lines of America/ arl
chiefly while in command of a vessel on the Californfl
route, has just died. He was the captain of the Baltic, sa
afterwards of the Adriatic, belonging to the Collins' Cours
pany. In 1859 he delivered the General Admiral to O
Russian Government ; in 1863, the ironclad Re Balls to
the Italian Government; and last year, the Dunderberg
the Freneh, all three having been built in New York. f t
Professor 'Watson, of Detroit, Michigan, is
studding the heavens with new planets. He has 7„-- -
0
covered his fourth for 1868, situated—Right Ascena;t;
358 deg. 24 min. ; Declension, 0 dog. 48 min. south•
apparent motion is now west and north 34 seconds of OD°
in the Right Ascension, and four minutes of arc in Pe

clension.
General Thomas, who commands the distric
which is Tennessee, is preparing for bad times. The 0
of the country is something dreadful, the Governor b4li° of
called out 30,000 men to suppress insurrection. A 901.1ØØ131
free fights seem to be progressing all over the State'
the China we learn that secret armed Democratic organii
zations are being formed in Missouri, liontuoirb

Tennessee. tll°
Mrs. E. C. Stanton had a pleasant chat with „
Celestials during their visit to Mr. Seward at Althe'bs".
Chin-Tajen, who in Buffalo harbour was destined °to
nearly drowned, assured the lady that the women tlibisi
United States are abler than the mon, astonishioc,
_err
with their excessive composure and independence. Se .I,g
tarp Seward's sister, Mrs. Warden, being bent on hay.th
h r vote—so Mrs. Stanton says—supplies a marl °lto
lodgings and salary on the condition that he should Ye
as she dictated.
Senator Thos. Hendricks, of Indiana, is Pcrd°:o
cratic candidate for Governor of that State, and he
meet his opponent—Mr. Baker, the Republican condi
—in a joint discussion. P'
It is said that Andrew Johnson will visit •
illg
land after the expiration of his Presidential tern)•
appearance will surprise many to whom General Vet :3,,/
photographs were sold as correct likenesses of "tucl'.
Johnson. a 1131'
It is said that the brain of General C.
pine weighed 56 ounces, being 63 above the aeo3t
Cuvier's brain weighed 644 ounces, and this is the g1,;,,,ag
known. Daniel Webster's weighed 63.1 ounces, blito.ol tOn
net in a healthy state, and his cranium was the I°l-',
record, being 122 cubic inches. Dr. Abercrombie'b
weighed 63 ounces. f tforci'
The will of the late Alfred Smith of f 01"
disposes of $250,000. His public .bequests were
" jjoS.
lows :—Hartford Orphan Asylum, $36,000; Ilartfncroeietit
pital, $18,000; American Homo MissionarY
$lB,OOO ; American Bible Society, 'slB,ooo ;
0.
Tract Society, $9,000; American Missionary Ages-1. Dl
$9,000 ; A.-F. and C. Union, $9,000 ;A.
$ 9 ,Aolor. Louis
Prevost, of San Jose,
well kr: iltbl
California in connection with the culture 01 silk
country, thatabosomute
to
of the best Ftroench ja, 0
tr
inY
silk-growersslys
are
the express purpose of establishing thetnesaelli°vfer: iti
the
business. for he
Robert Ould, Confederate Commissioner.e, ot,
exchange of prisoners, prints a long comrellntc,iti for c'tllo
Washington intelligence). of Aug. 20, inter but pee
paign purposes. It contains little that is new,,,, ochg
old story that the military authorities refuse-I
frl
ont
men in health for Union prisoners.
An Indian princess received, when FUR, Deegi3O
a train at La Crosse, so severe an injury that 'This Sat
necessary to amputate the leg to save her life. be die 1110
resolutely refused, and mortification setting in jater °f
Tunnel City. Wau-ne-be-winka was the dang toJeftiscl
head Winnebago chief Dandy OOP etesc,(oo'
tree close to a village in the South 03-3 she
with Indians, and in her last moments ,he p',llrlo
menced chanting her death-song. Durini d'iaa 0,3-a a
while she lay dressed in state, the "..,,,°„-tito,
threw into her tent strings of beads and wawr aide. -tor,
little sack of rice and tobacco was placed bY iLera.o orgi„at
was buried a few feet from the great Winnentors,!;64
Watt-kon De-ko-ray, who was also killed by thieyesfilas,
years ago. An old Indian, with folded hands mints as "1 of
on heaven, traced the periods of the Princess's '
bt'recitglife.
trated by the sun's course, closing with an (Arne, of her ,Dt
the brave and devoted act which marked the eca," t bit
The evening train at ten o'clock from the fast tl ati
the old chief, Dandy, and he heard then for the d Wig
after his daughter's burial of the injury that int
her death. declared
The Savage Mining CompanY. bas deell'rTll°
dividend of $lO per share. Crown POla hast •oo
dividend of $5 per share, payable on Angus jell 11-90
earnings of the Central Pacific Railway for ,54 to
$260,000 in gold, the road being operates troy:,
miles during the period. 0135 g
It is said that a wealthy banker 111
claims to be a cousin of General Grant.
tlnfeehle
[ADVERTISEMENT. I—Holloway's tits
ence.—This medicine embraces every attr the .
in a general and domestic remedy ; it overtur_ll;ropuryl:l,
dations of diseaso laid by indigestible food an"' s bole
orln aoubystorutbcteironosrgoarric,otnbgeesestiponilsleofarteheelai;:ialit;l:opsgetl'ivaiceeo4ool3l
and eminently successful. They should be
eapeurssoen
psaiaundortho lt fe"oefeit
family, as they are a medicine without a -all oey .„.0
ervee c),,r1;;IfIt;
irritates of
tender bowels. Holloway's pills are the bebt sbaernooo
and secretion, which remove all poisonous n`' fiers of the blood, and the best promoters:l, oto3o'
particles from both solids and fluids.
tfbeeebraleocatonesetuitauittlovues;„
„lo
_to

B-,........--------------------0R
.....
Henryti I. Boger, R.N.,
C Acltzat
rib ofir athsos... (.1°
Oni the 4th inst., at Hyde, the Wife Of Colailllall
C li a r I e. . . crnHanet
So d i au
aNt.
It
nE<II
b' —sihi'l
el t —On
HEATH Esq.,B.A.,'T.C.D., of a, danglitc, • _iie e.
to .:lineel.°ll.ll,'
I.M. s Customs, Marriages.
Lonoftiolo.2, Great RtlsSe
,inst., at 95, Gower-stroeiti,..sttlire; of
el),
olttlr
Giles
raf'
EN—On the 3d inst. at St. "1 ISo ~cl.l
Svt:e_rrio,i claticietiii:,EtsEitishq:nst. at Clapham, the wife of 0.09:f
of f, , , Ll,',dowoalryd
dSarouugth, etse,rE
01,
joo'fhloliisii
anvi.° utic'e 0 I '
ba''''
j,, ,
TOWNSEND A t St. ,00`"
ilAur.s.-sELL—On the 3d inst., a- „.L.,olovt
s`?"—Cradley, Malvern, Richard li• "., the 11,
-;',2:l,lliet Lit orryeloyne, c:mnty Cork, and We o_ll wto.
-11,_(.,111 , n,, 4.,u Frances Maria. elder daughter
0
Ma nsell, Lsq., of Bray, county Wicklow.
Deaths.
. —On the 3d inst at Rugby, Diary Chri6ti° ei3 Of
BENN ~ rich.
aged 83. P
DuNDAs—On the 2d inst., at QueensberrY ile,r ~
mood, Admiral Sir John Dandas, Batt., ago' ' DtiPel
GAblettatfAhT:ri—loOrtns, the 3d ionzsat.r,atatt, Craven Cottage, n,
PitIESTLEY—On the 4th inst. at EBs,4ll''hgioend ‘:1\711.1.135' icie'T
ham, John S. Priestley, Es'q., aged 73. cord, '
PILLING—On the 3d inst., at Upper Norwood,
Pilling, of Longside, near Glasgow, as
44.
NDIFOII
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London : Printed and Published by WILLTIA. -
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of No. 112, Strand, Printer, at Tun SUN Ofile'o2oeti
Strand, in the Precinct of the Savoy, in the
, I,lladlesex.—lslonday, September 7, 180,

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