Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1845-1854, 1847-06-30


tive proportion. between the two m etals and
.at.that it was fixed in the bill Of 1894. but
not without the. greatest exertion on his
part, backed by the whole inauence of the
President, and sustained By daily and, ener-
getic articles in the Globe Newspaper, the
official administration paper !. -. =.
Thesratio was establ blished at Is to i; and
the. event soon proved thai it was right.
Gold poured into the United dStates from all
countriesaand silver was Hat driven out.
AS muchsas seyenteea nil have enter
ed the country in q sins1e year, probably
ataf ataantify yesr. In the
thirteen years that have elapsed sincegthe
passage of the bill NEARLY one hundred mill
ions OF gold have been imported, and that
without displacing silver On every bank
counter, and on every brokers', gold is
seen lying by the side of silver; you take
your choice, except when gold is wanted
in quantity as remittence in place ofa
bill of exchange. Then a small premium,
but not more than the ecurrentexchange is
paid. The banks have gold-the brokers
have 1.-THE people have it. What was
once promised, and laughed at as ridicu-
lous, is now seen every day as reality:
gold flows up the Mississippi, and glitters
through the interstices of the silken purse!
Thus it is with the people, the banks,
and the brokers; and how is it with the
federal government, and especially in the
state of war in which we find ourselves?
We have war now, and no national bank;
we are as we were in the war of 1872, in
that respect. War tries systems of finance,
and this war with Mexico is more severe
trial than that of 1912, because the expens-
es are greater, and the war carried on in
foreign country, where no paper, bank or
governmental-not even the notes of the
king bank, if it, still surviyed-would an
swer any one purpose. Gold alone will do
for the Mexican war; without it, the war
could not go on. Silver would be too cum
brous: paper-trash. How stands the ques-
ton of currency, loans, and credit with the
federal government? You have seen how
this question stood with this government in
19l2:ss you see how it stands with them
now. On the 10th day of April last the
government got loan-eighteen millions
Of dollars-all gold, and at a premiuml-
More than that! Offers to lend the same,t to
the amount of fifty-seven millions Of dol
lars, were made at the same time; and the
offerers, grieyed at their fail
ure, attacked the; administration in the
for favoritism, and not giving
them fair chance This israther differ
ent from what it was in the war of 1912.
And as it is with loans, so it is with stocks
and treasury notes-all above par, and all
exchangeable for gold-the government
paying everybody in gold; and the only
two really distressed men he had seen in
Missouri were a couple of the government
agents subtreasurerr and paymaster-both
nearly buried in heaps of gold, and crying
out for wagons to come and relieve them.
Who says humbsig now? But he was good
and compromising. He was will
ling to compromise. If they would keep
the gold now they have got it, he would
never remind any body of the times when
his arrival in village would be onnounc-
ed about thus: The gold humb9g has come
10 to,on! No matter: he did not get angry
then, and he laughed now; but still he had
one thing to ask, and that was that the peo-
pie would keep the gold currency now they
hadit! and to do tn hatthey must Danish pa
per, small paper, as he had urged them to
do so long. Gold cannot live long in the
Of small paper: it cannot en-
dure the smell Of lampblack and rags.
The revival Of the gold currency was
one of the glories Of the Jackson admins
tration: without ispoWerful cooperation
the great measure could not have been car
ried The Independent Treasury. the hand
maid and indispensable complement to the
gold currency, was glory of the admin
of Mr.. Van Buren, The tornado
of the Tyler interregnum-a tempest in
tea -pot-had overthrown that institution:
it was now re-establshed# under the Polk
administration, and was doing we'll. 1t was
severely tried at the start-the state of war
existing, which so severely tries the virtue
Of all institutions, and especially of finance.
The Independent treasury was doing well,
and would continue to do we'll while de-
mocracy was triumphant. 1t was founded
in the nature of things, and was an indis-
pensible complement, fulillment, Of the
gold currency system. 1t was founded in
the nature of things, for public and private
money should never be mixed; public mo-
ney should never be embarked in the haz-
ards of trade, speculation, or banking; it
should never be put where the government
could not command it, where the govern
ment hand could not be laid upon it at any
moment It is necessary to the7system OF
the gold currency, for it pays out, without
premium, the gold which it receives, and
thus distributes it among the people. Not
so the banks. Even the best of them, and
the king bank above all, acted differently;
they took the goldto themselves, consider
ed it their own-sold it for a premium, or
exported it-and then paid the government
creditors in their own notes. The'inde-
pendent treasury corrects this procedure,
and is the only thing that can correct it. 1t
is the only thing that can cause the gov
ernment gold to be paid out to the people;
it is the only thing that can save the peo-
pies. money from becoming involved in the
hazards Of trade, speculation, banking,
stock -jobbing. and all the double contin-
gencies of individual and corporation mis-
management, folly and crime. tits now
established lis working meritoriously-
and heneelorth will be one ofthe land marks
Of party, never to pretermitted in the
~ - \ L. H. ,rk