The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1855-04-05

81 September.
Il is, indeed condition of our commercial
being that there .hould be crises and revulsions
at regular intervals Extravaganza hastenss "A
mult,pli,s them; but no thrift or frd, .,;,v
could prevent them altogether, SO lon 20 tbs
currency remains in its present oond;,ion
When the constitution was fran" 4 tbs mower
was given 10 Congress to re ,u,,te c,n,nerce
with foreign nations, and among tho ssvera,
States" How has THE power been used? By
an incredibl e fatr-6t of which the caase must
be sought in .he financial disasters of the colo
nisi histo' 3 d these States and Of the revolu-
nonaiy periodicals power has been almost
whoi y neglected by Congress. A bankrupt
aW/ has teen passed twice (under separate
T>Sovis'on of the constitution, but for specific
purposes, and or limited period which has
never been prolonged A tariff or rather about
twelve tariffs have been adopted since the Revo-
ution, the frat having for their sole object to
evy 5uty to support the government, some
Of The later ones superadding and indeed subor-
dinating to this the futile desire to protect GER
tain specific interests here by q tax on all
others. But with these exceptions, commerce
has been practically unnoticed by the United
States The important power respecting the
"coining of money" in other words the estab-
lisbment Of currency, has been wholly neg
lected and unused. The States have done
| their best to make amends for the inaction Of
Con gress by delegating to others powers which
| the constitution denied to themselves. Though
they were expressly debarred from" emitting
80 - thau do ohiacA{np tn cha
tering banks with power to emit such bills,
and the consequence is that there are at pre-
sent in round humble rs twelve hundred banks
| in the United States wholly Independent of the
federal authority on point which it was the
| design of the constitution Congress shoald tor
ever control.
1t seems probable that mach of our cemmer-
cial trouble may be referred to this anomaly.
| Had Congress, instead Of drawing division
| line between its own financial straits and those
Of the country, and providing for theOne by
public bank while the others were left TO seek
ay system they pleased, had Congress boldly
followed the example of the greater States of
Europe, and regulated the currency once and
forever by formal act, covering the whole
ground, and not to be altered or contraveued
by any authority short Of Congress itself, it
seems highly probable that the rewulsions
which have che ckered our commercial history
| at regular intervals since 1916 might have
been averted. At all events, one class Of solid
institutionr-solid banks-might have been
secured Folly, foreign disa ter or ,extrava-
| gapce would still Of course have ruined mer-
chants; but they could not have affected The
banks, working under an invariable federal
law, and the commerce of the country would
have possessed a unity and q strength that
would have defed ephemeral causes of trouble.
We see one of the consequences in the periodical
bank expansions followed by corresponding
contra ctions the more violent of which
amount to crises. Another consequence Of
this feature of federal policy has been that
whenever the merchants or manufacturers have
's"a inen0irnCy % tne currency system, and
run to Congress for help, that sagacious body
has Immediately grati6ed them by tiDkering
tie only power it had left, the revenue power.
1t would pass a new tariff The story of the
French monomaniac who went about with his
pockets full of Opera tickets, distributing them
TO every one who made any request to him of
whatever nature, and could not be persuaded
that he had not acted charitably in giving
them to poor starving beggar woman with |
TWO babies IN her arms, was fair type of Con- |
gress According to its majority new tariff |
was sure to relieve any distress. Like the iu-
evitable calomel of the old school ply siclaus it
was good for every thing; If it didn't answer,
the reason was that the dose had not been large
enough. Every one knows what the result of
this style of calomei practice was, and no " in
variably the physician used to say, as he
wake d behind the coffin A few larger doses
might have saved him This is exactly what
we have been hearing from the manufacturers
and other protectionists for ever SO many years.
When they got into trouble, having borrowed
more money than they could repay and been
suddenly called upon for it by the banks.
they ran to Congress for aid. Mr.. Clay or
some other great political economist gave
them tariff with high duties, and
they returned home in high glee. But
very soon it was apparent that the only
result of the high tariff was to make it a
trifie harder for farmers and others to live
that il poured money into the government cof-
iers, not the manufacturers and that the
latter balanced as before between bankruptcy
md plethora By the capricious bank system
were as badly of as before. Then they woald
go again to Congress and complain that the
dose had not been large enough, the duties not
lign enough. II Mr.. Clay and his friends were
troDg at the time, the larger dose was m ade
lp and passed; and again, after short while,
&c protectiohists found themselves worse of
han ever.
met better history of our tariffs need va
Fan this What nj .iner ANnlnnn lion hnth of /