The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1857-12-24
FINANCIAL MEAsUREs-THE TREASURY
NOTE BILL-GENERAL BANKING.


premium. 1t professed to be DESTROYS to min
lister to the relief of the People, by putting in
circulation the surplus gold of the Government;
and as the Public Mind was then distracted by
pecunisry anxieties, it was not disposed to crit
icise policy apparently well-intentioned. 1t
may be questioned, however, whether the Pee
pie generally derived any benefit from it. Scar
city of gold was not the cause of our troubles,
but long course of extravsgance and exces.
sive credit. The gold dislodged from the
Treasury, flowed into the Banks, which, after
all, suspended, or into the hands of men who
would loan st out at usurious rates or shave the
irredeemable issues of the Banks at ruinous
discount. The country on the whole would
have been just as well off, bad the precious
metal remained in the Treasury.
Had the Administration possessed ordinary
forecast, it would have foreseen that the wide
spread revulsion, the interruption in the ex-
changes, the universal panic, and the paralysis
of business, must of course arrest the operations
of buying and selling, and especially the pur.
chase of foreign goods. The inevitable decrease
of imports, the consequent reduction of revenue,
together with the uncertainty still attending the
operation of the Tariff act of the last session,
designed to diminish revenue, ought to have
admonished it to husband, instead of dissipating,
the large surplus in the Treasury. But, it acted
throughout the crisis as if utterly ignorant of
its true nature, and blind to its necessary con-
sequences. Had the Republicans succeeded
last fall, and their Administration pursued a
similar course, the country would ere this have
resounded with fierce clamors against its folly.
In little while, as might have been expect
ed, Secretary Cobb was obliged to withdraw
HE advertisements, and shut the Treasury door !;
and in conformity with his report, the Presi.
dent, in his message, calls upon Congress to
authorize him to issue Treasury notes, which
means precisely this-thst the Administration
is out of money-has suspended specie pay
ment, and desires authority to pay its dues by
promises.
Last week, a bill to authcrizs the issue of
Treasury Notes was introduced in the Senate,
and, after good deal of discussion, passed last
Saturday evening. A similar bill presented in
t HfRdt aG dsou siaS NJ. ." f"-' II -"
The call is for authority to issue So, ZOO, 900,
in notes Of q denomination not less than 500,
or $50, bearing interest not more than per
cent
The Republican Senators succeeded at first
IN restricting the period within which such issue
should be allowed, to one year, but failed in re
ducing the amount to Sl0,OOO,00O.
We shall not record the debates that took
place in the Senate. Some of the Republican
Senators took occasion to discourse on the
cause of the monetary troubles, ascribing them
to the Tariff of 1916, whicI failed to protect
American industry, and stimulated foreign i'm.
portations. One was at special pains to sig.
nalize himself as the champion of Banks, es.
pecially those of Rhode Island, the first, we
believe, to suspend, and which still refuse to
resume, although the New England Banks gen.
orally have resumed, following the example of
New York.
Differences of opinion prevail on thsse top
les, not only among Republicans, but among
Democrats, so called. Advocates of the Bank.
ing system and a Protective Tariff are not con.
fined to either Party; neither Party is commit.
ted to the policy of Hard Money and Free
Trade. While the Republican States of New
England and New York are resuming specie
payments, the Pro-Slavery Democratic States
OF Alabama and Georgia are legalizing the
suspension Of their Banks, and the Pro-Slavery
Democratic State of Pennsylvania has also au.
thorized suspension by law and certainly no
StSte takes precedence of the last in devotion
to the policy of Protection.
We can see no force in the considerations
presented by the Protectionists of the Senate.
1t would be instructive to know how mucb of
the vast debt due in Philadelphia and New
York to the Rhode Island banks with their in.
tnitesimal amount of specie) is owing by mer.
chants doing legitimate business, by importers.
and by spectators in cotton, sugar tobacco.
grain, stocks, and wild lands. Full statistics of
this kind in relation to all the banks would sbow
whether they have been operating for the pub.
Inc benefit, or for the benefit of spectators, at
the expense of the common good. The People
would never have been saddled with so extray.
agant prices for the necessaries of life, but for
aid rendered by banks to spectators, whose
adventure, and at the cost of the People.
AS to foreign importations being the cause
OF our troubles, we can only wonder that men
OF sense can permit themselves to be so misled.
LIVING within ones means is safe living ND
to ones means is hazardous living beyond
ones means is ruin, soon or late, but inevita
BILE. Living and trading beyond ones means
IS the root of the evil: for delay the day of
reckoning as we may, it must come, and then
bursts the bubble of our prosperity.
There is nothing in the import trade more
than IN other enterprises to tempt to extrav.
agance or excessive credit. Haste to be rich
Is characteristic of modern civilization cane.
ciaily OF the civilization of commercial States
pre-eminently, of the most prosperous States
Americans generally, engaged in trade. are
not satisfied with moderate profits, with slow
gains. They would leap into wealth and
there is nothing they viii not speculate in. Iso.
late the country, shut out foreign trade and
foreigners as jealousy as japan has attempted
to do, and you have not changed the passions
or circumstances which lead to monetary re.
verses and revulsions. Men will be as extray.
agant in the use of home products as of for.
eign; men will speculate as largely and reck.
lessly in home produces as foreign; and 30