New-York daily tribune., 1857-10-02
CONSTITUTIONAL VIEW OF THE
CRISIS.

To ne Editor Of The n. L. Tyibane.
SIR: In your excellent and comprehensive article on
the present fnsncial crisis, in Saturdays TRIBUNE
YOU very Justly obterve: "An that can ever be rea.
"soIably asked Of our Banks, aud certainly all thst
"we are ever likely to get s, that they should be
managed with average skill" &c, aud that they
"exist for the primary obie,t Of making money for
"thoae who own the stock"-very clear and truthful
statements If the people will have rumshops, they
must expect constant crop Of rows stabbings mur-
ders and other destruction; and so if they will have
paper.money Banks, they will regularly suffer Just
such monetary confusion ard disaster they are now
enduring Such crises are inseparabe from our paper.
money system. Nicholas Biddle who may be con-
sceed pretty good authority this subject, says by
an ire vtabe Law Of s nature our mixed currency is
constantly fuctuatiDg from expansions and "good
times" to contrsctions pressures and hard times,
anc during those revolutions running thousands.
But is there any why the great laboring and
business casses and indeed ninety nine hundredhs of
our whole people, should he continually tormented by
these monetary pancs, pressures and runl Not at
all for if governors legislators and judges had not
practically violated ignored the Constitution OF the
United States, which they all swear to observe, the
grand catastrophe of 1887 would have been unknown,
as well the thousand lesser pressures since that day
up to the advent Of the present nanciatOrnado Tha.
Constitution intended money should be gold and
silver; but the shorsgttcd if not corrupt policy of
legislators has fed the channels Of circulation with
bank promises 70 pay" and to-day widespread ruin
and irterse suffering are the penal and unavoidable
consequences.
This unconstitutional paper money is British insti.
tuition, and, while Br sh inanciers and statesmen
keep up its credit and existence in this country they
will keep us in vassalage more degrading than CO.
lonia serytade aud thousand times more profitable
TO them; while despoiling us of our gold and silver
through the agency Of paper money and its nsnciers,
without the trouble ard expense of employing an
army ard navy to make the seizure. As nation, we
have been and are the victims of patent safe
rsme Of the submest magnitude.
II we could persuade our codnuymen to commence
at once in tie several States the gradual dsuse of re-
ceiviIg bank ssues in payment Of public dues, till az
the erd of five years nothing should be received but
gold snd silver, ard banks prohibited from Issuing any
note under $lOo we should soon begin to realize
steady prosperity, such this country has never yet
eIjoyed.
We could then not only exchange productions with
Europe or fair terms, but would manufacture and ex
port TO them many things which now almos. ex-
clusively import. We might soon begin to pay oil
that five hundred millions Of dollars, which The Lon-
don Times says we owe Great Britain, causing year
" drain of Thirty millions for interest alone. This un
wise debt the natural child Of psper money as
can easily be shown; and, so far as the different
"bonds" under which il is claimed were emitted by
States or pretended to be authorized by them, those
bonds are lkew ise unconstitutional.
You have in these columns, many months ago, warn
ed the suers of those bonds that they effsctu
gln;. md llat
they would bring the country to its present condition
But the very nature of the business, the warnings
could not but be unheeded till too lste 1t has close
analogy to the Individual preaching Of Temperance,
while the State legalizes dram-shOp at every cornec
With the magnificent but natural protection to our
industry that would ensue from the establishment of
tie constitutional currency Of gold and silver there
would be no necessity Of dancing attendance on cor
ruptbe Congress to get this or tha. cass Of industry
more or less all the heartburnings ana
eaou.ies always and justly, attending this anheah-
full mode Of taxation.
l. is stating the effect Of the reform far too modestly
perhaps to cay that we should under the specie cur
rency realize protection Of at least hundred per
cent compared with our present tariff and soon be pre-
pared to abandon large proportion OF custom-house
e,penses, and iax-eaters connected herewith. The
moral Improvement Of society would be in ratio fully
conmensuI ate with the financial.
OF course nominely, prices Of labor and its pro-
ducts real estate &c, would be much less than now
but there would be these great gains to labor over ts
present remuneration Business would then, as IL
ought, be generally for cssh-saving an enormous
amount of interest psid for the use OF millions OF
miserable bank currercy-couped with the great
advantages Of constantly diminishing amount of bad
debts, failures and "dul tines" All these items
world probably augment the pay Of labor, in effect
one quarter at least.
especially businessmen, mechanics
ard vorkipgmer-shall we not then, in this State, at
the approaching session Of the Legislature naugurate
the Cor sttutoral Treasury 80 that in five years we
may be able to defy the recurrence OF such purely
artificial, Unnatural and unnecessary disresses as no"
oyerwhelm the interests Of business and labor!
The only trouble will be in the transition. To meet
the difficulties Of the transition, let an equitable ad
ustmen. Of indebtedness be made on the basis Oh sne
volume of tie cunercy at the time Of contracting anu
paying debt With such an adjustment, we cou'd
easily ard safely make the entire proposed reform a.
orce Time or bankruptcy mast otherwse act 10 "eu
of such adjustment but probably less benenciay or
fairly for slI concerned. fKAN"LH'