Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1858-1860, 1858-10-02
to have bad the annnrohation of Mr.. Webster.

to have bad the appreciation of Mr.. Webster,
which contained provisions looking to the
regulation of the currency. If the Govern
ment has no power to regulate the currency,
it fails in one of its great purposes.
Sir, agree with the President in the views
he has expressed in his message on this sub
ject, so far as to admit that the banks must
bear some share of the responsibility for the
late Revision; but l insist that, so far as an
undue expansion or increase of their circula-
ton is concerned, they appear to have kept
no more than an even pace with what seemed
the increasing business and prosperity of the
country. By the returns of the condition of
the banks made to the Treasury, it appears
that the average of their issues of notes in
the last five years did not exceed one hundred
and ninety millions, and that not more than
one hundred and seventy-ive millions was at
any time in actual circulation-not more
than some political economists have estimated
might be safely circulated when the trade and
bu mess of the country are successfully and
actively prosecuted.
But, to whatever degree the banks may
have contributed to the late commercial and
monetary arrangement by affording improv-
ident facilities TO over-trading and specula-
ton, they were very far from being at the
root of the evil. as l shall attempt to show.
Sir, the Government cannot escape its share
of the responsibility for the consequences of
the late revulsiOn, by the bold and confident
manner in which the banks are assailed as the
sole cause of it. / propose to inquire whether
the Government, or those who have so long
administered it. are altogether free from blame
or censure. Does no responsibility rest upon
them? We shall see.
First, l wish to bring to the notice of the
Senate the fact that, from 1851 to 1857,
inclusive, embracing period of six years. the
amount of coin and bullion imported into
the United States was only SAP, l37 .430, and
that in the same period there was exported
1892, 19953l showing an excess of gold and
silver exported over the amount imported of
S2S9.762 l01; but it is now quite certain that
neither the President nor the Secretary of
the Treasury had ever turned their attention
to the commercial or financial condition of
the country until they were suddenly
awakened to a sense of danger by the suspen-
sion of the New York banks.
That the Secretary of the Treasury or the
President did not see anything that deserved
serious notice in the continued and rapid
withdrawal of the gold and silver for so many
years is manifested from the fact that, even
when the storm came, neither of them knew
or suspected from what quarter it came, or
what was likely to be the extent of it. They
could make no calculations of that from amy
thing they knew of the preceding state or
condition of the commerce of the cOuntry;and
suppOsing that it was but sudden squall
which would soon blow over, they actually
went on to pay, out of the still diminishing
resources of the Treasury, seventeen per cent.
premium for the privilege of redeeming the
public debt; and continued to do so as long
as any certificates of debt were presented
But. Mr.. President, wish to call attention
to the doctrines and sentiments of a gentleman
who has given more of his attention to
subjects of this nature than the Secretary of
the Treasury or the President; | mean the
distinguished Sena tor from Virginia, (Mr.
HUNTER.) He utterly ignores the idea that
there was anything in the state of the cx
Changes-any significance in the fact that
millions and millionsof coin and bullion were
annually flowing out of the country as has been
the case for the last sevenyears-as worthy of
particular observation or notice He
considers gold and silver as commodities: that
their expectation, whether large or small in
quantity. is no more to be considered in
reference to the sound or unsound state of
the currency and trade of the country than
any other product. The honorable Senator
has reputation as gentleman skilled in
questions of finance, and | should like TO
hear him on this point; but it will be most
prudent for the honorable Senator TO be silent
on this question. For the last quarter of a
century, from the period Of 1892 at least, if
not dating back to the revulsioa ofI825, and
from that time to the present, the doctrine
that the only criterion of a redundant paper
circulation or of an excessive issue of bank
notes in any country, is the effiuX of coin
and bullion, and that the state of the foreign
exchanges may always be relied upon as an
infallible index of the condition of the
currency. in this respect may be said to have
been firmly established. 1t was first clearly
elucidated in 1926, fully sustained by the
evidence given before the Parliamentary
committee in 1882, and afterwards sanctona
ed by an act of Parliament in 1874, impera-
lively requiring the observance of it in the
issue of the Bank of England notes; and it
now appears to be permanently engrafted
into the policy of that Government.
And yet the honorable Senator from Vir-
GINA undertakes to state that there is nothing
but mere theory In all this. tina. 1t Is OF no
value in practice; and insists that gold is
only commodity, and subject to the laws of
trade and barter like other products. If he
had chosen to go with the elucidation of his
theory upon the subject he would doubtless
have said that we get those large supplies of
gold and silver from California, that they are
the staple products of the labor of that State,
and are exported just as other commodities
are. This has been the invariable response
to me whenever, within the last three or four
years, have expressed apprehensions that We
were upon the eve of a commercial crisis
The answer was invariably there is no danger
it is the extraordinary yield Of gold in Cali
fornia and Australia that. both in America
and Europe. has stimulated commerce in a
degree unequalled in the history of either
hemisphere. | was not convinced by this
view of the case, though each successive year
of series tended to confirm the delusioh
that there was no danger of a revulsion.
TsPEECH To BE CONTINUED