The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1861-09-06
Confederate Finances.
4 NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN VIEI

tried, and as often failed, of making the
shadow perform the Office Of substance by
assuming that mere promise can have all
the attributes Of property. Symbols may
be taken for time, but then only under a
belief that what they represented will be
forthcoming when called for. All curren~
cies are repudiated the moment it is suspect
ed that they cannot be Immediately paid in
gold and silver. Iteven matters not how
well they may be secured by property
which, in turn, may be converted into coin,
The world is full of such illustrations, and
upon a much grander scale than are fur
nished in commercial or banking operations.
| The two most celebrated are the Continents
al money, or currency, issued by Congress
during the war of the Revolution, and the
0sstgnats issued by the French Government
| during the Revolution in that country. In
neither case had the people the means
for the purchase of the securities of the
Government issuing them; and, OF course,
had not the means for providing Ell
Their the principal or interest of the debts or
obligations contracted. AS this fact forced
itself upon the public mind, they gradually
sank in value, so that in this country a dol
lar in coin could not be purchased by one
hundred dollars in Government paper. So
utterly baseIess and dscredted was this
that it was funded in the financial scheme
| OF Mr.. Hamilton, at one hundred dollars TO
one, and hardly any complaint was made
! that the new Government was not liberal in
recognizing it at all. 1t had a common
| history OF all such issues. At first it was
taken at par As it sank in public estima-
ton the amount was increased till ten,
twenty and thirty dollars, and so on was
paid ont in discharge OF debts and in max
ing purchases, when only dollar in actual
value was due or to be received. The
French aSslgnGts Jared still worse, not shar-
ing even tie dignity of recognition by
the Government succeeding that which IS
sued them.
Such is the fate of all impostures of the
kind. 1t is the same with individuals as
with governments. It is a maxim OF law
that promise without consideration is void.
1t will always be avoided il fact, whether
legally void or not. Once commenced, it is
not long BEFORE such promises so tar exceed
the means OF payment that they cannot be
performed, 10 matter how good may be the
disposition Of the parties making them.
Our government thought itself able to pay
only one per cent. OF the Continental cur
rency. Ii was this or nothing The amount
paid will in all cases correspond to the
amount received.
The COntederates are Just now repeating
this great lie of promises without considera,
ton, only in modified form. Their gov
eminent wants money, but there is none
among the people. They have been APP
pealed to II every form, and tempted by
several kinds of securities. First came the
S15,000,0O0 loan, secured by an export
on cotton. \ portion of this loan was
forced upon the people, but only portion
OF 1t, so far as we can learn, was ever taken
AS cotton is not likely to be exported, ex-
cept under the auspices of the National
Government, the security OF the loan speed>
lily vanished. Then came the S50,000,000
loan, which has been paid out and used, if
used at all, very much after the fashion of
our Continental currency and the asSfgaats
But this no longer answers. The great de-
sideratum to a legitimate loan-means or
the part Of the people--ls wanting. 1t
brings no money for the great reason that
the people have none at all equal TO the
wants OF the Government, Oh which they
are willing to risk upon its PROMISES
The devise reserted to in such case is
to collect into the public treasury what
ln times OF peace could be converted
into money-the produce of the country
The fertile and imaginative genius Of the
South tancies that the government can do
what the people cannot, reversing all the
received maXims in political economy, that
the people can do what government eau
not, Tor the very good reason that the latter
has no faculty or Junction for commercial
affairs. But under the influence OF climate
and OF their peculiar institutions, the South
ern people, tested by any normal standard,
have long been stark mad they have al
ways entertained the most contemplate
opinion of the wealth and power Of the
North, and OF the magnitude of their own.
Such is the excess OF their folly, they are
no sooner driven from one absurdity than
they take refuge in another ten times more
extravagant, and now place their hopes of
salvation in subscriptions, ia aid of govern
ment, payable in cotton, sugar and tobacco,
no considerable portion of which car be
used at home, and not pound exported
except DO the permission OF the government
they are seeking to overthrow.
Upon such fiction rests the rebels cause
All their issues of securities have really less
value than the continental currency or as.
signats. They may for little time be
taken, but being worthless, they will soon
be esteemed to be such. 1t cannot fail to
be so, nnless a lie has the same strength
and permanency as truth-unless shade"
is as solid as substance. And with the eX-
plosion of their financial system must be
that of their cause.-The latter rests upon
the former. Were they un0pposed, the
case might be different. But million
dollars raised at the North for the war
must be opposed by a million dollars raised
at the South, or the fight goes against 1t.
So Mr. Stephens told his people IN late
speech, urging subscription OF cotton bales
to the Confederate loan. All military ope-
rations, in the end, resolve themselves into
the question of money. The Southern
people, in frenzy, may rnsh into the field
but frenzy is not the frame OF mind In
which men win on the contrary, the more