Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1863-02-11
10: wEDN'1sDsa. FEB. Il. 1853

a sofs,i
Il, 1859.
Treasury note par, and in the.redundancy of cirou
lation,'b be gradually gathered up to be funded 10
Ststs securities, upon the ground that they would
be more likely ultimately redeemed than Confef
crate securities In this case, the field Of circuits
ton will be left open for Confederase Treasury notes
and bank notes Bat on the other hand If Con-
gress should refuse to make receivable in public
dues State bills of credit although Of higher credit
than Treasury notes, they would be driven out of
circulation by the cheaper Treasury note currency,
and become funded. Here again, the field Of crcu-
rlation would Be left open for Treasury notes and
bank paper. If bank paper should be made re-
ceivable in the public dues, and thereby become, az
Mr.. Calhoun says, Treasury notes-then such
bank paper may be made by Congress a. ten
der in the payment of debts. The result of this
course would be to relieve the banks Of alt liability
to pay their notes in any thing but Confederate
Treasury notes, which for that purpose they might
buy at an immense discount with their gold and
silver. Such power of. discriminating between
banks--Of favoring some by making their paper re-
ceivable in public Dues and giving them the quail
ity of Confederate Treasury notes a tender, and
withholding the boon from Others would at once
place every bank in the States at the feet of Con-
gress.
But let us suppose that the power in Congress to
make Treasury notes tender be construed to include
only Treasury notes PROPER THAT is such as are issued
by the Confederate Government alone)-and to ex-
clude all other paper which it may allow to be
received in payment of public dues and let us also
suppose that such Treasury notes are abundant as
they are now what then will be the effect of exer-
cisins this power? The first obvious effect would
be to drive out of use all paper of local circulation
oil merely equal credit with itself This effect would
be attributed to its universally throughout the Con-
iederacy as medium. It's next most obvious effect
would be to drive from crculat,or all currency Of
local character, though intrinsically of superior
credit, as State bills Of credit and bank paper.
This would follow, because such paper, by reason
of Confederate notes being tender, would have no
statue in the fullment Of executory contracts and
could have very little place in cash transactions
For, 1st, no one uses the better currency when he
can possibly use the worse I'd, there would be
insuperabe difficulties after making Treasury notes
tender, in estimating the value Of State bills of
credit and bank bills because, as to the former,
iRasmuch all taxes would be gathered in Confed-
crate Treasury notes. the bills themselves would be
redeemabfe by the States in Confederate Treasury
notes unless they should be funded, (Which would
be their fate) and even then the interest would be
paid in Confederate notes.
As 20 the latter currency (bank bills) they, being
redeemable in Confederate notes by reason of their
being tender in all payments, would Instantly
sink to the par Of the redeeming fund; not being
fnndable, they could not hide themselves in State
bonds, but would float like Treasury notes without
their credit abroad or be laid away In the hope of
| change Of financial policy. In word, all the re-
| sources Of the banks, except the specie in their
vaults, would be in the credit of Confederate notes.
or bonds whose interest would be paid in Con-
federate notes. SO that if the banks could realize
enough in Confederate currency to redeem their
Auys,p Ntoc f,o,v srkk a.
stakeholder. Let it not be said that by such pro-
ceeding the banks would forfeit their charters-I
know they would, as the laws now stand. But if
Treasury notes are made a tender in payment of
debts what will prevent what ought to prevent
banks from paying their debts in the tender curren-
Cyl They will be enforced to receive i: from their
debtors, and they can pay in little else. l know
their charters would be broken into atoms but will
this more shock the constitution do greater yo-
lcnce oustice than to discharged purchaser Of land
from paying the price agreed?
Thus it is manifest that the power to make Con-
federate Treasury notes tender in payment of debts
involves the entire control Of the value and crcula-
ton of State bills Of credit and of bank currency.
1t annus the clause in the Constitution which in
hibits the States from making "any thing but guild
and silver . tender in payment of debts" by the
right in Congress to make State bills of credit and
bank paper receivable in public Dues 1t releases
banks from the obligation to redeem their notes in
other than paper deprecated below the notes them
selves. In word, the Confederate government, 10y
the use of such power, would become the great
and exclusive banker for all the States; and there
would not be lett to one of them; of all the powers
reserved, the humble privilege even oi compelling
one citizen to fulfil towards another an honest bar.
gain to pay his debt in coin; though stipulated in
| the bond
One of the speediest effects of its exercise would
be total destruction Of credit in every transaction
Of h,,cSpo pao1
change hands except by paying down the price. IL
agreed to be paid in coin other medium than Con-
! federate Treasury notes, every cent must be paid
before the property would be conveyed or delivered
else the sum unpaid would be payable in "tender"
paper. And this would equally follow, if the price
were to be paid in such paper because its constant
downward tendency would warn the seller against
the loss which would follow delay. At future day
it might fall dead into his hands, and all men would
act on the MAXIM "use it now, lest hereafter 1t may
! be useless"
Our merchant who buys his wares where nothing
but coin will pay for them, cannot sell them here
for coin or what is convertible into coin; and so
large necessarily must be the demand for articles
Of foreign growth and manufacture that these pur-
chases alone, attended with their resale among us,
will produce such conflict between coin or its
| equivalent on the one hand, and Treasury notes,
bills of credit and bank notes made tender on the
Other, that either such trade must suffer annha-
lation, or perfect freedom BE- given to commerce
itself to estimate the values of mediums for pay.
ment according to the laws which govern the entire
residue of the civilized world How that conflict will
end among people devoted as We are to the free.
dom of trade, requires no example to tell. But il
examples were wanting, the continental bills of the
American and the assighats of the French revolu-
ton furnish lessons too fresh and too faithful to be
forgotten or dregarded.
The Revolutionary Congress never ventured on
scheme Of finance so daring ard unwise, yet it had
all the powers over its continental bills, as the Con
federate Congress has over its Treasury notes.
Revolutionary France did so venture, and brought