Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1863-01-23

may be issued S5UUiOVO,UOU. IN tue pres
snce of this proposed deluge, we may well
inquire for some ark of safety for the es-
,ape of q chosen few. Isee nothing alarm
ing in the present amount Of our currency, |
but TO swell it by the vast volume pro-
posed disturbs even my nerves. Yet 1 |
know not that we have any choice. A |
huge chasm impedes our way. We cannot |
leap it; nor can our engineering bridge |
it. There seems no other way but to turn
q mighty tide into it, with the hope Of
floating over, or to buoy US up with some
sort Of balloonery and navigate the atmos-
phere to the other side. Pass we must,
and care little for incidental losses, if
we can attain the passage. But the dan
ger is that the tide cannot bear US up-that
the gas bags will collapse and overwhelm
US in remediless ruin. Yet to remain
where we are is even more hopeless.
If we could make this new issue the
equivalent Of gold, or nearly SO, directly it
would little affect the volume Of the cur
rency, for, like gold, it would disappear,
it being the especial characteristic of our
bank note to be endued with
intense activity; and it keeps itself up
like some heads we wot Of, by its very lev
ity. Indirectly it would infinitely increase
it; for notwithstanding what might be re-
tired for Government bonds, more would
be employed as a basis for banking, and
become the fruitful parent Of an illegiti-
mate issue.
1t matters nothing who issues paper
whether q Government or an individual;
when once injected into the channels of
commerce 1t meets and is controlled by the
same infexible laws. Our Government
paper, like all other, must depend for its
success upon the confidence of the people
in our ability and intention to pay it. If
we had the gold for basis our paper would
be its equivalent, and we could buy this
confidence. We could go into the marts Of
the world and compelit. We would chain
it to the portals of our exchequer with fet-
ters of gold. Or rather, it would unfet-
tered remain our willing slave; lingering
ever, as the tabled gnome is said to haunt
the place where its treasure is buried
Paper has no intrinsic value, and but
low exchangeable value. All its wealth is
impaired to il by what is written on its
face; and Government can write on its
paper more and stronger evidence of its
ability and intention to pay than can in
diViduals, and hence can challenge wider
and deeper confidence. A sovereign can
or we did, or we tried to, impart to our
paper one most remarkable quality, that
Of liquidating private indebtedness wheth-
er the creditor would or no. The law and
the logic for this certainly do not dwell in
the Constitution. The argument so pun
gent in that case came from those trian-
gular bits of steel called bayonets; and
the logic upon which the measure was
based came from the furrowed throats Of
rebel cannon. Five hundred or q thousand
pieces of artillery, all bearing on this
question: settled it for the present in spite
of US. But making note legal tender
in no way enhances confidence in the max
er Of it, but rather the reverse. It comes
with no promise to pay, but it brazenly
declares that it itself is the payment
This quality unquestionsbly facilitates
the circulation of this paper. The holder
of commodities may be willing to exchange
for It for that reason alone, for with it he
may discharge his own Indebtedness.
One other thing the sovereign may do,
and in my judgment it ought in our case
to be promptly done. We may SO constrain
our subjects as that they can but choose
our currency, by sweeping away all COM
petiiOrs. As incidental to our power to
issue and provide for the circulation of
our notes, we may do this. AS one of the
elements Of our sovereignty under the Con-
stitution, it is pre-eminently power re-
siding in us; power that has been in
abeyance from the foundation of the Gov
ernment. trust il is now to be effectu-
ally and boldly exercised. Every consid-
Grafton of duty to the people and safety to
the Government demands this Sir, this
great revolution will not have accom-
plished all its benefcent designs if it does
not rid us forever from the measureless
evils inseparable from the very life Of the
system under which we have lived and
languished. know, sir, this change in
wolves an interference with privs;e affairs,
but in matter so momentous, and at q
time so perilous, these interests must yield.
Every dollar of the issues of the solvent
banks can with sufficient promptness be
retired, with no loss save that of prospect
i've profits And surely money is always
able to take care Of itself without the spe-
oial aid Of law. As for the insolvent
banks, loss must ever attend them; and
their issues can be retired with less now
than at any after time.
1 do not propose to discuss the plan Of
national currency, though the subject ma
turally ingrsfts itself on these remarks,
which already embrace the points which l
rose to speak upon. I believe but one
plan. looking te the establishment Of
such a currency has been brought
before the House; and that from the
gentleman of the Ways and Means
finds no favor, meets with nothing but
criticism and eontumely. Nothing in the
world is so easy as to criticise. Anybody
with ability or with none can oppose any
measure, and find it most faulty. To do
that require5 no invention. But these
gentlemen, with the history of banking
and the experience of century before
them, have no measure to propose. Moth
ing, absolutely nothing; nothing but an
interminable issue of Treasury notes for
the time; and when the furthest wave
strands Us, God knows where, we are to
limp on again, God knows how, on the
crumbled crutches and broken slaves OF
the-I don't how many hundred banks Of
the States; that fractional distorted sys-
G6n Ol ESnb pdbCuHOIk huu 6uIeuss TuQ6
and ragged, whose institutions have ex-
hausted the geological nomenclature TO
find fitting names for their qualities. Sir,
the united coinage of the globe, of alf time,
fails TO express the losses to the people Of
this country alone through the doings of
the incOntinent and leaky offspring of this
system, TO which these gentlemen leave us.
Will nothing provoke them to unite with
the distinguished head of the Treasury to
free the country from the blasting evils
that with periodic certainty, rain from
this system upon every field Of enterprise
and labor2
The distinguished chairman Of the Ways
and Means Committee few days since
cOldly dismissed the plan of the Secretary
with the remark that it was now too late
to hope for relief in our present need, from
this project Too late ? Whose fault is
it2 The plan has been before US more
than twelvemonth; and if it is too late