New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1863-03-07
COLD.GAIIlsL.NG.

The Union il involved in tremendous con.
test with . powerful and sanguinnry Rebellion,
based on q property in -Four Millions Of HUI
man beings who are valued by their owners
at some Three Thousand Millions Of Dollars.
Tho Civil War thus inaugurated is wasting
the consumable property of tho People OF a
fearful rate and plunging the Nation in debt
at tho rate Of nearly One Thousand Millions
per annum. There was no capacity in our
country to absorb Government Securities at the
rate of Three Millions per day; hence. sus-
pension of Specie Payments became inevitable.
We believe our Finances might have been
managed more skillfully and energetically; but
we do not think it possible to have maintaned
Specie Payments throughout two years Of such
gigantic War as We are now waging.
Specie Payments being suspended, Paper
almost necessarily deprecates, or, what is the
same thing, Specie commands q premium.
The actual measure of that depreciation OF
the Currency is the market value Of Govern
rnent Securites-that ia, their depreciation,
because Of their ABUNDANCE. below specie par.
Now, the depreciation Of the Rebel Currency
is very great. because the failure of their
struggle for Independence depres'es their Securi'
ties. II the Rebellion be put down, the Rebel
Securities and Currency will be worth just
nothing at oil.
/ If the Union is defeated. on the ether hand
the Union Government will remain. The
Z n - l.. III Ia al IA, na1
in power, but it will still be nation. And
we haze abiding faith that it will still be a
solvent and an honest naton-that ia, not
shanelessly, brszebly dishonest. 1t may for a
u foreign States. but it will nevertheless pay
its debts.
There are those who talk Of five, ten,
twenty. thirty years continuance Of tho present
War; but they talk wildly. If wo do not
whip the Rebels and upset their COnfederacy,
they will whip us and compel us to acknOwl-
edge and make peace with it, Had our Gen.
erals been competent and jealous, we should
have finished the War long ago, as We believe
We shall finish it soon. In any event. we shall
almost certainly finish the War before the
Eleven or Twelve Hundred Millions just APP
propriated for its prosecution up to July LIST,
1864, shall have been expended. But if all
that shall be swallowed up, We shall owe
about Two Thousand Millions Of Dollars,
wherein the interest will be abeut One Humid.
red Millions per annum II we retain our
Grconbacks' as o circulating medium. In
vya can re1uea
rate of interest to five Der cent, which will
make our annual interest One Hundred Nil
lions, even Without Greenbacks." And that
amount We shall soon be receiving annually in
Gold and Silver dug from our now Wild unset
tied Territories.
Our general conclusions, then, are that, lot
worst come TO worst, We shall survive ss a
nation We shall as people BIO solvent and
honest; and thcre is no reason under heaven
for U. s. Six per cent bond having twenty
years to run ever selling for Jess tnan eighty.
five or ninety per cent Of its face in gold;
and no reason but the anticipated super.
abundance of such securities for their selling
below par.
And if Y. s. Six per cent bond having
twenty years to run, its interest payable in
gold. is worth at the worst eighty-fse per cent
of its face then "Greenbacks," if convertible
into such bonds. Gas they practically are and
will be- ought not to sell at lower rnte--or,
in other words, the premium on gold ought
not to be above twenty per cent.
What, then, has forced that premium up at
one time to seventy three, and still holds it
shade above fifty
We answer, Speculation. nothing else. That
speculation has mainly been pushed by men
whose hearts arc with JEFF. Davis, and who
would like to see our Government break down
and the Rebellion triumph. Those have for
weeks worked desperately to force up the
premium on Gold ~ One Hundred. whereby
they would have made fortunes for thcn selves
and all but achieved the triumph of their
Grand Master, JEFF. For if Gold advances 10
One Hundred premium, our Government must
pay higher price for nearly everything re-
quired for the prosecution Of the War, just az
We are paying more than We can fairly afford
for every ream Of paper We use because Of
the Gold imitation. We do not mean that tho
cost of living is seventy per cent higher when
gold is at seventy premium than if it were at
par.-for it 10 not; but many articles, incud-
ing most imports. arc thus enhanced in price;
and the Government must buy at higher prices.
and find itself crippled on every hand by tho
practical depreciation Of ito credit lie, then,
who CANDLES In Gold with intent to increase
the premium At which il ID held 10 in act, %