The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1864-01-26

There "a q bill before the Senate OF VIZ
riuia to mako Confederate Treasury note
vh,ch Are worth at this moment about five
centa IN the dollar, a legal tender In payne ~
of ali debts incurred prior to the secession
az the state We can hardly bring ourselves
q believe the ftct Nevertheless 1t Ia Ger
ainly 20, INDUSTRIOUS "A It may he.
Let m see how the thing will Work. a
nan In 1870 buys an cstste Of theusano
acres. at fifteen dollars An acre, and gives M
hond Recession takes place, and the la"
prohibiting the collection OF debts curing
present troubles sets him atease with resafe
70 his pavments. In the mean time, he hap
pens to have 10 his possession ten barrels
whisksy. which he can sell at 81 500 bar'e ell
Confederate money He sells this whisky
and with the proceeds pays for the estate
The money which he pays being WORTH al
oresent, about five cents In the dollar ut
scts the estate for i've hundred dollars ; thai
IL to say, for half dollar an acre, y hereas
lie promised to pay fifteen. The man WI
holds the estate has no option. He must
take this money or nothing, for the proposed
law makes IL o legal tender. Is 1t possioit
that Virginia Senate can mean 10 encour-
age such fraud as this by giving IL 'ne sane
lion Of law? Yet this Is the ineVitapie coh
sequence Of such law.
The com mittee who reported this bill, We
have no doubt acted with good Intentions
They believed that they were taking an inl-
portant step in the right direction. They
Thought that to make the existing currency
legal tender was to arrest the progress o.
depreciation. The slilhtest recurrence TO
examples Of world wide notoriety would
have convinced them Of their mistake
Congress, itself, about one year ago, passee q
law equivalent in its operation to legal
tender law. 1t taxed, in. the hands OF the
holder. all evidences Of indebtedness in pay.
mcnt of which he refused to receive the
Confederate currency, and that SO exorti-
t.ntly that In q very few years the tax viii
consume principal and interest. This mtst
UBIQUITOUS law has inflicted vast injury on
many creditors, who had already been de-
b,rred the privilege of cole citing their debts
in the usual way, until after the war, ana
who certainly are as much entitled to the
protection Of tie Legislature as other classes
Of persons. But has it had the slightest
effect In delaying, even for moment, the
downhill march Of the Confederate Treasury
notess Look at the actual facts of the case.
This time last year the Confederate currency
was about or s to one. Three weeks ago
}, was 20 to one. This Gay it is 80 to one,
.,d who can tell what 1t will be n month
sence, if Congress do not arrest it in It's pre-
Il, tate career by stopping Mr.. Memminger's
fachine, and passing stringent laws to com
cl the funding Of outstanding notes?
This was not a new question, even when
Congress passed this law. 1t had been tho
roughly tested 10 years before in the then
colony Of Massachusetts,, which Issued
number of bills of credit, and after securing,
as they thought, their currency at per, by
heavy penalties upon those who refused 10
take them, proceeded to declare them Legal
tender by law. A great number Of persons
were swindled out Of their just dues, but the
law did not arrest the depreciation for mo-
ment Every one of the Northern colonies
followed the example Of Massachusetts, with
exactly the same result. North and South
Carolina tried it; but, like the Northern
States, they failed altogether to prevent de-
probation by penal laws. In ten different
instances, therefore, it had been tried in the
colonies, when the Revolution had the folly
TO try it once more. And there was the
most signal failure Of all. The Revolution
AIRY Congress affixed to the refusal to take
the continental paper at parthe most fright
a off
declared to be guilty of treason, was made
liable to the punishment Of that crime, was
declared to be out Of the pale of the law
Yet in year after the first notes were issued
they began to decline. Seeing this, the Con-
gress passed law making them legal ten
der, when they declined more rapidly tban
ever. They fell TO ten, twenty, thirty, fifty,
one hundred, and thousand for one, when
they expired without groan. Let those
members of the Senate who desire to vote
understandirgly on this question, go into
the library and get the first volume CT Mr..
Jefferson's Memoirs and Correspondence
They will there see the whole matter ex.
posed, and the reason given for the decline.
Tney will see that the cause was such as
could not possibly be reached BY making
them a legal tender. Il was the very same
(which has made the Confederate currency
not worth much more than the Intrinsic
value Of the paper. For the first year, when
very few bills had been issued, the Cont
nental money was at par. AS the necessities
of the State required, the issues increased,
until the currency became SO redundant that
Nj. Jefferson says silver and gold, under the
like circumstances, would have deprecated
The very same system was tried in Hevo-
lutionary France. The Convention, when
the value of the assignats declined, tried to
keep it up by making 1t legal tender and
passing all sorts of sanguinary laws to force
its continued circulation. But they all
failed Why, then-when this thing has
been so often tried without successfully
try 1t again. We say nothing of the i'm
mense depreciation OF morals which Is sure
to follow euch laws, and which, in the Gaze
Of the colonies, is fesiingly lamented by
their historians. 1t 10 surely net the duty Ct
legislators to tempt the people to act dis.
honestly, a. laws Of this character ineyita.
bly, do.
England has always manifested great wis
dom In her financial and commercial laws,
except In very few instances. The Bank #
England suspended specie payment in 1897,
and did not resume fully until 1921 In the
interval her notes, at one time, fell to fifteen