New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1864-03-29
DIR NATIONAL FINANCES.

letter TO Morris Kctchum, Esq, of this city,
sharply criticising the Secretary of the Treas
urv's proposed reduction Of the current rate OF
interest on the new issues of Public Debt nom
six 70 FIVE per cent. Mr.. Spaulding argues that
The original Legal Tender act changed the basis
Of our currency from definite amounts OF Gold
and Silver coin to bonds of tho United
States bearing six per cent ANIMAL IN
tcrest payable in such coin-tAat Is
say, the Government substituted
evidences Of its own indebtedness, bearing a
fixed rate of interest in coin, for so much coin
in hand. This was in the nature of forced
loan and modified the basis Of value; but
altered it to a fixed standard, for which the
reduction of tho current rate of interest Substi-
flutes a changeable one--an alteration decidedly
for the worse; and which is now increasing the
premium on Gold, initiating prices, unsettilng
values. and deranging business generally. MIR.
$. pleads for return to the original Legal
Tender STANDARD. Such Is the gist OF his letter
We think Mr. 5. commits the common
error Of exeggerating the effect OF the
particular measure he oOntemplateS. We
heartily concur in very many OF his post
tions--that simply initiating the Currency ui
it will foot % great Public Loan at five per
cent, or even four, is no great tinancia!
achievement, nor is it, though an easy, cheap
or wise mode of srrinounting Our financial dill
faculties. To borrow at four per cent by 80 In
flating the Currency that everything ior which
YOU pay costs double its original price, Is bad
economy and quack finG0ciering. There Is no
disputing this.
But Mr.. :. errs in supposing-or rather, in
lindolcntly assumiug-that al siN per cent Gov
eminent bonds are Of equal and uniform value.
! Admit that the Government were required TO
redeem all its 'grecnbacks' or demand notes in
six per cent bonds, and should pay one creditor
| i'm such bonds redcemable after one year; all
other in those redeemablc after five: o third in
such as were payable after ten; fourth in such
as had twenty years to run, and 50 on-Mr
Spaulding would not feel that the Nations
creditors were equally and uniformly paid;
vet his letter would make them 80. There
have been many wears, he will doubles, admit,
when public creditor offered at the Treasury
two National bonds in payment Of his claim
one of them six per cent, having SIX months
to run; the other a FIVE per cent, payable alter
forty years, would not only prefer the latter,
hut value il five to ten per cent above the
other. Now, Mr.. Chase was at perfect liberty,
under the law as Mr.. Spaulding first helped TO
shape it, to pay ont very short or much longer
hands: so that Mr.. Standings notion that this
act provided definite and unnucruuung Do~'o
for our currency is fallacious.
! The simple truth is, that ne are at war-cn-
gagged in terrible, desperate, deadly conflict
and our Public Securities are worth more or less
according TO the prospect of an early or more
remote, a favorable OF disastrous, issue Of our
struggle. Bull Run, the Seven Day, Freder-
icksburg, Chancellorsyille-cach of these, as II
occurred, staggered our National credit; and
woulh have done so. wha'evcr the nature OF onr
system of Finance If we have more disasters
more unaccountable delays-more of the
heart-sickncss Of hope deferred'-we shall have
moro Financial advertisements even though
our Finances be managed with the utmost wis
dom and probity.
Nor do we at all concur in Mr.. Spaulding''
idea that the recent rise in Gold, aud consc-
quent imitation Of nominal values, are solely or
mainly caused by Mr.. Chase's substitution OF
five per cent for six per cent issues of bonds.
That may have been unwise--we do not say 1t
was nOt-but il has not been half so Influential
as Mr. S. supposes. Gold has gone up, in part
because the worl. Of suppressing the Rebellion
has scarcely gone forward since last September;
in part because our present Congress has cvincod
shameful incapacity or iniidelity TO its trust in
lpostponing the necessary, inevitable action for
the reinyigoraton Of the National Credit.
We care not whether You concur or
not in our conviction that, in their base
subservicncy to the Whisky gamblers, Il ma
| jority of either House justly forfeited the con-
fdence Of their constituents since you cannot
deny that a Congress tit to exist would have
matured and perfected some sort Of Financial
system before the close of It's fourth month.
Not to act at all in crisis like the present-to in
crease no taxes--pass no important measures OF
Finance-till the fifth month of the session, is
glaring confession that our legislators are as
incompetent as our Generals have ever been.
McClellan's waiting with Two Hundred Thou
sand men for the leaves to fall, and the mud to
dry up, and for all manner of Straws to be re-
moved from his path, is fairly paralleled by
the obstinate do-nothing mpocy Of the present
Congress. And it is this, more than any thing
done or forborne in the Treasury building, that