Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1864-12-15

creaslng the currency at his discretion. Or as
when, after suggesting the expedienOy of q law
providing for the exemplary punishment of COM
pinations for the purpose of raising the price Of
gold in United States currency, he adds that,
whatever success might attend any effort to check
any speculation in con or to counterfeit its inju-
rous effect it is still obvious that 50 long as there
remains large and increasing necessity for its use,
and limited supply, it will command price
commensurate with the necessity and the difficulty
OF obtaining it." Orss when, after arguing against
the utterance of additional securities bearing int
rest in gold, he subjons that 81 notes bearing an
increased rate of interest payable in currency,
deemabe in three or FIVE years, and convertible al
maturity into $40 bonds, would be preferable, in
the judgment of the Secretary, to any other form
OF security" AS the interest on the $40 bonds
is, we presume, to be paid in gold, it strikes US
that such an arrangement would bring only tenn
porary relief, without supplying any real strength
to the basis of the public credit 1t is merely put
ting the elephant between the globe and the tor
toise.
We are sorry to find that SO intelligent
writer as Secretary Fessenden should seem to share
in the popular opinion that the high rate of gold
as compared with United States currency, and the
violent and rapid fluctuations of its value as mea-
sured by that currency, are mainly due to " the
unpatriotic and criminal efforts of spectators, and
probably of secret enemies, regardless of the inju-
~ inflicted upon the country" In support of this
view he says:
The experience of the past few months cannot have
failed to convince the most careful observer that whatever
may be the effect OF REDUNDANT circulation upon the price
of coin, other have exercised greater and
deleerious influence. In the of few days the
price of this article from about 81 so to 2s5 in pa
per for one dollar specie and subsequently fell short
period to $lS7, and then rapidly to So So and all
without any assgnabe traceabe TO or
decrease in the circulation of paper money expan
sion or contraction OF credit or other similar influence
the market tending to occasion huctuaon violent 1t
quite apparent that the solution of the problem may be
found in the unpatrioc and criminal efforts of spectators
and probably secret enemies to raise the price of CON-
gardess OF the injury inflicted upon the country desired
to indict upon it,"
This is to speak rather in popular than in scien-
tihc language. 1t is not the price of gold which
Crises" but the comparative price of "green-
backs" which falls, when gold is quoted at pre-
MUM over the latter. And when this premium
rises rapidly without any assgnable cause trace
able to an increase or decrease in the circulation
of paper money" it only serves more strikingly to
show the instability and insecurity of an ire
deemable paper currency, whenever and wher-
ever such currency has attained large volume.
Like the atmosphere which surrounds US, it is
in perpetual state Of unstable equilibrium, liable
at any moment to be disturbed by causes which
are none the less founded in the nature Of things
because they are secret in their influence and
subtle in their operation In regard to such a
currency, all men, whether spectators or other.
wise, are constantly discouuting their apprehen-
sions for, as it is seen TO rest on no visible and
certain basis it may easily be made the sport of idle
ruuor. For this infelicity OF a redundant and il.
redeemable paper money, there is no cure to be
found in legislative prescriptions. The evil in
heres in the system, aud can be removed only
by removing its cause--it cannot be checked
by sinapikms, any more than by emollients,
One man discounts greenbacks," as compared
with gold because he fears the volume of the former
is greatly too redundant r the demands of trade and
business another man, because he fears that based
as they are on the credit of the Government, the
currency by bringing the war to a successful
termination another man, because he fears that
at some future day the Government may repudiate
the public debt, and thu, bring confusion into tie
currency and the finances. The vcissitudes of
war and Of politics lend to all Of these causes of
apprehension constantly variable influence on the
minds Of the people. If the currency rested on a
stable basis it would not be moved by such spec
tres, but the fact that ii is so moved only sets in
clear light the popular consciousness of the inse.
curity attaching to it. Men could not play on
the fears Of the people with regard to the currency
if there was no reality in the grounds of such fear
And until these grounds are removed there will
be Speculation" in gold and "speculstors" in
gold Such Speculation" is the effect of the in
stability of our paper money, not its cause such
"speculators" the offspring Of a fuctuating
market in "greenbaoks," Eot the makers Of it.
And it is quite time that all who write on financial
topics should recognise the actually and the uni
versatility Of these truths confirmed as they are no
less by reason than by all the lessons Of history
with regard to similar phenomena in the experience
of other nations which, like US, have rested their
currency on " credit" and not on the visible and
tangible basis Of gold and silver. Fraught with
danger, as Government paper Las almost inyaria-
bly, proved, we concur with Mr.. Fessonden in the
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