New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1865-02-01
proposition that the Railroads already bnih may
be used by all those ,rhom they @iN benefit, be first
affirmed and established.
OUR GRAvEsT PERL.

from our belief that the danger to our countrys
integrity and authority from the Military power
of the Shareholders Rebellion il no longer ap-
palling We are quite aware that the Southern
Conlederacy is still subsiSting fact, and that 1t
is upheld by One Hundred and Fifty Thousand
bavonets. tYo-thirds Of them welded by brave
and veteran soldiers We do not disparage the
ability Of Lee, Johnston and Longstreet as
Generals nor of Beauregard as an engineer when
we state the notorious fact that the strength oil
the Rebellion is to day very far less than when
the lower Mississippi was its main ertery,
when its flag foatcd proudly over Norfolk,
Newbern, Nashville, Knoxville, Chatta'
uooga, Memphis, Little Rock, Nicksburg
Natchez, Baton Rouge, New-Orleans ana
Savannah, and when its million square miles OF
area was permeated by Railroads and Tele-
graphs which conveyed its armies from Virginia
to Texas in week and flashed its tidingS from
tIle Rio Grande TO the Potomac in a day. The
Confederates have struggled desperately against
odds which have nevertheless been steadily
augmcnting, until they are left but the choice
between an early, honorable pacifcation ana an
ultimate unconditional overthrow. Upon no
basis known to History or to War can they nope
to do more than postpone the issue when mas
become inevitable.
Nor do we regard with much concern the bug
bear of Foreign Intervention. We have uh'
doubleday many ill-wishers in Europe; but our
vast Naval ornaments, so rapidly created, are
decidedly in the way of the realization oil their
desires. Great Britain will not attack us; ana
no other Power would care to send It's fleet
across the Atlantic TO try close hug with
harbor-full of our Dictators and Puritans. France
alone might have bothered us two or three years
ago; now, the times are brayely altered. We
NAV vet be called to encounter and to baihe
hostile Vaccinations from abroad; We are most
unlikely TO be confronted by hostile broadsides
within the few months that the Rebellion may
still keep its head above water. Only ny Iced
ing Rebel hopes that are certain at length 10
be blasted are these Vaccinations likely to work
rs harm.
Our real, serious, ever-present danger is that
of Financial collapse and resulting Military
impotence, which, though temporary in It's
duration. may be permanent in its effects. And
this peril seems to us the more formidable that
so very few appear TO realize or grayely appre'
bend it.
To-day, One Million Dollars in Coin viii buy
Two Millions of United States Bonds, payable
in coin ten years hence with interest at five per
cent per annum. In Other words: Whoever
will lend our Government One Million Dollars
in specie will receive therefor One Hundred
thousand Dollars in coin per annum and Two
Millions at the close of ten years-Threc NIL
| lions in all for loan of One Mi1ior ton years .
And we advertise our own want of faith or want
pluck by actually preferring TO borrow money
at an interest Of 7.30 per cent payable IN our
own Government paper than at 5 per cent
payable in solid cash. j. not this the same as
saying tia. we do not expect 20 see the Rebel
lion put down this year, OF do not mean there
upon to resume specie payment How can We
ask the outside world TO have more faith in Us
than we seem 10 have in ourselves
But look ut few subordinate facts:
Our Minister of Finance has just been chosen
TO the Senate, with general understanding
that he prefers a seat in that body TO his present
most responsible and arduous Cabinet position.
We think he has a right to judge for himself in
which Of the two posts he can best serve his
country. But, if. he is to stay in the Cabinet,
he should frankly say so, and end all spocua-
ton as to his successor; while, fhe is 10 return
TO the Senate, he should insist on having that
successor at once in the Treasury, so that Con-
gress may know what measures of Finance are
required Of it in the judgment of that function
ary. II is madness to let matters drift till the
18th of March, and then be told by new Secre-
tary of the Treasury that he could have provided
the necessary means had he been made Secre-
tary six weeks earlier; but now he must wait
till a new Congress con be hastily assembled out
Of season. after the campaign shall have been
well nigh its elimination.
We have a leader Of the House of Represent
atives who honestly believes that Congress
may by statute make its irredcemablc paper
issues, however boundless in volume, equal TO
Gold, dollar for dollar, and who deems it right
and expedient to make it o crime to exchange
coin Cor paper at other than their nominal rates
respectively. OF course, he cannot believe that
there is any need Of retrenchment or economy;
sincc Congress, upon his theory, can ut any mo-
ment replenish the Treasury by the easy expe-
dent Of issuing q Billion more Of Grecnbacks