The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-10-15
Mr.. JOhnsOm's Policy and the American
Credit Abroad,


Credit Abroad,
From the Tribune
The English papers call attention to the fact
that American spectators are actively engaged
in buying up the per cent. cotton bonds of the
Confederacy, and selling United States Five
tweniies They note the fact that the latter
have been sold to the extent of millions lin
Europe, while the cotton bonds are bought at
an advance OF l or 2 per cent in London, Liver
pool, and Manchester. "Possibly,n says cor
respondent of the Morning Post "when our
keen cousins have obtained sufficient amount,
the iniquity of repudiating loan made by
foreigners on the special hypothe cation of cot
ton will be veEemently asserted by the Yankees
themselves as detrimental TO American credit
and the bondholders will obtain their rights
the more especially as every man In the South,
as stated by General Lee in his evidenc before
the Committee OF Congress, is desirous OF recog-
| nizing and paying this loan.n
He then attempts to explain the selling of
the Five-twenty bonds, upon theory which,
however worthless in itself, deserves the atten-
| ton OF those business men who think that Cop
| perhead politics are not the foes of financial
| prosperity, President johnson describes the
| eXisung radical legislature, which has usurped
| the power OF Congress, as a body called, or
which assumed to be- the Congress of the
United States, but which is in fact Congress of
| only part Of those States Now, if this is the
| true legal definition of the present Congress, 1
| have no hesitation in saying that until the
| SOutDern states are restored 10 Congress, and
recognize in Congress the debts that Congress-
during their exclusion, has contracted, that the
| Five-twenty bonds, and all other debts raised
by that Congress, are illegal according to the
| Constitution of the United States.n
1t is plain that this whole statement is ad.
Yanced IN the interest OF the English capitalists
who invested their money in the Rebel loans,
| and have not yet abandoned the hope of getting
| some OF it back trom the United States Trea-
sury. We do not believe that many Americans
are stupid enough to buy the Rebel cotton
bonds, and we know there is not one American
in hundred, OF respectable business judgment,
who has sold Five-twenties from doubt OF thrir
permanent value, We do know, however, that
since the close OF the war the bankers and people
OF England and Germany have steadily and
largely bought them, ans we have deeply re.
gretted that so much of our debt should he
allowed to pass into foreign hands,
| But now 1t is ngeniously insinuated that
| the large sales of United States securities in
foreign markets is not due to the eagerness of
Europeans Europeans to purchase but to the, anxiety of
Americans to sell. Precisely as the Randall
| Convention caused an advance in Rebel bonds
so the speeches of Andrew Johnson have in!
splred their holders with new hope. This is the
e tEue Polnt which the English papers make-that
lhe PRESIDENT, by declaring Congress an illegal
ana unconstitutional body, has given specula-
TORS an opportunity OF shaking the credit of the
united States. They have taken his words into
the London Exchange and the Bourse, and
traded. upon them to the possible injury of our
securities. They have used his policy as the
means OF advancing Rebel bonds. No one can
| quoted is sound, however false the argument,
| If Congress is, indeed, illegal, unconstitu.
iona; II 1t had no right to pass the Civil Rights
bill; If its acts do not bind the Rebel States
| because they had no part in making them; ii
tne Representatives of the loyal States are moi
Sonstess-and all this Mr.. Johnson asserts
Inen ess andeed our financial legislation is worth
Iess, and the value OF gnited States bonds de-
Penus Ps upon the endorsement of the Rebel States.
europeans who want TO get lid of their Rebel
bonds, who would be glad to buy Five-twenties
at low rate, with the certainty of their rise
can lind no better means to bear the markef
than the policy of Andrew Johnson He has
, bitterly opposed the Constitutional amendment
, of which the fourth section guarantees foreveiI
| the validity of the National bonds and ner.
; petually prohibits the payment of the Rebel
debt.
| The passage OF this amendment would, as all
his followers know end at once all these Rebel
aud English schemes to deprecate national
securities; but. pnhl the people have ratified IL
| | and silenced the atrocious calumny that Con.
| gress is not a legal body, we may EXPECT to he
threatened with the whole Rebel debt In addi.
} | ton to our own, and with pretended doubts ol
/ | the validity of United States bonds. Mr. John
3 son is doing more to injure American credit
z abroad than all the Rebels and spectators com
bined; and there is not a man, woman. on
Q ehIld who holds Five-twenty or seven-thirty
; bond, who does not directly profit by the recent
triumphs at the POLLS. In sustaining CONGRESS
; ana the Constitutional amendment, ,sthe peop plf
} nave declared that the national debt Is TO ba
paid to the last dollar, while of the Rebel deb
: ] not one cent shall ever be re1eemed