Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1866-12-06

| creased production, and lower prices, which
can alone make the United States what they
ought TO be-a creditor and not debtor
nation. These viewsexplain the course that
has been pursued with the gold which, during
his administration of the Department, has
come into the Treasury. He has permitted
it TO accumulate when the use or sale Of it
was not necessary for paying Gov eminent
obligations, or to prevent CT numerical panics
or successful combinations against the ma
tional credit; and he has sold whenever
sales we're necessary to supply the treasury
with currency, to ward off financial crises,
or to save the paper circulation of the
| country, as far as practicable, from unne-
cessary and damaging depreciation. For
making sales he alone is responsible. If,
in conducting them, any favoritism has
been shown, or if the interests of any pal-
ticular class have been especially regarded,
| it has been without his knowledge, and in
violation of his instructions. He has not
the slightest reasen to suppose, however,
that they have not been conducted honestly,
fairly, and judiciously.
Il may be hardly necessary for the Sec
rotary to remark that his opinions have un-
dergone no change in regard to the impor-
!
or the means necessary to effect it. He
trusts, however, that he has not been I'M
derstoOd As entertaining the opinion that
reduction of the currency would of itself
necessarily bring about specie payments,
although the chief and essential means to
effect the desired result He regards a re-
dundant legal-tender currency as the prime
cause of our financial difficulties, and
curtailment thereof indispensable to an in
crease of labor and a reduction of prices,
to an augmentation of exports and dimi-
mutton of exports, which alone will place
the trade between the United States and
other nations on an equal and satisfactory
footing.
OUR FOREIGN COMMERCE.
The Secretary shows that for the fiscal
year ending June 80, 1866, there was an
apparent balance Of trade against us of
So, 009,577 in gold valuation.
But these figures, taken from the reports
of the custom-houses, do not present the
whole truth. For many years there has
been a systematic undeT-valuation of for
eign merchandise imported into the United
States, and large amounts have been SNUG
| gled into the country along our extended
sea coasts and frontiers. To make up for
under-valuations and smuggling, and for
cost of transportation paid to foreign ship
owners, twenty per cent. at least should be
added to the imports, which would make
the balance for the past year against the
United States nearly 500, 100000. tits evil
dent that the balances have been largely
against the United States for some years
past, whatever may have been the custom
house returns. On no other ground can
| the fact be accounted for, that very large
amount of American bonds is now held in
Europe, which are estimated as follows, to
wit:
United States $3.50 900 600
State and municipal bonds-............. l50,000000
| Railroad and other stocks and bonds. l00,O0O0OO
s6OO,OOO 900
1t is evident, from these figures, that the
balances are against us, and, chiefly by the
expectation of our bonds, are being tenn
porarily and improvidently arranged; tenn
porarily, because large portion of these
bonds have been bought on speculation,
and will be likely to be returned whenever
| financial troubles in the countries in which
they are held shall make it necessary for
the holders to realize upon them, or when
ever satisfactory profits can be made by re-
turning them, which will be when they
nearly approach their par value in coin;
imprOvidently, because they are being pur-
chased at very low prices, and because their
expectation stimulates imports, and thus
cripples home industry. Nothing is more
certain than the fact that there can be no
permanent resumption Of specie payments
in the United States until the balances be-
tween them and other nations shall be made
easy by an expectation of commodities, in
Guiding the products of the mines, equal at
least to our importations, and until pro-
vision shall be made for returning bonds,
or for preventing their return at lnpropi-
tious times. This state of things, it is con-
ceived, cannot be effected without a change
in our financial policy.
II T-C-rTr TTONS IN TRADF