The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1866-04-17
Iaopefal Finniseial cona,tfon.

the following summary Of an article
from the. New York Ladepende,,t,
which, although very poor authority
III matters of religion and politics;
has a capital financial and commercial
editor. 1t is the paper in which Henry
Ward Beecher writes, and serves
>mammon far more usefully than it
does the cause of religion:
1T draws most hopeful picture
of the financial condition of the coun-
try, and predicts speedy fall in gold.
It declares that there is little cause
for gold being at twenty-seven, and
by the natural course of financial
events, gold ought to have dropped
suddenly down to ten per cent. as
soon as the war came to an end, and
it would have done SO, if it had not
been boosted up by the combined
efforts Of those who would have been
damaged by its fall. It is better, no
doubt, that the fall was gradual, ss it
has been, and it is great comfort to
know that it has now fallen SO low
that no great harm can be done here
iAGC1, 1et ~ 1stl VIC 1CSb VI lilS ulS-
tance as precipitately as it may.
There is less cause, now, for combi-
nation to keep up the premium on
gold than there was when it was
higher, and, consequently, the fall
will be easier ard more rapid. Any
one who bulls gold now, who
hoards it for further rise, or in any
way attempts to keep it at premium,
deserves to suffer, and will receive no
sympathy for the losses which must
inevitably befall him. The country
is now full of gold; it is pouring in
upon us in large streams, and only
leaving lis in driblets. The export to
Europe has almost entirely ceased;
exchange is in our own favor; con-
siderable sums are brought here in
every steamer from the other side,
while we are sending enough cotton
across the Atlantic to keep the ba-
lance of trade still in our favor; and
while we are turning the tide in our
favor, our debt in Europe is not in
creasing, but diminishing. Our bond
ed warehouses are filled with Eu-
ropean goods, which have already
been paid for, and, under falling
market, no fresh orders are sent out
What, then: is to keep up the pre-
MUM on gold? Not the foreign de-
mand, for it is small now, and will be
less by-and-by. We do not need gold
for a currency; the people would not
have it, if it were offered them, to-
morrow, in exchange for their green
backs. They know that what will
bring gold is as good as gold; and,
with the resumption of specie pay
ments, to which we are rapidly has
tening, it will be considered hard
ship to be compelled to carry pock-
et-full of small change in the place of
the fractional currency, which has
been found SO convenient for trans
mission by mail, and for all the pur-
poses of daily traffic.
We fear that these bright pictures
of the financial condition of the
country are colored too highly by the
radical journals. They probably are
put out to convince the people that
the ruinous legislation now going on
in Washington do not really affect
the great interests of the country,
but as there are two sides to every
picture, there is another to this. The
public debt of the country reaches
nearly $1,000, 900, 900, and there are
about 35, 600, 900 inhabitants, giving
to each inhabitant, white and black
man, woman and child about S85
per head to pay of; this debt. The
wealth Of the whole country, in 1860,
is set down at SIG, 900, 900, 600; but the
war at the South swept out, in the
emancipation of the slaves, So, OO0,-
600, 900, and who can estimate the total
amount of wealth destroyed in this
section, Ill the shape of manufacto-
ries, houses, barns, crops, live stock,
&c.? 1t is estimated by good 6nan-
cial authorities, that the real wealth
of the country, in 1865, was about
so, 600, ,00O,0 900 With the national
debt we have, besides the State
debts, it may be asserted that we are
the poorest country on the face of the
globe to-day. Nevertheless, We're
the political agitators, at Washington.
to cease their Warfare on fha Soutl