Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1866-07-04
OUR FINANCIAL FUTURE.

rGovernmentha has adebt of one thousand
millions of dollars, the interest on which il
has solemnly bound itself to pay in gold. 1t
has, besides, further debt of equal amount,
the interest on which is at present payable in
paper money; but by the very terms of the
debt, all this must very soon, as the seven
thirty notes mature, be converted into gold
bearing bonds; so that ere long we shall
have to pay interest in gold on .Ias:sa;i
millions. We have, moreover, a debt of five
hundred millions in the shape of legal-tender
notes, the principal of which must, somehow
and at some time, be paid in coin; or, if
they be funded, there will be so much addi-
tional gold interest to be paid every year.
And yet, Notwithstanding these facts, the
present Congress is on the eve of passing a
prohibitory tariff measure, the effect of
which will be to lessen the amount of gold
in the country, and increase the difficulties
of the national debt. Upon this point the
New York Post very correctly remarks:
can be collected only in paper. The people
in their daily business, use no gold, see no
gold, can get hold of no gold, and, Of course
can pay no gold for taxes. The only source
from which the Government Treasury can
be supplied with the means of preserving its
honor msullied is the tariff of duties on
foreign imports. Those who would cut off
or impair this branch of revenue are for
Ill L L.
eggs.
There is a bill in Congress to make the
tariff still more prohibitOry than it is.
Thoughtless men, used by designing men,
cry out that the only way to keep our gold
here is to keep out foreign goods. They
forget that as the Government Treasury
alone receives gold in its business, it alone
can keep the gold here. The banks cannot
keep it, for they do not use it. The people
cannot keep it, for they cannot get hold of
it. Now the Treasury cannot keep the gold
here unless it first receives it and gets it into
its possession. 1t cannot get it into its pos
session except through its duties on foreign
goods. And these foreign goods are to be
shut out so that the Government cannot get
at them to tax them.
There ismOre danger in theseproposed pro-
ulDlloIy uuIltS lildll luClE advocates LNlnkS
Of. The violent fluctuations of our vicious
currency are literally saving into the life of
regular business Gambling is getting to
be quite as safe as steady aud prudent labor.
Even if the tariff stand as it is, no such
gold revenue as that of this year can, with
certainty, be counted on for the next If, in
any year, the gold revenue of the Treasury
shall be only one hundred millions, while
the annual gold interest is one hundred and
twenty millions, what then? If the Trea-
sury shall be forced to come into the market
to buy gold in order to meet its interest,
what then will be the value of our paper
money? And what will be the effect on
Government credits and the value Of Gov
eminent bonds?
Stranger things have happened than that
our customs revenue, now so full should
fall off from one hundred and fifty millions
in one year to less than hundred millions
the next. Those who would purposely make
it fall off are destructive madmen. In cur
present financial condition the gold revenue
Of the Treasury is its most precious pos
session,