The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1867-01-29
Finance and Currency.

i DIX I7'I6u1lc mas some ESE6lIenC re-
marks which we present to our read
ers that they may see for themselves
tho evidences of the financial storm
which is now brewing. That paper
says:
"As tc tho prospective action Of
Congress on finance and currency,
our guess may prove quite erro
neous; but it is our impression that
the sum total of the dolngs of this
session Will be just about nothing at
all. We judge that there is major
ity in the House who would be graft
fed if further initiation and debasc-
ment could be covered by any decent
prejext; we trust that there is no ma
jority i'll either House ready to vent
ure upon it without pretext. The
Senate, We hope, would not vote to
initiate whether with or without pre-
text, but it has not yet broken ground
for prompt resumption; and does not
allow us to forget that it originated
the provision of last session whereby
the Secretary of the Treasury was
forbidden to make good the Govern
ment's grcenback promises to pay
Until further developments, we shall
presume that proximity of the 4th
Of March and the urgency of other
business will preclude decisive action
on the currency at this session.
Meantime, Secretary McCulloch will
go on with his regular withdrawal
and destruction Of greenbacls at the
rate ofS4, 900, 900 per month. That is
not much, but it is better than no.
thing.
Gas to the various projects which
look to the wholesale withdrawal of
the notes of our national banks and
their replacement by grecnbacks, we
regard them all with complacency, if
not with positive favor; but we insist
that resumption shall be the fl st
step. Let us have no moresystemasic
national falschood. When our green
backs we're first authorized and issued,
it was with q distinct understanding
that they should be convertible into
interest-bearing bonds. at the option
of the holder, and that they should
be redeemed in coin at the earliest
possible day. They were issued rs Il
gigantic forced loan, in satisfaction of
our imperiled Unions urgent, impe-
rious needs. The expedient scarcely
differed little in principle from, hut
was an Improvement upon, that de-
basement Of the coinage so familiar
to the dcspotic rulers of the middle
ages. Its justification is found in
the national peril wherein it origi-
mated, and which it powerfully aided
to overcome. But, though a weary
army may be marched five miles fur
thcr on the stimulus Of gill Of whis-
key per man, it by no means follows
that its efficiency would be increased
by keeping it drunk evermore. It is
high time that we began to taper off;
for, though getting sober is less de-
llclous experience than that Of get
ting drunk, it is decidedly more
wholesome, and the lapse of time
renders it indispensable.
"When the grccnbacks were first
issned, they We're tacitly regarded as
promises to pay SO soon as we could
SO soon, at least, rs the stress OF war
should have passed away. Now that
We have peace and are paying OF the
national debt rather than incurring
1t, let us resume payment; ut all
events, let us not multiply falsehoods
which have not even the doubtful
merit Of decciving. Only let the
Treasury resume payment in coin,
and then, if there be an equitable
mode Of replacing our bank note cur
rency by grccnnacks, we have not the
least objection.."
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