Nebraska advertiser., 1867-10-17
Reply Of Mr.. Greedy to General But
Ter ON Finance.

ACE oA QkU0HDUs
We print herewith a letter from Gen.
BENJAMIN F. Butler. explaining and just
living his late u~tterances which recon-
mended the payment of our national debt
in national paper. We beg the reader
TO nole that General Butler is a volunteer
in this controversy. His views were
elected by no requirements from Us, nor
I'VE bel;eve) from any one. He must
have known before he gave them utter
ance that they were such as we and many
we think mostly loyal Americans deem
dishonest and ~repudiating. Let US brief
ly show why.
l. The United States, when their ma
tional existence was in peril from a for
midable rebellion, imperatively needed
money-immense sums Of it-sums which
could be raised by borrowing alone. So
they commenced borrowing, and were
compelled to borrow more and more for
years, until their national debt reached
the enormus aggregate of over two
thousand seven hundred and fifty mill
ions, whereof two hundred and fifty
millions have since been paid off, leaving
about twenty five hundred millions sull
due
II. To the dark days of oar gigantis
struggle, it was deemed necessary to sus.
pend specie payment and wake the ma
lions promises TO pay a legal tender for
their face-m other words, to decree a
universal forced loan, which was swelled
at length to nearly one thousand millions
of dollars. Except for certain payments
to the government, this paper was thus
made our general currency.
III. AT first, this forced loan was
merely a p%ostponement of actual pay
ment. That is to say, instead of real
cash, the government gave its ~sOalders,
contractors and other creditors its prom
Use to pay as sooD as it should be able
It was a case of qualified national bank
ruplcy, exactly as when a debtor asks
and receives an extension of time Of pay,
ment from his creditors. The govern
ment issued these paper dollars, convert
ible at the will of the holder into b0nds
drawing six per cent interest in COIN
The salutary and righteous system
should never have been changed 4; but,
~unhappily, it was. Had it been faith
fully adheared TO-. the debt would have
funded itself, so fast and so far as II
should be funded, and we should ere
this have returned, of course, to specie
payments. The change from green
backs ~redeemable at the holders pleas
ure, IN a treasury six per cent bond, the
interest specifically payable s%emi-annu-
ally in coin, to a greenbaCk which simply
markedly lied-being ~redeemable no.
where and in nothing-was a deplOra-
bic illustration Of the growing steepness
of the down hill road
". The first g~reenbaCks were fund.
able at the holders option in a specie
paying bond /; those issued later were
fundable whenever the government vic
t%orious over its foes, should be ready to
fund. 1t was at first intended to issue a
moderate amount only but successive
defeats, pressing emergencies and imper-
alive necessities led to further and fur
Their issues, until our greenbacks in cir
c~ulation amounted to four hundred mill
ions
V. All this time the government was
borrowing all it could get-Often to the
extent of one hundred millions per month
And we (among others) were exhOrting
patriotic and thrifty citizens TO sell their
crops. their stocks. their farms. and in
vest the proceeds in The National debt,
explaining to them that they would thus
invest their ~greenbacks, which were at
first a fraction, but at times very largely.
below specie in value, in securities wher-
eof both principal and interest were pay
able in coin. Had they not done so the
Union must have persisted.
VI. The government emitted three
kinds of paper: LIST. greenbacks, for
a time not redeemed in anything; I'd.
Bonds payable in legal tender; Sd. Bonds
payable in specie. The interest on those
payale in legal tender (7-30's) was gen
orally higher than that on bonds paya-
bic in specie (5.2O's) and (lO.40's-)-
| And those who took the 1905 were
urged to do so by the fact that they
would have the option at maturity of
converting them into 5-20's, payable in
coin. Hundreds Of millions Of bonds
drawing 7.10tb per cent. interest have
thus, both before and at maturity, been
converted into 5-20's drawing but 6 per
cent. These are among the bonds which
General Butler says the government
may now justly pay of In gr~eenbacks.
VII. 1t seems clear to our mind that
the government, in borrowing money.
incurred an obligation to pay and that
the amount it thus contracted to pay
could not be increased or diminished at
It's own pleasure, since that would be
saying that it might pay whatever
amount il should see fit to pay. He
who covenants to pay ten thousand dol
lars. does not covenant to pay merely
whatever he may choose to consider Cor
make ten thousand dollars, but a def
mite amount and when General Butler
proposes that the government shall pay
its coin debt in g~reenbacks, and Mr..
George H. Pendleton improves on the
suggestion by urging that two thousand
millions more ~greenbacks be issued, and
all our funded debt, whether held al
home OF abroad, paid off therein, so that
the holders thereof should thenceforih
receive from the treasury no interest
Understanding at all bat bare.faced
lies, not worth a dime on the dOllar-it
seems to US hat the rascalily Of the lat.
ter is more logical and respectable than
General Buffers. If we are to perpe-
trEte a gigantic national Villainy,- let II