The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-10-11

,oy 60 tbare and the legal-tender notes, for
which the FEe-twenty bonds were sold, We're,
TO all intents and purposes, as good PA gold.
Is this the legal-tender currency in W nich Mr.. |
Butler would redeem the bondAl On the |
25th of May, three months after the passage
of the Legal-tender act, gold was at pre-
MUM Of only three per cent. On July llth,
Congress authorized the issue of $3.50, 000,O0
of additional legal-tender notes, and in less
than three months gold was at premium of
80 per cent, On January IL, 1863, Congress
authorized the issue of further 500 900
of legal-tender notes, and in thirty days gold
was at a premium OF a per cent. In which OF
these legal tender curTsnoies would Mr.. Butler
redeem the bonds
Il is useless to go farther in this direction.
The facts are simply these:-The United States
has borrowed from its own citizens and from
foreigners money on a bond. The letter of the
bond does not specify how the money or what
money shall be paid. The strict letter of the
ta1o cannot be appealed to. Equity alone can
decide by establishing the intention of the
parties to the bond and their Interpretation of it
at the time of making the agreement. At the
time the contract was made, not one person
out Of hundred in the United States believed
that we should have any other currency but
specie currency long before the i've years
option matured, and all who thought so must
have thought that these bonds were payable
! in coin.
/ On the first of March, 1862 seven days after
/ the passage of the Legal-tender act, an act
was passed authorizing the issue of certificates
| of Indebtedness drawing six per cent. annual
/ interest, without stating whether the interest
| was payable in coin or currency. by an act
of March 3, 1863 the interest on these certit-
Gates was declared to be payable In coin on all
those issued to that date, and on all subse-
quently issued to be payable in currency;
striking argument against the assump-
ton that in the absence of an express stipula-
tion payment is to be made in currency.
On March 3, 1864, the act was passed authO-
rizing the issue of $500, 900, 600 of so-called
Ten-forty bonds, bearing per cent. interest,
principal and interest payable an coin. These
1910 bonds are the strongest card of the repu-
diatOrs, and their argument is this: the fact
that the Ten-forty bonds are made specifically
payable, principal and interest, in coin, proves
that it conld not have been the intention of
the Government to make the Five-twenties
payable principal and interest in coin, or it
would have so stated with equal precision.
The very reverse is the case. The Five-twenty
bonds early became popular in Europe and
| here, and it was thought that money could be
raised almost equally as well on a per cent.
| bond, and thus per cent. of annual interest
be saved. Just at that time the question first
began to be raised, especially abroad, whether
the Five-twenties might not perhaps be paid
off in currency, and in order to avoid lest
any such doubt might attach to the new
loan, it was specifically stated that it should
be payable principal and interest in coin.
But, strange to tell of all the loans issued
during the war, the only unpopular and un-
successful one was this very Ten-forty loan
If any serious doubt had prevailed anywhere
! about the Fve-twent'es, who would have
| hesitated to exchange doubtful bond for one
which admitted of no question, although the
interest were slightly lower! But far from
this these undoubted bonds were not taken,
and in less than three months the Secretary
was compelled to seek authority for further
| issue of the very Five-twenty bonds which it
| is now claimed were purchased with know
| ledge of the doubt adhering to them. And
| from that time to this the Ten-forty bonds
have stood in the market at almost precisely
| the same figure as the Five-twenty bonds,
taking into account the difference in the rate
| of interest. Is it possible to adduc4
stronger proof of the conviction of bona tide
| buyers that the Five-twenties were payable,
like the Ten-forties, principal and interest in
| gold2
| We pass by, as not of binding force, the
various letters from different Secretaries of the
| Treasury giving their Interpretation of the
| law, all of them in favor of our view. We
waive all claim to our version of the law, but
we lay the facts fairly before the people, and
| ask them what was the Interpretation put
upon the bond by borrower and lender alike
| lchen the loan ,caS made? We take it there can
be but one answer to our query, and that
answer the people of the United States will
have to honestly abide by. 1t may require
an effort to shake off the temptation, but the
people of the United States have scarcely
sunk so low as to yield up their consci-
ences to the guidance of such spiritual di-
rectors as Messrs. Butler, Pendleton, and Val
landigham.
We have no space left to show how petty
would be the advantages gained by so gross
breach of faith, and how enormous the loss.
how incalculable the evil. Nor can we now
enter into the absurdity and impossibilty
OF the different means suggested for the
actual execution of this nefarious scheme.
The fuss and furry which it has excited here
and abroad are only another warning illustra-
ton of the extreme ease with which the
influence acquired for one purpose may by
some men be applied to another. The best
plan, indeed, of meeting Mr.. Buffers
sophistries is to remember that three-fourths
of the difficult science of finance is made up
OF honesty, which all men can understand.
Whatever cannot be understood by honest
men is apt to be "fnanciering," =" and some
thing usually called by worse name. The
specific allegations as to the representations
made by the Government and its agents in this
matter, by which Mr. Butler has sought to
bolster up his plan, in his last letter to the
Tribune, have been admirably met by a cor
respondent of the Boston Advertiser, signing
himself "W. E., and we do not see anything
better for Mr.. Butler to do than to let the sub
Ject drop. His share in this discussion fur
nlshes strong support to the prediction we
! we have more than once ventured to utter
that good many gentlemen, whose "opinions