Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-12-06

ordinary changes that are likely to take
place and the Secretarv's ridiculous mis-
takes about the income and expenditures of
the Government, this seems TO us super
huous labor and very unreliable.
The Secretary still clings to his resump-
tion theory. While he confesses that the
trade, revenue and condition OF the country
have been such as to check him In his ef-
forts to. contract the currency and force
specie payments, he still hopes resumption
| may be reached within short time. He
did expect to reach this by next July, and
notwithstanding the adverse :circumstanc-
es, as he regards them, operating against
| him, he says 1.-The 1st of January, or at the
furthermost the 1st of July, 1859. specie
payments should be resumed" He takes
credit for having done much preliminary
work" to bring this about. OF course he
means by that that he has contracted the
currency and thereby brought us nearer
specie payments. In this we think he de-
ceives himself. At any rate, we are con-
vinced he has brought US nearer financial
| trouble, and that unless Congress checks
him serious disasters must soon follow.
By far the greater part of the report is
occupied with a discussion OF the National
! Bank system and about contraction of the
currency and specie payments. MIR. Nc
Culloch comes to the conclusion that the
National Banks should be sustained. He
argues that they are $50 interviewer with
| Ill UTdUCueS VI DuSlutsSs atlu dTc 81 COu>
nected with the credit of the Government,
that they could not be destroyed without
precipitating upon the country financial
| troubles" Yet he thinks that when we
| shall have attained substantial prosperity
.'it may be wise for Congress to consider
| whether the national banking system may
not be dispensed with. DID any one ever
see before such jumble OF contradictions?
The National Banks are the greatest bless
| ing to the Government, to its credit, to the
trade of the country, and they cannot be
destroyed without breaking faith and dOin g
them great injustice; yet the time may
come when it may be wise to break them
up. What absurdity If they are to be
broken up at all the time to do that
is before they become firmly established,
before they are rooted and interviewer in
all the transactions and property OF the
country. At present they may be regard
ed only as an experiment., but if they should
continue long in existence they may claim
vested rights and privileges. However
great the evil NAV be it will be hard to re-
move it when firmly established. 1t took
years of the most desperate struggle with
all the power and will of Andrew Jackson
to put down Biddle's United States Bank;
but that was a weak Institution compared
with the National Bank combination. A
vast moneyed power like this when deeply
rooted cannot be removed without the
greatest difficulty--withOut a struggle that
would shake the foundations of the Gov
ernment. If it be an evil, now is the time
to remove, it, or never. O., ---s-l---.,-.,
The Secretary speaks of the banks being
"connected with the credit of the Govern
ment."q He has not the hardihood to say
they are necessary to its credit. Yes, they
are connected with the credit OF the gov
is, the Government lends
them its credit to bank upon, and makes in
addition gratuity to them of national
medium. 1t is one-sided af-
fair and the banks get all the benefit. They
are of no earthly use to the credit of the
Government and never can be. They draw
seven and half to eight per cent. in cur
rency on their bonds deposited and make
about as much on their circulation. 1t is
a monstrous monopoly, drawing upon the p
credit lent to them, and the circulation
given to them, fifteen or sixteen per cent.
from the industrial earnings Of the people.
Mr.. McCulloch and the Comptroller of
the Currency endeavor to make it ap-
pear that the banks do not receive
this enormous benefit, and that there would
be no saving by the substitution of alegal
tender currency for National Bank circu-
lation. and they particularly refer to the
taxes the banks pay by the way OF sustain
ing their argument. This is simply ridic-
ulOus, and an insult to the common sense
of the nation. IL is well known that the
property or wealth and business of the
banks are not taxed more than the proper
ty or business of all cur citizens. Indeed,
they are not taxed as much, while the
profits on their three hundred millions of
amounting to twenty-five
millions in currency year, at least, is
clear gift from the Government. 1t is Civ
ing away to an overgrown monopoly
twenty-five millions year which be-
long to the people, and which ought to be
saved. a
Iftha Not;onol Ronl,e I,o o,ob a blaes;n1
to the country, let them show it by doing
their business with Government legal ten
ders, and let the people have the profits
that belong to them OF circulating medi-
um. There is no objection to these banks
let them exist if they will-only let the
people and Government not be robbed fOr
their exclusive advantage, and let us not
perpetuate an enormous monopoly that will
control the Government itself, rule the
markets and swallow up all the profits of
industry. Mr.. McCulloch, throughout the
whole of his long rigmarole about the ma
tiOnal banking system, has but one idea,
and that is to favor the banks and banking
capital at the expense OF the industrious
classes and the Government.
1t would be an iDterminable and profitless
labor to go into all the contradictions and
absurdities of THE report, or to oudravor to
sift out any grain from such mass of chaH.
But some things should be noticed. For
ity of the country, the extraordinary slim
ulus that has been given to production
through an abundant currency and an easy
money market. He could not do other
wise; for his enormous revenue and the
condition of the people show that too
plainly. Yet at the same time he calls this
an unhealthy state of things, and urges
furi her contraction of the currency to give
health. The country is remarkably well, he
says in one breath, and in another he declares
there must be some disease not actually
se.n. He would bleed the patient for an
Imaginary disease, and then, of course,
when the patient dies, he, like all other
quacks, would declare the experiment. was
"a legitimate one. We do not want Mr.. Nc
Culloch's experimental quackery. The
country is very well, and will 60 on very
well il the currency be let alone. We
want no contraction, and only uniform
currency by substituting legal tenders for
grow up to specie payments, if that be de-
sirable, within few years through the
natural growth of population, business aud
the country.
With regard to the payment of the debt
in coin or currency the Secretary makes a
long and labOred argument for the bond
holders. He quotes the proceedings of
object, they are against him) to show that
the principal Of all the debt, the five
twenties included, should be paid in coin.
He talks great deal about national honor
and all that to sustain his weak argument.
The whole truth about the matter is simply
this, that there is no obligation to pay the
principal of the debt in coin, except where
that is expressly stipulated on the
bonds; that whenever paper or spe-
Gle Is the currency of the country
it is perfectly legitimate for the
to pay the bonds or huy them
up in either; that it was so understood in
Congress when the bonds were issued. as