The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-12-05


poly that win control the Government itself,
rule the markets and swallow up all the
profts of industry. Mr.. MoCullOch, through
ont the whole of his long rigmarole about the
national 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 interminable and pro6tless
labor to 60 into all the contradictions and
absurdities of this report, or to endeavor to
sift ont any grain from such mass of chaff.
But some things should be noticed. For ex-
ample, he comedies the general prosperity OF
the country, the extraordinary stimulus that
has been given to production through an
abundant currency and an easy money lar
ket. He could not do otherwise for his enor-
NOUS 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 further contraction of the currency
to give health. The country is remarkably
well, he says in one breath, and in another he
declares there must bs some disease not
actually seen. 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.. McCul-
lOch's experimental quackery. The country
is very well, and will go on very well If the
currency be let alone. We want no contrao-
tion, and only uniform currency by substi-
tuting legal-tenders for the national bank
circulation. We shall grow up to specie pay
ments, if that be desirable, within few years,
through the natural growth of population,
business, and the country.
With regard to the payment Of the debt in
coin or currency the Secretary makes q long
and laboTed argument for the bondholders.
He quotes the proceedings of Congress
(though, unfortunately for his object, they
are against him) to show that the principal of
all the debt, the ive-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 obliga-
ton to pay the principal of the debt in coin,
except where that is expressly stipulated on
the bonds; that whenever paper or specie is
the currency of the country ii is perfectly
legitimate for the Government to pay the
bonds or buy them up in either; that it was
so understood in Congress when the bonds
we're issued, as Mr.. Stevens has clearly stated
and that we are not called upon to force specie
payments for the special benefit of the bond
holders, so as to pay them forty or fifty per
cent. more for their bonds than they gave for
them. There is no fear about the national
honor so long as we pay in the same money
in which every one is paid.
One of the most absurd and mischievous
propositions of Mr.. McCulloch in this report
is relative to taxing the bonds for the benefit
of the several States. No doubt this kind of
property ought to be taxed as well as any
other; but for the general Government to col
lect the tax and then distribute it among the
States is preposterous. The Secretary knows
nothing of history, or he would be warned by
the land and surplus revenue distribution
funds in former times in this country. 1t was,
as history shows, frightful source of corrup-
ton and dissension. This proposition is
nothing more than a gigantic bribe offered to
the States and politicians to support Mr.. Nc
Culloch's infamous system of finance.
Mr.. McCulloch is not very explicit about the
progress and amount of contraction of the cur
rency, nor upon the effect produced. He has
touched this matter very gingerly. He has
utterly failed to propose a good system of
revenue, so as to reduce the burdens of taxa
ton, to prevent the stupendous frauds prac-
tised and to provide for the rapid liquidation
of the debt. Onall these important topics he
deals in vague generalities, or says nothing.
In fact, there never came from any Secretary
of the Treasury such an unsatisfactory mass
of wordy, meaningless stuff as we find in this
report.