American citizen. [volume] (Butler, Butler County, Pa.) 1863-1872, 1867-10-16
GENERAL .BUTLER,S FINAN-
CIAL SCHEME. q hl9i

paying the natlonal DEBT IN greenbackS
has been very ably reviewed in CON-
munication to a Boston paper. The
writer exposes many gross misstatements
on the part of General Butler. We will
endeavor to compress his views IN an
intelligible abstract General Butler
stated that the first fifty million loan. of
August, 1861, was issued at 7.30 inter,
est, principal and interest payable in gold
and that the loan was so taken and paid,
but he remarked that when the Five
Twenty Loan was passed it made the in>
terest at six per cedt. payable in gold,
but said nothing as to the currency in
which the principal was to be paid. The
writer whose communication we are not
ing, says that the act creating the frst
loan does not contain single word i'm,
plying that either principal or interest
should be paid in gold. and in point Of
fact not dollar of the principal ever was
SO paid. He further asserts that the first
Five twenty bonds authorized by the
second section of the act of February 20,
1862, and SO far from its being true that
the interest was made payable in geld,
while nothing was said as to the curren-
cy in which the principal should be paid !"
the fact is that in this section, which
alone coneers upon the Secretary of the
Treasury the power to issue five hundred
millions OF Five twenty bonds, not word
as tq either principal or interest being
paid in coin. .... Z
General Butler's inference, therefore,
that because nothing was said as to the
principal, while the interest was payable
ia gold, Congress intended that the ptin.
cipal should be payable in currency, falls
to the ground. The language of the
!aw is precisely the same, both as regards
the principal and interest. The obser-
vation is also made with great force that
as it had always been the practice of the
Government to pay the principal and in
terest of the public debt in coin, if there
had been any intention to change this
policy it would have been good faith to
the public creditor explicitly to have
stated the departure from existing custom
What Congress did intend in regard to
this loan is shown in the fourth section
of the act creating it, which provides for
the first time that duties upon imports
should be made payable in coin, and then
proceeds to say: llt e#rs.,.a, .t...
And the coin SO paid shall be set apart
as special fund and shall be applied as
follows:
First-To tie payment in coin Of the
interest on the bonds and notes Of the
United Stats
Second-To the purchase or payment
of one per centum Of the entire debt of
the United States, &C., for the payment
of all the public debt.
This section our writer Justly quotes
as proving that the five twenty bonds 10
be issued under that act we're considered
in precisely the, same light as all the oth>
er existing public debt Of the United
States, and that if Congress had intend
ed that these bonds should be paid in
currency it would not have in the same
act which created the loan made the
Custom House dues payable only in coin
and specifically pledged them for its re-
uouP'ioh' " 10 iui poltauI w leuiS lHuoi
too, that the same act Of February II,
1867, by its first section authorized for
the first tithc the loan of Sl50,000,000
of greenbacks, aud, lin making them le~
gal.tender, provided that they should not
be paid "for interest upon bonds and
notes (of the United States, which shall
be paid in coin" This applies TO the
interest upon all the bonds of the Uni
ted States-the bonds of 1862, which
have since been paid off in gold the
bonds of 1867 and 1868 soon to be paid
aud all other existing indebtedness Of lhe
United States. There Is, says General
Buffers reviewer, not word in the
statute to justify even suspicion that
Congress regarded the fye>twenty bonds
in any other light than as all other parts
Of the public debt. = - 7a3
1t appears that during the sale ofthese
bonds the question was raised as to uh H.
or they routd be paid an coin at maturity
10 reply to inquiries, Mr.. Field the As
sistant Secretary OF the Treasury, Jay
Cook & Co, Spencer Villa & Co, Brew.
ster Sweet & CO., and other authorized
GrVeranteia against ior the sale of the
bonds stated positively that the bonds Of
the United States would be paid in coin
at maturity. We need not quote the let
tiers. So in the Treasury advertisement
of the 1910 bonds put forward in May
1864, when the whole FIVE hundred mil,
lion loan had been taken, to the general
pledge that the principal and interest oI
United States bonds would be paid in coir
no exception was made against the 5 eos
Gen. Butler had propoundod the ques
ton, how could the Government cxpec
the five per cent. gold payable and golc
bearing loan to be taken up when il hat
the six per cent. gold payable and golC
bearing loan still OUT The answer Il
made that. the Government did not ex
pect it and made no effort to sell the ;er
forties until one year later, in Marcel
1854, when the fvetwenties had Ions
since been taken, and some two hundred
millions more of paper money issued t,
prepare the. market to float FIVE pc
cent. loan
The writer concludes his successful ex
posure of the iallacies and downright
false statements, by which Gen, Butler
national scheme of reputation is bolster
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