The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-11-12

iudomept they present no insuperabie obstacle.
GENERAL Butler, on the other hand, deals with
the question as one OF legal CONSTRUCTION. ne
holds that the country has not coven anted
specifically to pay in gold, and may, therefore,
nav with paper, leaving altogether out of sight
The effect of his Interpretation upon the
volume of currency.
Mr. Thaddeus Stevens does not stop at this
point. He plants himself squarely on the
Pendleton platform. He calls for relief from
the taxation entailed by the bonds and from
the contraction carried on by the Treasury
under the law. And what he deems it expe-
dent to do he insists may be done without
injustice to the bOndholders. He would
therefore, discharge the debt as quickly as pos
sible, and would issue the amount of paper
necessary to attain that end.
In the shape which General Butler gives to
the question, it scarcely demands discussion.
The fallacies of his argument and its incom-
patibility with national good faith have re-
ceived all the notice they require; for his
Interpretation of the bend and the law has
not necessarily any practical bearing upon
the course of the Government. If the pay
ment of the bonds were now imperative-if
they had reached maturity and must be
met with coin or Currency-the employment
of one or the other might be a matter of
legitimate debate. But no obligation of this
nature exists. The bonds have not ma
tured. The Government is not called upon
to pay them off. And by adhering to the
present policy of Mr.. McCulloch, we may
hepe that the whole subject will be
settled prior to the maturity of the debt
by the resumption of specie payments. There
is no object in discussing the terms of the
bonds when there is a prospect of being able
to pay in paper as good as gold before they
become due.
The Stevens Pendleton plan does not admit
of the same easy treatment. 1t is Immediately
dangerous, because appealing to the selfish
ness of that large portion of the community
who chafe under the oppressiveness of taxa
tion. By one stroke it proposes to largely re-
duce taxation, and so to benefit struggling in
dustry and depressed trade. By another it
seeks to revive the speculative activity of the
war periodic make money plentiful-and to
inaugurate an era of imitation, compared with
which the imitation we now have would be as
nothing.
A circumstance which imparts unpleasant
significance to the latter feature of the scheme
is the prevalence of strong feeling in favor
of initiation throughout the West. We have
recently shown that Western opinion favors
further issues of currency, and that Republi-
can and Democrat alike sail with the current.
1t is true that no Republican journal of any
pretension lends countenance to imitation on
the monstrous scale recommended by Mr.. Ste
vens and Mr.. Pendleton. But the difference is
one of degree merely. A few hundred mil
lions more or less would make little difference
if the process were begun. The error and the
mischief would be substantially the same; for
if the principle be admitted that relief may be
had by deferring indefinitely specie payments,
and meanwhile issuing paper as means of
stimulating speculation, what guarantee have
we that Mr. Stevens point will not be at last
reachedl To secure safety, all further inia-
ton must be prevented at the outset. Every
step in that direction will be step towards
bankruptcy.
The proper antidote to so much of the infla-
tion plan as relates to relief from taxation,
will be found in the adoption of prompt and
large reforms by Congress. The present
system of taxation, crude, unjust, oppressive,
as it is, is an incentive to repudiation. And
if this disgraceful calamity is to be averted,
the party in power must use their opportuni-
ties to tighten the load of labor, and lessen
the burdens which now crush commerce and
render enterprise all but impossible. The
statesmen must do their duty or the dema-
gogues will prevail.
Taxation, the National Debt and the
Currency.
From the N. Y. Herald
We are more heavily taxed in this country
than the people of any other country in the
world. Not even those nations of Europe
which have been piling up enormous national
debts for centuries, through ambitious and dy-
nastic wars, and which have to support expen-
sive monarchical governments and privileged
aristocTacies are burdened as is this young re-
public. The national debt of England is larger
than that of any other nation; but ours is not
less weighty, because the interest Is much
higher. But when we take into account the
debts of the several States, the counties, and
the cities and towns, in addition to the debt oi
the Federal Government, the burden is much
heavier and the taxation far greater. We used
to boast of our cheap Government, and point
to the people of Great Britain, weighed down
with taxation, by way of striking contrast.
Now, however, our taxes in the aggregate are
for each individual nearly if not quite as much
as the people of England have to bear; and
almost all this mountain of debt has been
| accumulated within seven years.
The question which the American people
| will soon ask--which, in fact, they begin ia
asks, how has it happened that such an
enormous debt was contracted Admitting
the necessarily vast expenses of war uu
| paralleled in history, we still cannot shut oul
| eyes to the fact that other nations have haC
wars of vast magnitude and of much longe,
duration without creating anything like such
a debt. Well might Mr.. Stevens say, in his
remarkable letter, 1--WE have thrown away oul
billions and are still throwing away millions
by mismanagement." Seven years or less OF
radical Republican rule has piled up deb
in the aggregate of four thousand millions o
dollars. Expensive as the war was, there
was no necessity for creating debt one-hal
or a third as large as this. History furnishes
no example comparable with such ignorance,