The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1867-11-11
The Latest News
BY the Union Line;
| once, corner OF Main and MOnrOe street.
Letter Prom the Hon Thaddeus Ste
rnr,. NJ, nnr National Einances
By 6 HAPH.

VEINS on Our National Finances
! NEW YORK, Nov. "a letter from
| Hon. Thad. Stevens on the subject Of
our national finances is published. 1t
is in reply to a letter addressed to
him by neighbor, and is very
long and comprehensive. Mr..
Stevens commences with the assertion,
\ that so far as the financial condition of
the Republic is concerned it is not now
nor never can be, in any doubt or peril
with the product which we can rea lily
dispose Of TO supply the demand of
any kind. There never can be II time
when with honest dealings this Repub.
| lie will be unable TO pay all her just
liabilities. he says, / have not APP
proved and do not now approve of the
financial policy pursued by our gov
eminent for the last six years; think
we have thrown away our billions and
are still throwing away millions by
mismanagement. Then addressing his
correspondent Who is n national banker,
he says: You are a banker, and sound
one, but you are making more oh OF
the United States through the national
banking system, as every other man
who has adopted it, than you ought to
make. He has never doubted, he says,
that the government has the constitu-
tional power TO make money OF what
ever material il chooses whether metal
or paper, leather, tin or greenbackS, TO
REGULATE tue NhluC0 anu ANb"A
tenders are to all intents and purposes
the lawful money of the country
money in which all debts, public or
private, may be lawfully and Justly
paid. Money is just what the law
makes it. He refers to the fact that
the government has, at different times,
reduced the price OF silver, and that
when it was reduced it was made to
pass to every creditor as well as debtor
at the original price, and Congress pos
sesseS the same power 10 issue and reg
ulate the value of any other KIND OF
money. He mentions consequently
that il Is lust and proper to pay the ma
IionRl debt in greeuback lawful money.
Referring to the debt he says: Now let
us come to the government loan and
lor a single moment consider 1t, which,
even without the monstrous doctrine oil
Greeley and Cook is the most profitable
investment ever made by money lend
ers and ia q monstrOus swlndle on
Americans on the part OF European
capitalists. However he would pay in
full the rich capitalists and disappotnt
those who have made princely fortunes
through the folly of the government,
but he dareS not think there is any OBJ
legation to force specie payments IN
order to pay two or three times over
what they are only and justly entitled.
He shows beyond contradiction that
in creating leans, there was no lnten-
ton on the part OF Congie ss to commit
the Government TO the payment OF the
principal in coin, except where THIS was
expressly mentioned. This matter was
fully considered, and we'll understood
at the time, and the bondholders have
no reason to complain il paid in legal
tenders. Speaking of this money, Mr..
Stevens says: For two years the
greenbncks were the most popular cur
Tency ever used in the United States,
I'D haH fhnFn hnnn nfhpF. IL would
not have failed to buy every necessary
commodity for every use, public ana
private, without complaint, and If 1t
sWelled the currency OF the country
also swelled business OF every kind
foreign and domestic, agricultural and
manufacturing; so, also, it swelled the
income of business men, and thereby
vastly increased the revenue OF the
Government. The great question at is
| sue is the right of the Government TO
pay and the policy OF paying the DEBT IN
| greenbacks lawful money. Upon this he
| remarks: Various notions are suggested
| to redeem the 5-20's in currency, one
very able writer suggests a loan ia
greenbacks, to be in amount, so that
afterwards the greenbacks may be re-
deemed with the others. II we are
satisfied that there is no more than "A
sufficient currency to do the business
OF the country with its probable in
crease, then, that would be the proper
method without Initiating prices.as a
counter balance to the saving, but If 1t
| is believed that the present and pros
pecIive business OF the country would
| fairly absorb an amount large enough
to redeem those bonds as they come
| due and not injuriously increase the
| business, then the true way would be
for the Government to issue legal ten
ders, equal to the amount to be redeem
ed, and thus suve the interest, both of
] = .
views ne holds the contraction of the
currency OF four millions IA month, as
now authorized, rs highly impolltic.
Finally, he believes the true way II not
the only one to reach specie payments,
is to reduce the debt as proposed before
any attempt be made to contract the
| currency.