The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1867-12-18
DAILY PRESS.
ND.
Wednesday Morning, December 8 1857.
CORTLAND.
Resumption of Specie Payments.

Resumption of Specie Payments.
The Tribune which believes like Thaddeus
Stevens, that the price of gold can be fixed by
act Of Congress, in other words that we can
make greenbacks equivalent to gold by writ
ing over the door of the Treasury, "The Unit
ed States have resumed specie payments" IN
telligen:ly criticises Mr.. Lynch's financial bills
as follows:
Mr.. Lynch, of Maine, proposes to resume
specie payments by redeeming all q. S. notes
in new legal-tender notes payable in one year
in coin; by allowing the Secretary, after spe-
Gle payments have been resumed, to issue
notes payable in coin (Pray. in what but
coin will any notes be payable after specie pay
ments shall be resumed?); land by allowing
the Secretary "to purchase coin to redeem
bonds, not exceeding 10000, 600" ~. With
what but bonds is he to purchase the coin?
and If he purchases with bonds, coin with
which to redeem bonds, what is he doing but
giving bonds for bonds? Why need the coin
intervene in the transaction?l The first
clause of the proposition amounts to prom
lse to resume specie payments one year from
date. But in what way will the Government
than it is now? Will it have more gold? or
fewer demands upon it's gold? Will the pre-
MUM on gold be less? and if not, how will it
be easier TO pay those notes one year from
date, in gold, than it now is to pay those of
which they are now to take the place? Mr..
Lynch has also proposed new Three Hun
dred Million loan, payable, the principal in
lawful money, and the interest at five per cent.
in coin. We have sixteen different forms of
loan already. Why add a seventeenth when
consolidation and simplifcation, not scattera-
ton and complication, are sought after by our
creditors, and are essential to the reduction of
our rates of interest?
The portion of the Tribunes remarks which
we have inclosed in brackets is founded on a
blunder Mr.. Lynch did not propose to allow
the Secretary "to purchase coin to redeem
bonds" but to redeem lega, tender notes at
maturity, and for this purpose would author
ize the Secretary to issue 40 year bonds to
an amount "not exceeding $50,O00O00." 1t
would seem that anybody, who considered
the purpose of the bill, could not fail to see
the necessity of providing for coin with which
to make the proposed payments, and that in
the last resort such provision must be made
by issuing new bonds. The foolish concep-
tion of exchanging bonds for bonds is the
Tribune's and not Mr.. Lynch's, and is hardly
excusable even on the ground that the Trib-
une was misled by bluudering dispatch
nun ito w correspondence.
We pass now to the remarks bearing prop
erly upon Mr.. Lynch's scheme, which as the
Tribune correctly says, "amounts to prom
Use to resume specie payments one year from
date"-that is to say, one year from March 1,
1868. "Wil the government have more gold?
or fewer demands upon its gold? Will the
premium on gold be less?" These questions
might all be rolled into one and that is, Will
the American people after fifteen months
work be better able to begin to pay their debt
than now? Debts are paid out of the earn
ings of industry, and not by act of Congress.
Unquestionaby the nation will be better able
to commence payment fifteen months hence
than now. But the peculiarity of Mr.. Lynchs
plan, the Tribune overlooks completely. He
only proposes at that time to pay such of the
United States notes as were received at the
Treasury in the regular course of business
year before. These receipts in the course of
a year, according to the estimates of Secreta-
ry McCulloch, will amount to about 11S mil
lions, and the government will have till March
1, 1870 more than two years, to provide for
the redemption of these 11S millions.
In short, Mr.. Lynch proposes to substitute
gradually for the 357 millions of irredeemable
notes now afoat, new notes, payable one year
from the date Of issue, and to pay them as
they mature. The Tribune proposes on the
other hand to put up an inscription over the
door of the Treasury, signifying that the
United States are now ready to pay tho whole
357 millions ON demand. The United States
are not ready, and the boasting inscription
would deceive nobody. Congress would b.
compelled 10 reverse its action as promptly as
when it repealed the act to abolish specula-
ton in gold. The practical way to resume
specie payments, or in other words to begin
to pay the promi sorry notes called greenbacks,
is to fix date for paying at least a portion of
them, and then to see that the money is ready
when they mature. That is what Mr.. Lynch,
practical, business man, has undertaken to
and we hope Congress will adopt his plan.
As to the new 5 per cent. loan, payable in
lawful money on demand, which Mr.. Lynch
would have in order to absorb unemployed
capital and to replenish the money market
whenever the rate of interest rises above
per cent, and thus to prevent undue expau-
sons and contractions of the currency, the
Tribune wants to know what it is foI! To
that question no answer is required except
recommendation to read the bill.