Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-06-21
On oidO lFrom the logan Gazette. J s4b yTsv
The Commercial and the Payment
of the National Debt.

Oh the NatAOnaL DeDts
1The Commercial of yesterday had coll
umn reply to the EaQatTer upon the subject
otpaying the interesE1bearing bonds of the
General Government with legal, tender
notes. The only point of tlie lengthy arti-
Gle is contained In the following paragraph:
I'D Before we proceed any further inthe in
-yestigation of the E.gQarer's plan, we must,
second time, ask TO be informed what its
''orfginator" proposes to do with the three
Thousand millions of gTeenbacks which, un-
deriit,areito beesubstituted for the seven
thirties and five-twenties as they mature?
We insist on 4 straightforward answer to
this, for it is the fundamental Question:
/ 1--WE propose to do with them just what
was done, with the millions of legal ten
ders already issued. The Commercial knows
the uses they were put to. They perform
ed the functions of money. They will
continue to perform that serviee."@Ea-
qltref. -5It Sdj sEf90 @ JgII11iE TIIsa
It seems to US that the Ehqaires- has not
its "hsual ability" in the above
responsei The fact that the Commercial
comedies "the fundamental question" in
the premises TO be, what to do with =.sthe
three thousand millions of greenbacks," is
certainly "a good average joke on the bond
holders. 1t occurs to us, furthermore, that
the proposed new issue can be used much
more nationally ands beneficially, in the
main, than the old issues were, which, in
by war expenses-,ifIs hiring substitutes,
-enriching- bounty-brokers, sc, ito say
nothing OF the vast sums, paid to the Jay
Cookies and Shoddy contractors, and the in
Vulnerable swarm of loyal thieves which
plundered the Federal Treasury while the
great massacre was going onD There is
world OF room for Improvement upon the
manner offorIner disbursements. The new
issue will not be wasted in butchery and
crime; not lavished upon scOundrelly con-
tractors, nor ruinously discounted to home
and foreign capitalists. In short, it will
not be concentrated in the hands of the
few for the oppression of the many, as
the former issues were. Instead of be-
ing dead weight. upon the energies
of the masses, the new issue will lift dead
weight of debt from their shoulders, and
stimulate every department of trade, en-
terprise and industry. Instead of three
thousand millions of capital exempt from
every form of taxation, and dead to all the
industries and beneficent uses of our peo-
pie and our country-a crushing incubus
upon honest labor, and upon business en-
terprise-instead of all this, we shall have
three thousand millions of active and
eager currency to convert into the
wages of labor, to build up our towns
and improve our lands with, to construct
RAILROADS, erect manufactures and to de-
velope, generally, the resources of our
Pile. What would we do with it? indeed !
What would we not do with it? With the
taking up of the last bond, one hundred
and thirty million of dollars, which, under
the present arrangement must be drawn
from the general toll euery year, world with
out end, will be paid, and paid finally
once for all. After that the road to ulti-
mate extinction would be plain, straight,
aud easy to travel. Every dollar of
tax above current expenses would be
dollar paid upon the public debt, and
paid with a dollar which, as a general
thing-likea squeezed lemon-had fulfilled
its highest destiny. And the issue of green
backs which would furnish the dollars to
pay the public debt in the manner we have
contemplated, Notwithstanding its immense
volume, would be the best and safest money
we have had since the beginning of the
disasters which have impoverished our
people and jeopardizcd their liberties. Let
us have it, then, and, from curse, wholly
unmitigated, let US approximate, as nearly
as may be, blessing for our country and
our kind.