Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1867-09-24

10 specie ply hc"'" W I. 80
which auemenis instead Of diminishipg
the Indebtedness ? II soft is fraud on
the country aud on posieriiy' Weave
already driven to the verge 81 bank
ruptcy. The property of the whole
country would not sell to-day for an
amount of specie sufficient to pay off its
i,dsh,edness. The money of the country
can now be bought up-for sixty five
cents on the dollar. Can the fact OF
enormous Indebtedness be so fraudn-
leptly hidden in bonds, as that green
backs shall be kept to- their present
standard, and will that DO a protection
to the present holders of currency
If so how is it to turn up but
that the bondholders are to be deirauded
for the benefit Of the note holders cine
whole financial system is rotten to the
core 1t is absurd to expect to sustain
the credit of the government while 1t IS
running so deeply in debt as to exceed
its ability to pay, and squandering
through extravaganza, populations and
mismanagement at the same time, while
the controlling policy is sapping the
hitherto chief fountain of public revenue,
and sapping the life blood and capacity
for production of eleven States. To
maintain the public credit on such a
basis is to maintain it by false pretenses
at the expense and risk of all the hold
ers of the government obligations, unless
a part are to be defrauded for the benefit
of others. The way to pay debts equally
and honestly is to make money-not oak
leaves, not bonds, not promises to pay,
not notes and greenbacks. There is no
royal way to make it, which kings pos
sess above the peasant 1t must be OBJ
tanned by labor, which is the only true
standard of all values; by production,
by profits, by a policy which assures to
all producers the rewards of labor, and
makes land TEEN with staples, and the
horn of plenty to be full, and the hearts
Of people to bound in the assuring
smiles of an suspicious fortune. When
Sec: etariss can pay debts or sustain the
public credit by skillful " 6nanciering
,ae philosophers stone will be found,
and every other man can pay of national
debts as well as he by stroke of the pen
If the question was whether the gov
eminent should run further in debt by
issuing greenbacks, the case would be
exceedingly different from that which
we have. But the question is now
whether we shall pay off three thousand
millions with two thousand five hundred,
or pay the national debt at cost re-
duced by twenty per cent. This may be
done in legal tenders and leave us with
a reduced debt, which we may then be
able to pay. And if that will not sustain
the credit of the government so that
large addition may be made to the issues
which destroy the bonds, and this done
with safety to all interests, then the
credit of the government must 60 down
as to all its obligations together. Why
not pay off the debt with greenbaeks,
and then find new way to fund enough
to prevent such initiation Of the currency
as may seem to be prejudicial to all in
erests? Sufficient for the day is the
evil thereof"
The Crescent affirms that the adoption
of Mr.. Vallandigham's plan would
burden the masses after fashion COM
pared with which their present troubles
of taxation would be as nothing" Now
we should be pleased to know how and
why, if true, this remarkable statement is
so. We are not so heavily bnrdened
with treasury notes as to be alarmed on
this subject, and we do not mean to be.
We never saw anybody broke by depre-
citation of the national currency. Let
the Government call in its outstanding
notes to their amount paying its whole
debt with new issues, and the bondhold-
ers will get three. quarters Of them and be
glad to fund them for better and assured
debt, which it is possible to pay. The
currency will then be as good as the
paper Of one heavily in debt can be made
by any process. And noteholders who
take and pay out the notes daily at what
they are worth will never suffer to an
appreciable extent