Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1867-10-09
THE IMPENDING FINANCIAL RUIN.

trample upon laws, courts and home rights,
and made Judges trail their ermines in the
dust.
THE IMPENDING FINANCIAL RUIN.
The letter from Secretary McCulloch
to gentleman in New York, dated the
9Th inst, and printed in our telegraphic
columns yesterday morning, will fall
upon the ear of the masses of the people
Of the country as a voice portending ruin
and desolation In the South scarcely
single bank of the old financial regime
was left at the close of the war. Outside
of New Orleans not one remains this day
in all the "so-called Confederate States
The people, besides the sweeping desola-
lions of war, were left at the surrender,
without dollar of currency. Since then
they have labored with industry and
economy to rebuild their wasted fortunes
Before they could commence they were
compelled to borrow. Disastrous seasons,
accompanied by revolution in the labor
system, brought them deeper in debt than
they were at the commencement Of the
first year Of their rehabilitation. The
second promises no better. Pecuniary
embarrassment is universal, at this mo-
ment, throughout the South. Under the
most liberal financial policy it would re-
quire the greatest skill and prudence for
most Of them to escape hopeless bank
ruptcy.
The South is not alone The policy of
contraction so steadily pursued by Mr..
McCulloch has already impressed its first
effects upon the West and Northwest In
time it will reach the poorer classes
throughout the North. If it is continued.
it will not he long til more than half of
the people Of New England will echo the
groans Of distress which are already
coming up from the South and West.
The country has absolutely no currency
except government greenbacks. When,
therefore, Mr.. McCulloch, in The letter
above referred to, tells US that these
notes are, by the authority .of Congress,
being rapidly withdrawn from circula
ton; no more can be issued under the
existing laws, nor can | believe that any
considerable number of the members of
Congress would favor an additional issue
for any purpose whatever tells us
substantially that we will shortly be
enveloped in utter financial ruin
The people may live without recon
struetion-but they cannot live without
the means TO procure meat and bread;
and the course of Mr.. McCulloch is tend
ing with certain and fearful rapidity to
deprive them of these means. The
JacObins may cease to agitate confscation;
for, if Mr.. McCulloch persists in his
course, and is sustained by Congress, the
whole real property Of the South will be
absorbed by government taxation in
very few years. IF this shall not be the
result in three or four years, it will be
because the States, in order to furnish
their citizens with means to buy bread
and postpone the evil day, will resort to
the indiscriminate charter Of irresponsi-
bic banks, whose issues will soon become
the merest burlesque as a representative
e L. l. Il. 4
spread ruin the commerce of the North
will languish and die, and that financial
desolation which begins with partial and
local distress will sweep as a bosom of
destruction from Maine TO Texas.
We do not pretend to account for the
motives which impel the Secretary of the
Treasury to this ruinous course; bat that
he ought to be required to change it, or
be promptly removed we are clear The
President owes it to the people to inter
vene between the fearfully destructive
policy Of his Minister of Finance and
their utter ruin. After this last letter of
his not day ought to be lost The New
York Herald never struck the chords of
the popular heart more directly, or ut
tered more truthfully the popular yearn-
ings than in calling for the instant re-
moval of Mr. McCulloch The Herald
on the 9TH inst says:
McCulloch is running the country into
financial embarrassment by his incapacity
and impracticable theories. They are all
a positive weakness to the Administration
but McCulloch is more than that--he is a
great calamity to the country.
The Secretary of the Treasury il simply.
the creature Of Mr.. Chase and his friends.
He rms the treasury machine for their
benefit. The complicated system estab,
lished by Mr.. Chase and perpetuated by
him provides places for an army of that
portion of the Radical party, and creates
colossal fortunes for the Jay Cookies and
national bank capitalists. Two objects are
reached by this treasury machinery and
financial policy, if policy it can be called.
First, Mr.. Chase and his friends and parts
sans are made rich at the expense of the
people, and, second, a powerful combina,
ton is established for the purpose of cons
trolling political affairs and placing the
Chief Justice in the White House.
When we look at the manner in which
our national finances have been managed
from the time Mr.. Chase went into the
Treasury Department up TO the present
time, we are forced to the conclusion that
the objects have been as we have stated.
1t has been one system all through, a sys-
TEN to enrich friends and partisans and to
cause moneyed power in the republic.
Mr.. McCulloch has faithfully carried out
the purpose of his chief and patron. Banks
ers and politicians from Ohio, Indiana and
other parts have had control of the Treas
ury and the resources of the country. What
that has cost the people it would be hard
TO guess. The sum must be s;upendoUs
In fact, our enormous national debt is the
consequence. We need not have been
burdened with this debt. If any debt had
been necessary it would have been COM
paratively small had Mr.. Chase followed
the advice and accepted the offers of the
New York bankers at the beginning of