The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-09-17
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General Buffers New way.

ApAoA NoW WAYs
From the ". Y. Tribune
That we may do General Butler no injustice,
or that our readers may detect it if we should,
we recOpy the material portion Of his letter on
finance, given fully in Saturdays Tribune last.
He says:-
''My proposition is that the Government shall
oner TO the country new loan, seo%uloa % ~ 3St ~
rest in currency bonds payable aJ Iong uaJe, W
which all future issues OF Government ioaIlS @ u
snail be assimlated go as 10 aSe ad onG ns tbe
Government securities only, instead -, Ol aIS wy
nineteen different classes we nave noW, w, ouw ,n
with the proceeds of such loan pay ,,S on Oos as
highest class of nterest-gold bearing ponus as
they become due; not to increase, ana JnereDy
depreeiRte the currency, but TO render Ine , cur,
rency and credit Of the Government more
stable. and, therefore, all the more valuable, py
reducing the debt by areduction OF interest anu
increase of taxable property causing ouI ~ lVane @
to be taken up in our own country, so InaI we
may not be obliged TO pay trloute 70 t loIeIgu @
capital, as we now do, AZ rate OF IN .erSst e&
ceedtng three times what they charge JheIrOWh
Governments.
''To the assertion that by this course the pub;
lic creditor by Five twenty bonds Is lnJureui l
reply that propose TO pay him when his obli-
cation falls due In precisely the same currency
or money which the Government has proVlueu
for every other creditor public or private, 70 pe
paid in, and that which IL is declared upon n tnS
bank Of every legal-tender note he may 9e pau ptr
In, The best and m ost valuable money which Ihe
credit Of the country can sustain, bearing reia-
tion to-day to gold as l43 to lOO-whlle Cne
money that these Fivetwenty creditors lenJ
the Government (beiDg the best which the then
credit of The Government could afford, stood
In relation to gold 200 and 2S5 to 100 the COY
ment pays them In q currency from 90 to 100
per cent better than they lent Inc GoVeLnmenC
Government will not tax the people to pay them
q usurtous share or, in other words, VIII not
tax the people TO enable the capltaists 10 LHake @
q speculation out of the war necessities OF Lne
"History tells of no Government which has
yet paid its creditors all they loaned to 10, and
thus made them whole and doubt whether
good faith, good conscience, or equity, requires
times what it received from them, with interest
at six per cent on the treble amount. OF
course, If any contract 10 do that be shown,
'the Jew shall have his bond but not one drop
OF Christian blood"
TO all which, thus saith the Tribune =
i. If General Butler proposes only that
single loan (like that of the British bonds)
shall replace all our existing Government loans
0t the free option Of our creditors, we have no
shadow of objection. If we pay the specified
due, and then say to the holder:-"Here is
new bond, which we offer you in exchange
for that you hold; if you prefer the cash.
1t is ready for you've ask and wish no
more.
2. But that is plainly not what General
Butler purposes. He means to say to the
national creditors is new bond,
whereof the interest is payable in green
backs take this in exchange for your gold
bearing bond, take its face in greenbacks, or
take nothing" And that is, in our view, re-
pudiation, which is longer synonym for
rascaity.
3. We always distrust the logic which is
based on falsehood. Now it is not true that
our "Five-twenty creditors" lent the Govern
ment the sums we owe them respectively when
F'the money" paid by them for their bonds
'stood in relation to gold as 200 and 285 to
lOO." lfit were true, it would be in our view
non-essential; since the vital question is not
"What did we get ?" but "What did we cove
nant to pay 2'' If our legal tender money was
temporarily deprecated, that was our own
fault-or, if you please, our misfortune; but it
was a circumstance over which our creditors
had no control whatever. But the depre-
citation of our currency below the gold
standard of mankind was long five, ten, fifteen,
twenty, twenty five per cent, while we were
borrowing it by millions, and giving in return
our notes to pay so many dollars, with six
per cent interest in coin. We proposed the
bargain; we specified the terms; the public
creditors only accepted what we eagerly prof
fered. The Tribune was largely, zealously
instrumental, at the request of the Govern
ment through its agents, in persuading people
to let the Government have their money for
those bonds. We assured them, day after
day, that every one would be paid in full in
coin, principal and interest. In short we de-
luded them basely, if General Butler is now
GOTT0CCs O6u6rdl uttered no WORD OF
dissent then. He now steps in to tell the
debtor that he can pay his debt far more easily
and cheaply than he gave his creditors to un-
derstand when he was in urgent pursuit of
that creditors money. We cannot reconcile
this substitution with common honesty.
A. General Butler wants to reduce the inte-
rest on our national debt; so do we. Our way
is to treat our creditors so justly, so fairly,
that every one will wish to remain our creditor,
believing ours the best security he can hold.
In other words, we would make a United
States Consol equal to a British Consol, inte-
rest for interest, dollar for dollar. Were it
fixed as the everlasting hills that the promise
of our Government was sure, and better than
any other, we might soon borrow at four per
cent, as England can, and thus reduce the
interest on our entire debt below one hui dred
millions per annum. If we try General But
ler's dodge, nobody will ever more choose to
lend us at all. 1t is not enough that we prove
ourselves a nation of knaves-we must be
arrant fools also-if we enter upon the down.
hill road that General Butler opens invitinglv
before us.
The Situation at the south from a MIL.
taIy Standpoint
From the NJ Y. Times
The sense of thoughtful citizens of all par
ties does not favor more admixture of civil and
military administration than can be helped.
We are passing through an epoob in national