The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1867-11-11
r.,a s,eyens ON National Finance.

lie
~ NEW YORK, November "a letter
from Hon. Thad. Stevens on the SUBJECT
of eur national finances Is published.
1t is in reply to letter addressed TO
him by o peighbor, and is very long and
comprehensive. Mr.. Stevens commences
with the assertion, that so far as the
financial condition of the republic is
concerned it is not nor never can be IN
doubt or peril. With the products
which we can readily dispose of to sup
ply the demand of every kind there
never can be a time when with honest
dealings this republic will be unable to
paw her Just liabilities. He says: Il
have not approved, and do not approve,
of the financial policy pursued by our
Government for the last six years. L
think we have thrown away our bill
lions and are still throwing away mil
lions by mismanagement."
Then addressing his correspondent,
who is a national banker, he says:
HYou are banker and a sound one,
but you are making more OF the Unlteu
States through the national banking
system, as every other man who has
adopted it, than you ought to make
He has never doubted, he says, that the
VovernRent has the constitutional pow
er to make money of whatever material
il chooses, whether metal or paper,
leather OF tin or greenbacks, and to
regulate its value and therefore legal
tenders are to all intents and purposes
the lawful money of the country, mon
ey in which all debts, public or private,
may be legally and justly paid. Money
is lust what the law makes it. Hereters
TO the fact that the government has at
different times reduced the price OF sill
yer and that when so reduced 1t was
made to pass to every credltor
as we'll as debtor at the original price
and argues that there is the power TO
issue and regulate the value OF any
other kind of money. He mentions
consequently that it's just and proper
for the Government to pay the national
debt in by greenbacks as lawful money.
Referring to the debt he says: Now let
us come to the Government loan,
and for a single moment consider 1t,
which. even without the mOnstrous doc
trine of Greeley and Cooke, is the most
profitable investment ever made by
mouey lenders, and is monstrouS
swindle on Americans ON the part OF
European capitalists. However, he
would pay in full the rich capitalists
and spectators who have made prince
" fortunes through the folly of the
Government, but he does not think there
is any obligation to force specie pay
ments in order to pay two
OF three times over what they
are only and justly entitled. He
shows that in creating loans there was
no intention on the part of Congress to
commit the government to the payment
of the principal in coin, except where
this was expressly mentioned. This
matter was well considered and well
understood at the time, and the bond
holders have no reason to complain If
paid in legal tenders. Speaking of this
money Mr.. Stevens says, for two years
the greenbacks were the most popular
currency ever used in the United States,
and had there been no other they would
not have failed to buy every necessary
commodity for every use both public
and private without complaint, and II
it swelled the currency of the
country, it also swelled business
of every kind, both foreign and domestic,
agricultural and manufacturing, so also
it swelled the income of business men,
and thereby vastly increased the re-
venue of the government. The great
question at issue is tho right of the
government to pay, and the policy OF
paying the debt in greenbacks lawful
money. Upon this he remarks that
various methods are suggested to re-
deem the five-twenties in currency. One
very able writer suggests loan in
greenbacks to their amount, so that
afterwards the greenbacks may DO re-
deemed with the others. If we are
satisfied that there is no more than a
sufficient currency to do the business of
the country with its probable increase,
then that would be the proper
method without Initiating prices
as n contradiction to the saving,
but if it is believed that the
present and prospective business of
the country would fairly absorb an
amount large enough TO redeem those
bonds as they come due, and not in-
iudiciously increase business, then the
true way would be for the Government
to issue legal tenders equal TO the
amount 10 be redeemed, anu tnuS save
the interest both of the old and a new
loan. With these views he deems the
contraction of the currency of four mil
lions a month, as now authorized high
" impolitic. Finally he believes the
true way, if not the only one, to reach
specie payments is to reduce the debt rs
proposed before any attempts be made
to contract the currency.
The RradIey Cnac