The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-10-02


postponement of actual payment. That is to
say, instead Of real cash, the Government gave
its soldiers, contractors, and other creditors, its
promise to pay so soon as it should be able. IL
was case OF qualified national bankruptcy, ex-
actly as when debtor asks and receives an eX-
tension OF the tine OF payment from his credi-
tors. The Government issued these paper
dollars, convertible at the will of the holder
into bonds drawing six per cent. interest
in coin. This salutary and righteous sys-
tenn should never have been changed but,
unhappily, it was. Had it been faithfully ad-
hered to- the debt would have funded itself, SO
fast and so far as IL should be funded, and we
should ere this have returned ofcourse to specie
payments. The change from greenbacks re-
deemabe at the holders pleasure, in u Treasury
six per cent. bond, the interest specifically
payable semiannually IN coin, to greenback
which simply nakedly led-being redeemable
nowhere and in nothing-Was deplora6le
illustration OF the growing steepness of the
down.hi road.
w. The first greenbacks were fundable at the
holders option in specie-paying bond; those
issued later were fundabe whenever the Gov
ernment, victorious over its foes, should be
ready to fund. 1t was at first intended to issue
a moderate amount only; but successive de-
feats, pressing emergencies, and imperative ne
cesslties led to further and further issues, until
our greenbacks in circulation amounted to four
hundred millions.
V. All this time, the Government was bor-
rowing all it could get-often to the extent of
one hundred millions per month. And we
(among others) we're exhorting patriotic and
thrifty citizens to sell their crops, their stocks,
their farms, and invest the proceeds in the
national debt, explaining to them that they
would thus invest their greenbacks, which were
at first a fraction, but at times very largely,
below specie in value, in securities whereof
both principal and interest were payable IN coin.
Had they not done so the Union must have per-
ished.
VI. The Government emitted three kinds of
paper:-1 Greenbacks for time not redeemed
in nyth1ng; g. Bonds payable in Legal-tender;
3. Bonds payable in Specie. The interest on
those payable in Legaltender (7'30s) was gene
rally higher than that on bonds payable in
specie (5-20s and l0-40s). And those who took
the 7'30s were urged to do so by the fact that
they would have the opt on at maturity of con-
verting them into 5-20s, payable in coin. Hun
dreds OF millions OF bonds drawing 3-l0ths per
cent. interest have thus, both before and at
maturity, been converted into $685. drawing
but 6 per cent. These are among the bonds
which General Butler Gays the Government may
now justi6ably pay off in greenbacks!
VII 1t seems clear to our mind that the
Government, in borro wing money, incurred au
obligation to pay; and that the amount it thus
contracted to pay could not be increased or
diminished at its own pleasure, since that would
be saying that 1t might pay whatever amouns 1t
en thousand @ nd SoIaT: does not Covenant to BAY
merely whatever he may choose to consider (or
make) ten thousand dollars, but definite
amount, and when General Butler proposes that
the Government shall pay its coin debt in green
backs, and Mr.. George H. Pendleton improves on
the suggestion by urging that two thousand
millions more greenDackS be Issued, ana at our
funded debt whether held at home or abroad,
paid off therein, 80 that the holders thereof
should thenceforth receive from the Treasury
no interest understanding at all but bare
faced lies not worth dime on the dollar-it
| seems to us that the rascality of the latter is
more LOGICAL and respectable than General But
ler's. If we are TO perpetrate gigantic national
! villainy, let it be for something.
VIII. We believe there are on record specific
and uneQuivocal pledges of the Government
that the principal as well as the interest OF its
| Oh 4 hn yNof1 frN DfNan tn
rity, But this is not material. man who
| incurs an obligation is morally bound (says
| Paley) to discharge that obligation as he sup
| posed the creditor to understand him as pro-
| missing to fulfil it. In other words: If man
| quits your presence understanding you to pro-
! mise him hundred bushels of wheat for Ger
| tam service, and you are aware that he thus
| understands you, and he performs 1T on the
| faith of that understanding you cannot pay
| him a hundred bushels of oats, and thus dis
charge your obligation, although you actually
| said oats, not wheat, in making the offer. Is
not The case in point?
TX. The Government took the money of hun
| dreds OF thousands, saylng;-"l will pay you six
| per cent. interest in coin on the sum so bor-
J roWed until / refund the principal borrowed
| He who fanc!es that this debt can be wiped out
by rendering the face of it in deprecated green
| backs seems TO us deficient in moral senslbility
| 1t is the Government that debases our currency,
| and that Government cannot rightfully take
advantage of its own wrong.
| K. II little was said or thought OF the medium
wherein payment of the principal should be
made on those loans whereof the interest Is
expressly payable in coin, IT was because no one
! dreamed that resumption would be postponed
after peace should be restored. We all regarded
suspension as transient, though grave evil, to
to be escaped at the earliest moment. No one
| expected it to last 80 long as it has already
endured. The necessity and the excuses for 1t
| have long since passed away; yet it is per-
sisted in, because too many choose to pay
but sixty to seventy cents where they owe a
hundred.
XI. General Butler asks why, il the Five
twenties are payable in gold, they are now sell
ing for liz when gold is worth l43? We answer
l. Because they superabound; 2. Because our
country imports too many goods, and is heavily
in debt abroad: 3. Because capitalists are timid
and fear that there may be Buffers enough in
the land to defraud them Of their honest dues.
fhe fact that promise of the United States to
pay six per cent on given sum per annum In
gold is worth twenty per cent. less than pro-
mise of Great Britain to pay three per cent. on
like sum, Is In point. Reputation is thus
shown to be losing game. IL every Ameri-
cen would say, We will pay our
"Public debt to the uttermost farthing % we
might soon fund our debt at four per cent. AS
1t is, we shall long pay fifty millions per annum
IN extra interest because OF the threat and dread
OF virtual reputation. And that fifty millions
would pay Off our entire debt in less than forty
years. We are for reducing both principal and
interest, so far as can honestly be done: and we
object to all lodges that SAVIOR of Reputation
that they preclude this most desired consumm ma
ton.
XII. General Bntler thinks we are at variance
on q legal question. We think IL predomi.
nantly moral question. The reader will Judge
between u.s. HORACE GREELEY.
Miss Kate Terry, the London actress, who