Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1868-12-31

we may say, is an article of Fixed value.
Paper money and commodities fuctuate
in value from various causes, but gold
does not Ill
'In this country, although business is
transacted on paper basis. gold is the
standard Of value. Go into jewelry |
store and price watch. There you Will |
find gold prices and currency prices |
The watch is $3.50 in gold. 1t can be |
bought at that. But you propose to pay
for it in greenbacks. Very good. Tho
price in greenbacks would be $202 So
100 Reverse the proposition. The
price Of the watch in greenbacks is
$500 $4,000, but you propose to pay for
it in gold Very good. The price in
gold is $3.50. The jeweler imported the
watch and paid for it in gold. His price
is fixed at what il cost in gold. The
purchaser can pay for it in gold at par or
| in greenbacks at discount
Let us take another case: United
States $40 bonds are worth, ex-dividend,
l07 in currency, or 70 lS-l00 in gold.
The United States government has
perfect right to buy those bonds at the
market prices, in currency. Has 1t not
Suppose it should sell one hundred mills
lions of gold and use the currency IN
buying bonds at the market vaiue'
Would that be reputation Not at all.
Yet it would be paying that much OF the
debt at 70 cents on the dollar in gold. Ii
it should retire the bonded debt in that
wav, the saving would be $5OO,OOO,-
900, or one. fifth of tbs whole. Yet the
holders of the bonds would get their full
value and, therefore, no one would
suffer. 1t is one thing to manufacture
currency to pay the debt, and quite
another to use the outstanding currency
to cancel the debt, or portion OF it.
"Why are per cent. bonds worth only
"A in gold, in London? Because they
are worth only 10, including interest,
in New York, in currency which Is
worth IA in gold. Thus we see that
foreign holders of our bonds are satisfied
to sell them at IA in gold. Why, then,
| should we break our necks in an effort
to paw a debt of 100 cents on the dollar,
or in gold, when we can do it easily and
honestly at "A to 80; giving, at the same
time. to the holders of those bonds, their
full market value, and more than they
cost?'
There is a good deal of force IN
the Gazettes illustration. No ex,
ception is or has been taken to the
course of the Secretary OF the
Treasury buying up greenbacks al
their deprecated value in gold
With such an example, which has
been encouraged by Radical Con
gress, the Gazette may well inquire
if it is honest for the government
to redeem greenbacks at seventy
! four cents in gold, would it not b'
honest in tho private debtor to re
deem his obligations contracted IL
> deprecated paper currency, a
the gold value of this currency a
the time the debt was contracted
The Gazette has certainly got 1T
Radical assailants in a tight place
The doctrine or policy now advo
2 Gated by the Gazette would, durn:
the late political canvass, hav
been pronounced reputation evel
by that paper, but now
inquiries, when our bonds are sell
ing in London at seventy-fOur cent
" in gold, why, then, should W
break our necks in an effort to pa,
debt at one hundred cents on th
r dollar, or in gold, when we can do
d easily and honestly at seventy tou
to eighty; giving, at the same time
+ to the holders of those bonds, thel
e full market value, and more tina
c they cost p The men who advo
t cate this doctrine cannot, with an.
sort Of consistency, charge thos
= who favor redemption of the five
+ twenty bonds in greenbacks wit
0 reputation.