The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-08-26
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.
EDITORIAL OPINIONS or THB LEADING JOURNALS
UPON CURRENT ToPIos-ooMPJRD BvKRY
DAY PoR THE KvBNING TELEGRAPH.
Senator Sherman and ''The World" on
Finance.

The Hon. John Sherman recently made,
what Is, in the main, an excellent, convincing
Republican speech at Hillsborough, Ohio.
The dead fly in this pot of generally fragrant
ointment was a declaration that the five
twenty bonds of the United States may, in his
opinion, be paid off in greenbacks. The World
seizes this as a "big thing" for the Copper
head party; and SO we consider it. Says the
World:-
"Wbet has Senator Sherman seen ut to say
on the ereenback question Nothing, cer-
tainiy, which can help his party in this Presi:
DENTAL election. He has simply spiked and
surrendered their guns. The Republican at
form. as all the Republican journals Interpret
IT, is gold platform; IT SsseEts they say y, aRe
the princif al OF the Five-twenty bonds In coin.
The Democratic platform, on the contrary;
money of the country. Now, Senator sherman
proclaims, In substance, that, after the most
faithful and protracted study of the subject, he
is convinced that the Chicaso platform is
wrong, and the New York platform as Iignt
He does not, TO be sure, express his opinion In
this form Of language. but he he is i hardly less
frank and explicit than II he did"
We do not consider Senator Sherman
ouite fairly represented in the above passages
vet we feel that he has earned the praise Of
the World at a sad cost to himself. Let us see
exactly what he says, copying the Wortd'S
extract from his speech
"But here the difficulty arises-May not the
United states pay this DEPT & In dawfal ain money
take2 must IL be In gold or silver coin?
Now this dependS upon the contract between
the parties When a nation deals with a party,
and stipulates TO pay money, the presumption
is that the money TO be paid is that kind of
money recognized among nations, unless some
other money Is stipulated for In the contract.
Now. when we come TO look at the law, which
is the essential part OF the contract, we find
provision that a kind OF money defined in that
act and called lawful money, shall be lawful
el Vate. except i The interest of the public DEBT
which must be paid in coin. Now | have
reasoned about this matter very often, In
public and private discussion. l have made
and answered collateral arguments in speeches
back to this conclusion-tnat, under the law,
the contract between the creditor and the
United States was that the creditor should loan
the United States lawful money, or paper
money-that the United states would pay the
United states might, at the end ofthe tiveyesrs
return TO the creditor his prldclDal sum in the
same money loaned to the Government, or
might postpone this for twenty years. But upon
this question there is a diversity OF opinion not
confined to parties and the whole of IL grows
out OF the condition of our currency. The real
breach of faith in this matter Is not with the
bondh lder-it is with the note holder. IL
creditors The bondholder is no more a creditor
of United Sta es than the note-holder We
have al ways complied with our promises to the
bondholder, but never TO he note. holder We
promise TO pay the noteon demand, but dom t pay
1t at all, and refuse even tO take IL for our bonds
except at q discount. This Is the key to all our
financial discredlt. If We will pay our notes.
trouble about the bonds and nigh prices disap
pears. Do we refuse to pay the notes because
them easily with the gold in the Treasury, or
redeem that amount OF them, so that the rest
would be equivalent TO gold Why, then, don't
wo odoit? The answer is, that to do 1t abruptly
would SO contract the currency as to interfere
try. It viii COMPEL the Debtor class to pay their
debts in a different medium or money than the
eSe Ess 1aae m 29d n @
OF all commodities Prices would fall from 81
must come to this some lime: but all shrink
from ihe inevitable distress at the change.
Now, what we want Is to gradually bring up
the value of our notes to par with gold, and, II
possible, without too great contraction of the
currency, or too abrupt change OF prices"
Comments by the Tribune.
l. In so far as Senator Sherman may mean
that we ought to pay all our National obliga-
tions in coin or its full equivalent, We heartily
agree with him. We have steadfastly held
and urged that our Government should have
resumed specie payment in full directly after
the surrender of the Rebel armies-at least as
early as the lst of August, 1865. The depre-
citation OF our paper currency was then very
moderate-far less than it now is-our revenue
was much larger than at present, because OF
the higher rate and wider sweep of our in
ternal taxes. II Hugh McCulloch had then
acted as we'll as he talked-if after unanswer-
ably demonstrating in his Fort Wayne speech,
that resumption was at once our duty and our
interest he had not stultifed himself by
proposing to effect that resumption after
eighteen months more of needless and there
fore dishonorable bankruptcy-ifh he had simply
(say on the lst of January, 1860 posted up
over the front door of his Department, ''Tht
United States have resumed specie payment, ,
and thenceforth acted accordingly, receiving
paying, and every way treating gold ant
greenbacks as of equal value-we should have
this day been half billion less in debt tC
Europe and in no danger of national disgrace
through national vllainy. Our debt to Europe
was then very small, and would have growI
no larger under resumption. We had tw
millions of bales of cotton to sell at good prices
and only needed to offer our creditors who's
debts were accruing or past due some neV
bond that they would take as soon as cash
and there was no serious obstacle to resump
ton. Had Mr.. McCulloch been a man OF tru
courage, ready to translate his words int
deeds, the crisis would have been met an
passed long ago.
IL. Since Mr.. Sherman pronounces ever
greenback promise to pay coin on demand
and asserts that the failure so to pay it is &C
breach OF faith"-since he adds that we ca
so pay them if we will-since he nowhere init
mates that it would be honest, or even lawful
to issue additional greenbacks wherewith t
pay OD our interest-bearing bonds-and sine
he truly says that the only obstacle to resumI
tion is a popular dislike to have our shar
values reduced to real values-we cannot re
alize that the partisans OF the proposed Per
dletOn-V Vallandigham national swindle ca
make much capital out of John Sherman; an
what little they do make is based on a false
hood. For
III. Mr.. Sherman's one mistake-and it is
very grave One--lurks in his assertion, tina
''under the law" the contract between tn
1I..sA- O. aGI