The Portland daily press., 1868-01-15
DAILY PRESS.
ND.
Wednesday Morning, January Is, 1853.
RepudIatien-where does 4, Begin,

continues to pay them. No state is guilty OF
the sin and shame Of reputation SO long as
it continues to discharge its obligations as
nearly according to their tenor as it can.
The beginning Of reputation is when the
debtor stops paying. That is not repudiation
fully in itself, but that is where it always be-
gins; and as sovereign State cannot be sued,
but its obligations to pay rest only upon SEN
timents of justice and honor las well as of
sound policy it is a very critical and danger
GUS moment when State stops paying. The
first barriers of justice and honor are then
broken through, and the danger is that the
succeeding ones will be the more easily disre-
g,rded.
The United States government as to large
part OF its debt, Ia, always paid and keeps on
paying as promised. Politicians, fnaneiers
and statesmen are engaged In much discus
sion, as to the form and manner In which the
funded debt shall hereafter be paid, but all
propose to keep ON paying, In some form or
other.
As to the unfunded debt-the treasury notes
or greenback eurreney-there is an insidious
tendency to deal with that branch Of the ques-
ton in manner which DISCUSSES, while 1t in
cludes all the dangers of reputation, as its
fatal and shameful end.
This currency on Its face is promise TO
pay so many dollars-that is, actual money,
coin. But at the same time, when the gov
ernment under the perilous necessities of war,
declared that this currency should be, of it.
self, alegaf tender, 1t said In effective can
not now pay eoin-cur necessities are i'm
mense and matter Of life and death-and
you, the people, must for the present take
these paper promises, fol the services and
commodities and supplies which you furnish
to the government, and we will redeem them
as soon as we can, and will redeem them BY
giving to you the best value in our power"
Take the words on the face of the notes and
the words of the legal tender laws together
construe them as parts of one contract-and
that is what the government meant and prom
ised.
AS soon as the perils and wastes cf the war
were over-as soon as The armies were dis
banded and paid of;-as soon as the govern
ment could get little time and strength to
adjust Its finance 30 as to get little more in
come than its outlay, then was the time to
begin the fulAlment Of that premise. So the
government understood it, so the government
acted. The executive and the legislative
branches concurred in this. The treasury
department recommended, and Congress
enacted, that practical payment of this cur
rency should commence and be followed up,
month by month, not exceeding four millions
month. This payment Is called "eontrac-
tion"-it is in fact, payment or redemption,
pro tanto Of the paper promises put out by the
government during the war. When the treas
ury receives now some millions of this cur
rency, on given day, for taxes, and passes
it all out again the next day, to government
creditor, this Is no payment or redemption of
these paper promises-it is only eontin a.
tion of the same debt, shifted into the hands
of another holder. The government is as
much in debt after this transaction as it was
before.
But when the treasury, as last year, receiv-
ed more Of this paper money than it had any
need to pay out again, and thereupon destroy
ed the ssuplus-this, though it is called "con-
traction" was in fact, payment and redemp-
tion of SO much Of these paper promises. The
persons from whom the treasury received
it, were indebted to the government, as tax
payers or otherwise. The discharge of these |
debts was the value which the government
gave to the holder Of this paper money for its |
redemption, and it was precisely that kind of |
discharge which the government promised to |
give, intending in good faith, to come as soon
as it possibly could to the means of discharg-
ing the residue Ia coin, If any residue should |
remain.
OF course this paper currency cannot all be |
redeemed, or contracted" at once. The gov
ernment never promised that 1t should be. A |
very large part of 1t viii have to be redeemed |
by the payment Of dues to the government. |
So everybody understood it. The wastes and |
weaknesses caused by the war, compel this |
result, just as the perils of the war when rag
ing, compelled the issue of the paper.
All honest men not smitten with specula-
tion or perverted by abuse Of credit, rejoiced
WhCh tuC oCSACtoAy VI tuC 4ICdSuTy dUuOuuC-
ed from month to month, last year, that he
was Contracting" that is, paying of, and re-
deeming this paper some millions every month.
What was their disappointment, when the
House Of Representatives, In Its hasty doings
before the holidays, resolved to take away the
power Of Contracting" the government cur
rency, that is, to stop paying the national
debt! And how was this feeling deepened
with alarm, when 1t was announced that the
House would IN like manner, enact, on Its
part, that new issue should be made from
the government paper mills, of as much paper
money as had been redeemed and paid Off.
These proceedings went on under the gulse
of a question, whether or not there was cur
rency enough In the country to do business
with? Whether or not the convenienees of
business men, borrowers and lenders, would
be improved by having more paper promises
pushing about as money?
But the real question was and Is, shall the
government go on and keep on paying its
debt as fast as it can, and in the best vslue
that 1t can, or shall it stop paying? Shall it
redeem these promises, or shall 1t push them |
off and shove them along to some indefinite |
period, nobody knows when? Stop paying to- |
day, and 1t will be all the harder to begin |
again bye-and-bye. Let Congress resolve now |
that II ,cil not pay this debt, and who knows |
or guesses when Congress can be brought up |
to the resolve that 1t soill? The government |
that is now In power, whether 1t Is at one end |
of Pennsylvania avenue or the other, has very
nearly its heaviest financial responsibility in
this very question, whether it will now pay or
stop paying its greenback paper money?
1t is not pretended that the government is
unable to do anything in the way of "con-
traeting" this debt. In one month or another
there may not be surplus, as there was not
In December; but other months will do bet
ter; nobody denies this. This Is not the
point. 1t is that large class of people en-
gagged In buying and selling, think that they
can do better where there is great deal of
paper money afoat. So they act, whether
they say it or not, and they make themselves
felt IN Congress to that effect. When paper
money is redeemable in coin, an excessive
amount Of it is bad enough, but when it is
irredeemable, and influential classes and bod
les of men endeavor to stuff as much of it
as they possibly can into all the channels OF
business, and when the government consents
L