The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-11-18
Secretary McC ulloch and the Financial
Vampires.


THERE are many honest, honorable men in
Wall street, but If there is to be found on the
face of the earth set of reckless, thoughtless,
unprinoipled rascaIs, they are to be found there.
There is no kirk or hitch In the affairs of the
Government, or of their fellow-men, of which
they will not avail themselves in their shame
less pursuit of ill-gotten wealth. No consde-
ration OF honor, or mercy, or common decency
has ever restrained them or ever will restrain
them, so long as they have the power to set
all such restraints aside and to defy public
opinion and the strong arm of the law. During
the war these vampires had the nation by the
throat, and they took undue advantage of
their mastery. To the whole American pso-
pie they gave the hghwayman's alternative,
"Your money or your life ~ They received
heavy instalments of the former, while the
latter they freq1ently brought into deadly
peril The close of the war materially re-
strioted the sphere of their operations, but 1t
in no wise abated their zeal. At this time
they are just as reckless and as shameless in
their Wholesale schemes of plunder as they
were in the days when they forced gold up to
300 and held the nation almost at their mercy.
The recent panic, which threatened to bs as
disastrous in its results as that Of 1857, was a
fair specimen of their unprincipled practices
Greenbacks are bad enough as a substitute for
hard money, but even greenbacks were not to
be obtained by scores of banks and other
moneyed corporations of undoubted credit,
and by thousands of business men whose bond
and word were alike as good as gold. But tue
distress was purely of a fictitious character,
and was oocasoned solely by the process of
"locking up" millions of dollars of
currency, to which the Wall street
vampires resorted, as means of
some kind Is as Indispensable to the world OF
trade and commerce as are the very oommodi-
ties in which it deals. Every bushel of wheat
that is moved from the Western prairies to
New York, and thence to Europe, must be
represented by certain amount of gold or
currency in actual existence, and available for
the purpose; every yard Of fabric that is trans
ported from the Old World to the New must
in like manner have its monetary equiva-
lent. 1t is impossible, as it is un-
necessary, that the actual amount of
gold or currency in circulation should
equal in value the products of industry and
art which enter into the traffic of the world
All that is needed is a broad margin to Offset
and cancel the balance of trade. AS soon as
this margin is narrowed down to such limits
as to impede the free interchange of oommodi-
ties and to prevent the meeting of paper obli-
cations, the mischief is done; fancy stocks go
up and down in tumult solid stocks dspre-
oiate, because their holders are obliged to
throw them on the market at any price that the
vampires who control the money bags may see
fit to give; suspicion assails the good name Of
sound and responsible business men, conster-
nation seizes the whole financial world, and
spread around them.
All of the more disastrous of these results
were in o fair way of being realized, when a
number of the leading business men of this
city placed themselves in communication with
Secretary MoCulloch, and urged him to make
available all the discretionary powers with
which he is clothed by the acts Of Congress.
The Secretary, realizing the danger which
threatened the national revenue, and having
eutlr0 cOuuuouco III tuoso re-
sponded promptly, and announced that it
was unquestionably within his power to
reissue the greenbaoks and three per cent.
certificates which had been redeemed bat
not yet cancelled. 1t was not necessary
for him to initiate the currency, however; the
mere knowledge that, in case the stringency of
the money market were not Immediately
relieved, he would 60 into the market, pur-
chase national bonds and reissue three per cent.
certificates, availed. The result was magical.
The bears were ianked, outwitted, discom-
itea. Such of the New York banks as had not
entered into the conspiracy of the vampires,
assured that they would be enabled to meet
their heavy obligations already outstanding,
opened their vaults and accommodated the
new paper of their customers, the great bur
den of solid stocks which had weighed down
the market to depression was lightened, the
world moved on for day or two without the
use Of the millions boarded by the vampires
they were forced to unlock their strong boxes,
to save themselves from utter ruin, and the
panic was virtually at an end.
We cannot now, as we have not in the past
endorse fully the financial ideas Of Secretary
MoCullooh, from many of whose views we
are forced to hold ourselves aloof. But, let
the merits or dement's Of his general policy be
what they may, his prompt, decisive, and
successful action in this matter has done the
II ~ 4. uI nv.lI