Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1868-12-04

with financial article. His great hobby
Is return to specie payments-the WORTH
lessness of greenbacks and gold for the
bondholders, who gave greenbacks,
when more worthless than now, for bonds,
with the distinct understanding that they
were to be paid in kind.
The first branch OF his hobby-that of
coin payments, he illuminates in, Mondays
issue. Finding that he cannot succeed in
g.tting gold for the ibondholders, without
a similar currency for the people, he goes
for a return to specie payment Sat the
earliest possible time" If Radical rule is
to be, the fate of the Republic, the, propo-,
sition to return to greenbacks and coin is
postponed to time not far, from that of
the resurrection day. III, f,,sI. - eo-.5 [;
The gold, under the operation of Radical
legislation, is leaving the countryside
country sends little or nothing to foreign
market to reclaim our proper share OF the
precious metals. The grain, flour, pork,
beef, bacon, &c, of the West, in former
days, found market in Europe. Now tie
! transportation of these bulky articles ~
| rail is attended with so great a, cost, that
| by the time they arrive In New York the
transportation uses up the entire price
paid, or so near it that there is ne margin
left to pay the producer for, his culture,
his toll and trouble. The time was, when.
| with a competition in the mode of trans
portstion-the Southern market being the
natural one for the West-the railroads
carried Western products for much lower
| figure, but Radical reconstruction has de-.
stroyedI the Southern market, Ieaying,the
vast graneries of the Northwest to seek q
home market in New York and other east
! ern cities. because of more certain
| mode of shipment from the, Atlantic sea-
ports than from New Orleans. Having
the entire transportation In, their own
hands, Railroad men, ON lines leading
East and North, charge their own prices,
to theiswindling of producers. These facts
make it folly to rely on the shipments of
Western produce to European ports for
the gold SO necessary to bring about re-
sumption of specie payment. hia Gf ~.
The South, which once sent her cotton to
Europe, bringing back coin, or the pro-
eeeds used by the Banks in bills of ex-
change, sold to merchants to pay for arti-
eles imported, now sends but one bale of
the great staple where once that favored re-
gion sent one hundred. The exports of
cotton, rice and tobacco from the South,
before the reign of Radicalism commenced,
a nd with it the war, exceeded in money
v due all the other exports of the United
States combined, and inst. ad OF the hum
dreds of millions of treasure, or its equiv
alent, brought into the United States by
their sale in the. European markets, we
now send abroad scarce enough to pay for
the imports of single wholesale establish
ment in New York. iaJa 81
While thus, one third of the most pro-
ductive portion OF the Unionis lying waste
the great staples of the West and South
are cut off from European market, the
country exporting next to nothing and
importing largely-all the imports to be |
paid in coin-for Greenbaeks in Europe
are scarce worth the paper on which they |
are printed-how are we, SO long as the |
present Radical rule exists, to even ap-
proximate specie payment tor the Green
back currency?
: No fact in Finance is better understood |
than that gold and paper money are an
better always leaving the
field to the less valuable currency. The
country reft of its gold, by the issue of
Greenbacks, and the laws making it legal
tender in payment of debts--the exports cut
off, by making the people of the South
instead of producers, and the
farmers of the West, cut off from their
natural market, by the poverty that
Radical legislation has imposed
Upon the South, make the return to specie
payment, If such legislation continues, a
natter ofimpossibility OF without utter ruin to
he people. rs
Had the Democracy succeeded in getting
he power of the Government at the late
election, the case would have been differ
,nt. The unwise legislation of Congress
would have been blotted from the statute
Dook-the States would have been restored
% their constitutional rights-the markets.
of the South would have been opened to
Western produce, and the fields of the
South, again whitening with cotton, would
nave afforGed that wealth which would
make her planters prefer to purchase pro-
visions, as in days past, of the West, and
enabled them to ship their cotton to Euro
pean markets, where, from its excellence,
it would, as in days past drive that of In
dia from the worlds market. This state of
things would have enabled the Government
10 resume specie payments; but the peo-
pie at the late election decided these things
we're not to be, and specie payments will
not, can not be resumed. SD