The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-12-05
RESUMPTION.

time discussing the relative merits of various
methods for resuming specie payment They
all agree, however they may differ in otherpar-
ticulars, that resumption could be effected by
simply contracting the currency, as though
the depreciation of greenbacks were due solely
to their abundance, and the premium of gold
solely to its scarcity. Now, if the question OF
general specie payment is dependent upon
the financial policy of the United States-as
it must be as long as the promissory notes OF
the government are forced upon the country
as legal tender-it is utterly preposterous to
suppose that any contraction would be equiv
alent to resumption, unless it should also be
equivalent to a corresponding reduction of
the ma tional debt and a corresponding en-
| hancement of the national credit Green
backs are not below specie par in the charac-
ter of a redundant currency, but in the char
acter of evidences of debt on the part of
government whose credit is below specie par
in an equal degree. The withdrawal
of a portion of them, without at the
same time diminishing the aggregate of
! national liabilities, would go about as far to-
wards improving the value of the remainder
as the destruction of batch of counterfeit
bank notes would go towards making the rest
of such notes genuine. The financial inabili-
ty, and the vitiated credit, and the legal tender
currency of the government constitute, in
word, the long and the short of the whole
difficulty with regard to restoring specie pay
ment But in none of the plans recommended
for accomplishing this object is it proposed
to commence at the root of the matter, and
to grapple squarely with this fundamental
difficulty. Converting greenbacks into bonds
would not do; for, in that case, not only
would the principal of the national debt not
be reduced, but its aggregate interest would
be increased And cancelling greenbacks as
they were paid in would not do, unless the
cancelled notes should represent surplus
revenue; for the ensuing deficit would cause
the value of outstanding claims upon the
| treasury to remain as great as before, and
would, doubtless, still further faint the
national credit. AS the government has no
surplus revenue, and as an addition to the
taxes for the purpose of creating such sink
ing fund is at present clearly out of the ques-
ton, the idea of arriving at resumption by that
plan may be dismissed as positively imprac-
ticable. And yet leading journals in the North
persist in treating the question of resumption
as if it could be brought about, in trice, by
a few strokes of the official pen, or few mani
pulations with official fingers, in the financial
department of the government, which would
| change the forms of national Indebtedness in
deed, but not its essential significance and
| magnitude. The fact is that they have devel-
| oped in this discussion sufficient amount of
ignorance and fallacy to qualify them for the
position of minister of finance to an admins
tration inspired by the doctrine of Jay Cooke
that the national debt is a national blessing
and by the notion of Thaddeus Stevens that
the premium of gold over greenbacks could
be put down by penal enactment. There is
but one way, while the greenback and legal
tender system lasts, to bring back the govern
ment, and the business of the country, to a
| specie basis. That is to resume honesty,
| justice, common sense and strict economy in
the management of public affairs, in all
departments, in all directions and rela-
tions; and by this means to restore to the
people at large prosperity, and to the
government an untainted, solvent and fri
umphant credit. Nothing more is needed,
nothing less will do. This resumption es-
tablished, the other resumption would fol-
low as naturally as vegetation in fertile soil
will expand, and bloom, and fructify, in q
genial season of sunshine and dew. No mat
ter whether the greenbacks in circulation
were five hundred millions, or ten hun
dred millions, they would rise to par, if
the national credit rose to par. If more than
the business of the country required for cur
rency, the surplus would cease TO circulate
without serious inconvenience to anybody;
for the government would be good for it on
demand, in gold, or the equivalent of gold
On the other hand, if the business of the
country should grow beyond the outstanding
greenback currency, it would also gradually
introduce enough specie currency to supply
the deficiency. Such is the normal road to
resumption-the only road by which both
monetary famine and disastrous imitation can
be certainly escaped.