The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1868-12-09

| Inspector. The details OF the report from The
| War Department win be read with great in
| terest.
Report OF the Secretary Of the Treasury.
| The annual report OF the Secretary Of the
| Treasury to Congress, which we publish in
another part of the paper, is very diffuse and
wordy document, and is only remarkable for
the persistency with which Mr.. McCulloch ad-
heres to his often repeated financial theories.
The Secretary is one OF those men who never
learn or forget anything Even when yielding
to the pressure of public opinion and the action
of Congress against his cherished resumption
and financial notions he cannot help protesting.
Yes, even when he finds his policy impracti-
cable and is compelled to abandon it he sticks
to and reiterates his dogmas. Thus we see he
opens his report with long disquistion on the
bugbear which haunts him continually-an in
convertible and deprecated currency, as he
calls the legal tenders. He says these ''United
States notes, although declared by law to be
lawful money, are nevertheless q dishonored
and disreputable currency" He declares that
''the fact that they are legal tender, possessing
such attributes of money as the statute can
give to them, adds nothing to their
real value, but makes them ell the
more dishonorable to the government. He
argues that this currency is tho source of all
the evils of the country-revenue frauds, bur
densome taxation and everything else-of
evils, in fact, which only exist in the imagina-
a. 49,
short, he calls it fraudulent currency.
Mr.. McCulloch adheres to his idea that there
should be a reduction Of the currency to force
specie payments; but as Congress and the
country have protested against contraction he
wants to reach the object another way The
first step he recommends is to legalize all con-
tracts made for payment in c0in This is well
enough. There can be no reasonable objection
TO making such contracts legal. In fact,
people can make contracts now to be paid in
SO much gold, if they choose, and they are bind
ing. But the Secretary does not stop here;
he proposes that after the LIST day of January,
1S7O-one year and few days from this time
''United States notes shall cease to be a legal
tender in payment of all private debts subse-
quenty contracted, and that after the LIST day
Of January, 1871, they shall cease to be legal
tender on any account or for any purpose what
ever, except government dues, for which
they are now receivable" So 1t is seen Mr..
McCulloch has become a repudiator after
all his defamation against the greenback
advocates as repudiators; for il declaration
of the government that its own notes are not
lawful money is not fiat reputation we do not
know what is. Then this Secretary endeavors
to shake the confidence of the people in the
lawful money of the government and country
by intimating that it is unconstitutional and
has not yet been sustained by the Supreme
Court of the United States. Mr.. McCulloch
never thought to ask himself what makes any
thing money but the law and stamp of the gov
eminent, whether the material be metal or
paper. If the United States notes be fraudu-
lent currency, rs he asserts, what are the
national bank notes, which are not even
legal tender and which are based upon the
credit of the government? The truth is, Mr..
McCulloch has but one contracted idea about
the currency and sees nothing beyond. Great
questions OF national finance and currency are
beyond his grasp. He is small banker and
sees only the interests of that monstrous
monopoly, the national banking associations.
The country is prosperous and being rapidly
developed in all its great industries and mate
rial interests, yet this sapient Secretary says
all the business is speculative and unsubstan-
- xbot
currency.
The report shows great reduction in inter-
nal revenue, and Mr.. McCulloch says it must
be increased. He acknowledges that this fall
ing off is to be attributed in part to inefficient
collection; but he is very fat, tame and
evasive on this important topic. He has
nothing to say about the incficiency Of himself,
Commissioner Wells and the other chiefs OF
the departments who have let the governmc mt
be swindled hundreds of millions of dollars by
the internal revenue thieves. Indeed he praises
Mr.. Wells very highly, and no doubt that Com
missioner will praise the Secretary just as
warmly. They are in the same boat and are
both responsible. All the talk about being un-
able to collect the tax on whiskey and other
articles is bosh. The British government col
lccts two dollars and half tax on spirits, and
other governments collect similar high taxes,
and so could our government If the right men
were in authority. There is no necessity for
additional taxes TO increase the internal reve-
nue.. There are far too many articles taxed
now. A few articles of luxury, such az whis-
key and tobacco, could be made to yield
large revenue. and that revenue could be col
lected by honest and capable men at the head
Of the department.
The recommendation to fund the debt at q
McCulloch lays down no plan, and seems to
think that everybody, both foreign and home
bondboId.rs will rush to the Treasury to ex-