The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-12-16
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.
EDITORIAL OPINIONS OF THB LEADING JOURNALS
UPON CURRENT ToPICs-CoMPnED EVERY
DAY FOR THE EVENING VRLEGRAPH.
AbOlishing Legal Tender.

npon currency, and upon business generally
We answer:--
l. Much must depend upon the scope and
terms OF that decision. We presume there is
no likelihood that the Court will affirm
broadly and absolutely the inability of the
Government under the pressure of war and
with the peril of national overthrow and dis
solution staring 1t in the face, to make its own
paper q legal tender. We feel confident that
the Court will make no decision so sweeping
as this. And, if it merely holds that the
power to make its own paper a legal tender is
essentially a war power-born of necessity
and peril, and dying with them-it will say
no more than thoughtful, observant men
have very generally held 1t will decide only
that Cn the language of Burke) the extreme
medicine of the Constitution must not be con-
verted into or confounded with its daily
bread.
H. The notes of the United States known as
greenbacks derive their value from the facts
that the Government issued them, recognizes
them, receives them for internal taxes, and
promises to redeem them. That they are a
legal-tender may add somewhat to their cur
rent value, and may not; but it does not create
that value. Divest them of that popularity,
and it is quite probable that they will buy as
much beef, butter, and even gold as now.
Ill. We do not fully concur in the assertion
of our Washington correspondent that in case
the Supreme Court decides against legal ten
der, forthwith ''gold would be the medium of
contracts and business, and greenbacks would
be quoted at their value, just as they are
quoted in California and London at the pre-
sent time.'' On the contrary we suspect that
greenbacks would continue the circulating
medium, being gladly received for labor, for
goods, and in payment of most debts. For our
own part we expect to take them and pay them
out in our dealings at their nominal value
after such decision just as we do now, and we
aaN AI,nH1 Ap Do tl,a Sn,, sIn-1
may refuse them; but we suspect that most
creditors will be glad to get them. At all
events we should like to receive forthwith
large amount in greenbacks, whether in pay
ment of old debts or as the consideration for
new subscriptions.
". But, if such decision be rendered, we
cannot doubt that it will hasten a general re-
sumption Of specie payments. 1t will divest
neither greenbacks nor national bank notes of
the character of money, but it will impel US
to base that character on substantial grounds.
Bank notes were seldom or never legal
tender with us; and yet most of the payments
OF the seventy years preceding 1868 were
made in them. Once in ten thousand times,
you might encounter a human hog who would
say, 81 will not take your bank notes-they
are not a legal-tender-I demand the ooin;"
but these extremely rare instances did not
affect the general rule that payments were all
but uniformly made and received in bank
notes or checks of some kind. True, those
notes or checks were theoretically redeemable
in coin; but creditors accepted them not in
tending to draw the coin, but satisfied to
honor and hold them so long as they were
equivalent to coin. Banks were sometimes
run, and even broken; but generally by other
banks. seldom by mere note-holders.
V. The one great obstacle to reconstruction
long ago was the reluctance of our citizens to
measure their property and pay their debts
hxyo cfo I'd ha
high price for his produce, the merchant the
same for his goods; while the debtor wanted to
pay his debt with the least possible quantum
of his property, provided he should ever be
compelled to pay it at all. But this widespread
reluctance to coming down to hard pan cloaked
itself under shallow, if not dishonest, appre-
hension that resumption, if attempted, could
not be maintained. And there is now danger
that those who wish resumption to fail will
achieve their end by croaking and panic
making. "Give dog bad name and hang
him." and, if every one were to insist that
we can't maintain our currency at a specie
standard, we might possibly fail to do so.
There was never an hour when our banks
could have maintained specie payments if
every one had clamored that this was impos-
sible.
vi. And yet we bslieve that resumption will
soon result from the apprehended judgment of
the Supreme Court, should that Judgment be
rendered. The debtor interest, the specula-
ting interest, must soon realize that specie
payments are inevitable, and will see that the
best course, even for them, is to take the bull
by the horns, and save our paper currency by
making it equal to gold. Let the Treasury
pay gold for its notes, and let the banks re-
deem their issues in greenbacks, each keeping
a small amount in coin to deal out to those
who may see fit TO demand it. Let us all re-
solve that we will not break our Government
by running the Treasury dry of coin, and we
shall achieve general resumption, not without
heavy individual losses and some bankrupt
cies, through the sudden contraction of prices
but without national bankruptcy; and in few
months all will be well. Corn will grow and
cattle thrive; water will turn wheels and
forests will yield timber, even though money
should not be so abundant nor wages 80 high
as in the flush times initiated by the making
of dishonored paper legal-tender.
VII. There are men whose judgments we
respect who hold resumption q mistake be-
cause paper ought (they say) to be aud re-
main our only currency and coin a mere com
modify, as at present They may be right in
their abstract assump ption; they cannot be
right in its application to the existing condi-
tiOn. If we are to have a currency OF paper
only, it should be $50 nominated in the bOnd''
each note should be- not a lie, but the truth
Such was the currency authorized by the origi
nal Legal-tender act, which made every green
back fundable, dollar for dollar at the pleasure
of the holder in Five-twenty six per cent
bonds, payable, principal aud interest, in coin
Had we simply adhered to the principles O
that act, we should have quietly attained re-
sumption (through the funding of our green
backs) long ere this. But the stipulated re-
demption was repealed by subsequent act