The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-12-16
sIup1p1rrEs ABOUT RESUMPTION.


written letter, on the subject of resumption,
80 crotchety and contradictory as even to
command the Endorsement and admiration OF
Horace Greeley. Mr.. Spinner Indignantly de-
mics that greenbacks are an irredeemable cur
rency. Well, in one aspect of the matter he
is right f; in another aspect he is wrong. Re-
deemability is expressed ON their face, where
it is written "The United States will pay
the bearer one dollar at the treasury, etc.
"One dollar in what? OF course, one dollar
in money, not another promise of a dollar on
another bit of paper. This promise to pay, In
scribed across the face of these notes,
is a plain confession by the govern
ment that they are not money, and con-
elusive refutation of the proposition
argued by Attorney General Evarts before
the Supreme Court, that they have intrinsic
monetary power resulting from the exercise
by the government of its sovereign right to say
what shall be money and how it shall serve as
a measure of value and medium of exchange.
1t is only because people in general have not
regarded them as money in the absolute sense
that they have had any value whatever either
as currency or as q government security.
Their whole available value, in a word, rests,
where the value of the bonded debt of the
government rests, on the degree Of faith per-
| vading the public mind in their ultimate re-
demption. Take away this basis, and they
would at once be as worthless as the paper
on which they are printed. We mean that
they wonld be so in the absence of an i'm
mediate provision for redeeming them on the
part of the government. And at present,
with only about eighty million dollars OF
coin IN the treasury against four
hundred million dollars of outstanding
notes, it is simply impossible for such
provision to be made. And this brings us to
the actual irredeemability of the greenbacks,
| and to the stupid aspect of Mr.. Spinner's
pragmatic assertion to the contrary. For It'll
perfectly clear that if they were at this mo-
ment redeemable, they would be at this mo-
ment at par with specie. On the other hand,
the present and prospective difficulties in the
way of their redemption constitute the resist
ance to their appreciation and the measure OF
the consequent premium on gold.
But Mr.. Spinner has plenty to keep him
company in talking stupidity on the subject Of
resumption. The New York Tribune repre-
senis a class of resumptionists whose wisdom
it illustrates in proposing to effect resump-
ton by inscribing over the door of the
treasury "specie payment resumed" and
in declaring the :" life-giving clause >
of the ereenbaeks to be that which
imputes to them the equality of pay
| ing private debts" The efficacy of the
proposed inscription wuuld depend altogether
ON its veracity. To make it the exponent of
the instantaneous fact of resumption and re-
deemability, it would be necessary to have on
hand, or within government reach, specie or
! its equivalent to the extent of the unpaid
treasury notes held by government creditors.
Where is such an amount of redeeming assets
to be had The Tribune sages scorn to en-
tighten the unilliminated on this point. 1t is
enough for them, and enough for their incom-
prehensible title to philosophic fame, to
roundly assume that the government could
produce, on demand, the required cash in the
twinkling of bed post or the shake
of sleeps tail The exchange of the
coin now held for greenbacks would merely
take up that much of the unfunded debt; and
in SO far as it would improve the national
credit it would raise the unredeemed remain
der of greenbacks towards par. But there
can be no doubt that this result is in a large
degree, if not altogether, anticipated by the
effect of the known possession by the treasury
of the sum in coin referred TO as an implied
pledge for the redemption of its outstanding
notes. Hence, the double stupidity of Mr..
Broomall's bill which proposes that the treas.
ury exchange coin for greenbacks at q sliding
discount commencing at 500 in coin fol-
s135 in paper, and reducing the premium on
coin thereafter at the rate of one dollar per
month"; for this plan adds partial reputation
to what there is of futility in the other.
But, of all stupidities, that is the most eyre
gious which supposes that the so-called "life.
giving clause of the greenbacks conferred
on them the quality of paying private
debts" No valid debt can be paid except by
the return of equal value for value received.
The legal tender clause impaired to the notes
no paying virtue above what they would
have had as representatives of the current
value of the national credit. Wherever il
operated to extinguish debt in excess of that
value it compelled private creditors to submit
to a corresponding degree of spoliation. In
other words, it legalized private reputation
under pretext of furnishing a legal tender
good for all private debts. 1t gave not one
cent of value for purposes of exchange which
the greenbacks would not have had without
it. If it were repealed to morrow those notes.
supposing the question of their redeemability
unaltered, would bear the same relation to
gold as now. Nobody holding them would
lose anything in point of intrinsic value,
But if that clause were repealed tomorrow
they would cease to circulate as money, and
| gold and silver, and their equivalents, would
again be the currency of the country.
1t is all well enough for Senator Kellogg to
introduce bill for the removal of disabilities
to be incurred by some of his friends undel