The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1869-03-17
A PUBLIC CREDIT srRExGrHENKR.

The first financial chicken natcneu unuer
the new administration in the congressional
gallinarium is queer bird. 1t is as marvel
GUS in its way as the chief wooden idol OF
Buddhist temple. Each represents myth
But of the two shams the financial device is
the more fragrant For the idol is gilded
with real gold and is stuffed with entrails OF
real silver; whereas the other continuance is
CLOSED with the thinnest tinsel of brass, and
is simply distended with fatulence without
containing a single entrail of any material.
The thing is known in telegraphic parlance
as ''Schencks bill to strengthen the public
credit" We would advise the people to hold
their souls in patience while awaiting the sue
cessful operation of this specific of DIR.
Schenck. Yet let them not wholly despair.
Unless they doubt the coming of the happy
day when a weak back may be stlffened up by
the shadow Of an invigorating plaster, and
when dull knife may be sharpened by
the picture of milestone, and when hum
CRY company may be feasted by contemplate
ing printed bill of fare, they cannot doubt the
ultimate success of DR.. Schenck's prescription.
The first item in this plan for restoring
healthy rigidity to the debilitated backbone
of the public credit, is the inviolability of the
public faith the next is the duty of paying
the bonded debt where not otherwise ex-
pressly stipulated, in gold Now all this was
substantially declared in the fourteenth
amendment to the Constitution. Why again
affirm it? Why again pledge the gov
eminent to the discharge Of its OBJ
legations to public creditors in real
money and not by the exchange of one
set of promises for another set This is the
third time that the public faith has been
pledged to the redemption of the same debt.
The first time ought to have been sufficient
The word of an honest man is as good as his
OATH and no amount of intensifying reaffirm-
tons will establish credibility for a man
whose veracity is at heavy discount. In
deed, it is matter of proverbial philosophy
that only persons of this character are eager
to fortify their words with their oaths, the
first being as worthless as the last.
After declaring the inviolability of the pub
lie faith, there was no occasion to assert the
duty of paying the bonds in good money.
If inviolability in this case means anything,
means the payability of the public debt in
real value, the currency debt as well as the
bonded debt. Hence it was superfuous to
discriminate between certain bonds expressly
payable in greenbacks and others as equits-
bly, payable in gold. For in the theory of
the universal inviolability of the public
faith, greenbacks, as well as both classes of
bonds, belong to an inviolable unit every
part of which is equally sacred, and every
part of which equally calls for payment in
gold or its equivalent.
The sum of this measure for strengthening
the public debt is, therefore, simply, in legis-
lative form, to recognize that the public
credit is weak and to acknowledge, super
fuously. the obligation of the public debt. As
far as it goes, however, or attempts to go, it
is Enthusiastically in the interest of the bond
holders. While insisting upon the equity of
gold payment of the bulk of the bonds, up to
the uttermost cent of their face, in gold,
whether such payment were expressly stipu-
lated or not, it is careful to say nothing about
the equity Of reducing their face, in the inter-
est of tax payers, to the measure of the real
value which the government received from
the bondholders. They paid for these Sc
curities in currency at an average value, say +,
of sixty cents on the dollar. They have been
receiving ever since ten per cent. interest
in gold on their actual loans. Now this
would be an excellent investment if there were
not hope or dream of obtaining in pay
ment of principal a single cent more than was
paid out. In Europe to invest at the rate Of
four per cent in public stocks is considered a
very eligible arrangement. What, then, is the
equitable amount of the debit to which the pub
lie faith is presumptively pledged in virtue
of real value received and used The answer
is plain enough. Debt must be based on
something To carry the claim of the bond
holders beyond the measure of what they &C
tually lent is to base debt on a fiction. In
equity the thing is absurd and impossible. 1t
is upon grounds of equity alone that the bond
holders demand payment in gold, and surely,
they could not reasonably complain if tax
| payers, upon the same grounds, should stren-
uously object to the payment of a fictitious
| debt. To what extent the bonds represent a
fictitious debt may be judged from these
words of the Cincinnati Gazette: "By this the
bondholder receives ten per cent interest in
coin on the amount actually lent the nation,
and will receive at the maturity of the
bond, if he is paid in coin, sixty-six per cent.
more on the principal than the amount he
actually lent The government has promptly
paid this interest, and expects to pay the
principal at maturity. 1t might be thought
that this would fill the whole measure of its
duty; that premium of sixty-six per cent on
the principal, and ten per cent interest on
the amount actually lent, is enough to under
take. But there seem to be many who hold
that this is not enough; that the government
is guilty of breach of faith so long as these
bonds do not rise to par in the hands of the
public creditors; that the nationiis dishonored
because it does not raise the market price Of
fhe pouus public creditor may