The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-01-15


question an essential part OF the currency
question, and in good part rests his opposition
20 resumption upon the profit thence acorulng
20 the bondholders. The combination ia as
once needless and injurious. II imports into
the financial problem elements that havs no
proper place there, and throws over the whole
the suspicion and uncertainty which are
among the chief causes of embarrassment.
Mr.. Ewing raises afresh the title of the
holders of five-twenties to payment in coin.
In his opinion the title Is invalid, and he em.
ploys good deal of Ingenious argument, aud
some objurga,ion which is not Ingenious, TO
show that they may be paid in greenbacks.
He echoes President Johnson's warning
against those who drive hard bargains, aud
predicts popular resistance to usury IL the
holders OF the bonds press their Interpretation
OF the contract. There may have been a
pretext for this kind Of talk while Mr..
Seymour's pretensions to the Presidency were
undecided. The good faith Of the Govern
ment was one of the matters in controversy
between the parties, and Mr.. Ewing's argu-
ment would then have been in order. Now,
II is q gratuitous attempt to excite dis
trust. The country has decided the dispute.
The voice that assigned Grant to the Presi-
dency decreed with equal distinctness the
payment of the bondholders according to the
spirit of the law. The considerations urged
by Mr.. Ewing were all before the people from
the 4th of July to the Sd of November, and
they rejected them as at variance with the
honor and interest Of the Republic. The con-
struction he insists upon they rejected, aud
they declared instead that the Government
shall discharge its obligations to the
holders of its bonds in the currency of the
world. This declaration, so recent aud en-
phatic, should be accepted as conclusive. 1t
is proof in advance that the doctrine of an
equitable adjustment" with which Cob
bett tickled the ignorance of an English mul-
ttude, will find no favor with the American
people.
We do not, however, understand Mr. Ewing
to contemplate the act which he attempts to
justify. He denies the claim of the bond
holders with a view to the completion of
another bargain-not for the purpose Of pay
ing out greenbacks for fiye-twenties without
more ado. His aim, in faot seems to be akin
to that of Mr.. Sherman last year-nsmely,
to compel the bondholders, by an appeal to
their fears, to surrender their six per cent.
security for a four per cent. which 1t is pro-
posed to issue. Notwithstanding his own hos
tile exposition of the bondholders' title, Mr..
Ewing is willing to waive the extreme position,
and to compromise by scheme of funding.
He is willing to sully the national honor, aud
to repudiate the understood terms Of con-
tract, for the sake OF saving two per cent. per
spnum interest on the tve-twenty bonds
We will not say that the saving would be
inconsiderable. But it would be trihing in
comparison with the damage done to the
public credit, and the loss thus indirectly
entailed on the business portion of the COM
munity.
The proposition is excused by Mr.. Ewing on
the ground that resumption must be preceded
| by funding. We believe that this Ia rever-
| sal of the process that may best be employed
that funding will be impossible until re-
| sumption shall have been effected. This, how
| ever, is immaterial so far as Mr.. Ewing is con-
cerned. He holds, with Mr.. Opdyke, that the
country having adapted itself in great de-
gree to an inflated and irredeemable currency,
need be in no hurry to return to specie pay
ments. 1t can get on quite well without them,
he thinks-at least for some time; and when
that time expires the change to be effected
will be comparatively small. There is, uu-
doubtedly much force in this version of the
| case. 1t is preferable to the plans proposed
for resuming by mere legislative enactment, as
well as to plans for fastening resumption by
merciless contraction. But il, as Mr.. Ewing
holds, immediate resumption is neither expe-
dent nor possible, what conceivable reason is
there for projecting funding scheme as a
preliminary to 1t, with repudiation as the
foundation of the whole?
The truth is that, unsound as our present
financial condition is, 1t may be borne still
| longer much better than the evils which a
discussion shaped after the manner of Mr..
Ewing would assuredly entail or which
would as certainly follow an attempt to legis-
late us back to gold basis by any means yet
prescribed in Congress. What is wanted is
judicious preparation for resumption, leaving
the realization of it contingent upon circum-
stances hereafter to be developed. And,
meanwhile, it is above all things expedient to
repress disputes involving the national faith,
predicated upon demands which, as yet, have
no actual existence.