North Iowa times. [volume] (McGregor, Iowa) 1867-current, 1869-02-17

TIL extensive blessing of his luxury.
That very life his learned hunger Graves.
lie saves from famine, from the savage saves:
Nay, feasts the animal he dooms his feast:
And, And, till he ends the being, makes it blest:
Which sees no more the stroke, nor feels the pail
Enan avourd a man by touch ethereal slain
1he creature had his feast of life before
Thou too must perish, when thy feast is DER!
legal Tender and Specie Payments.
The financial difficulties in which tn
Republicans have involved the people ar
countless, ana the all-engrossing problem
Of the day is: "fIow shall we extricat
- 6urselves?''
i The Legal Tender attribute of tn
Federal ct.rrcncy was not only unlawful
but it was Of a specially outrageous char
acter. Wherein We need not rehearse
It is so often discussed that repetition
would be inexcusable Only brief allu
sion is allowable. 1t enabled the creditor
to rob his debtor, by forcing him to accep
paper dollar at its nominal value, when
it was really worth but sixty, fifty, and al
one time only forty cents on the dollar
we mention no more of its hardships
though they were many. They will occur
to every thoughtful reader.
The Legal Tender Act is demonstrations
al and it is said will soon be declared so
by the Supreme Court. Such decision,
however imperative the Constitutional re-
quirement that it shall be made, will be
productive of a fresh round Of robberies
in endless series. This time the creditor
class will be the persons injured. The
man who contracted to pay a hundred
dollars, or thousand dollars, in the ex-
psctation of meeting his obligation in
greenbacks, will be required to pay in the
first instance a hundred and forty dollars,
and in the second, fourteen hundred dol
lars, at the present ratio Of difference be-
tween coin and paper. We have no time
to follow this subject through its count
less ramifcations. But the bare sugges-
ton is enough, and they will occur to the
intelligent reader. Nevertheless, we must
have done with paper as legal tender, and
the Constitutional currency substituted
some time and in some mode. How? is
the problem. How, without robbing
whole classes, and inaieting enormous
hardships?
The return to Specie Payments, which
ought to precede the notification of the
Legal Tender Act, is likewise beset with
the most aggravating and oppressive, and
yet wholly inseperable incidents. A re-
turn must be had some day and in some
way but how is it to be effected with
!. even comparative savety to the people?
= Great numbers of persons-those espe.
cially who are in the interest of bondhola-
ers-urge Immediate resumption. When
a paper dollar is worth a gold dollar, there
. will be no temptation to pay the Abolition
debt in greenbacks. Hence those who
represent the bondholders, urge specie
payment Internationally and without de-
day.
1t is certainly desirably to have specie,
anstead of the rags now current; but spe
Gle payment now would be, in degree,
universal confscation, save only in the
case of the bondholder
The adoption of Specie Payments would
Immediately reduce the price of wages,
and Of every product of the farm, by just
so much as is the difference between
gold and paper dollar; that is, about
one. third. The debt, however, is fixed
sum, and the interest is fixed sum.
Therefore the laboring man would have
to pay one third more of his wages than
he now does in taxation for the purposes
of this debt and the farmer would like
wise be compelled to give one-third more
of the products of his farm for the same
purpose.
The retsru to Specie Payments is step
cf great moment 1t is pregnant with
consequences which all do not foresec.
Mr.. Allison, In mis- History Of Europe,
that ~s'the Suspension of Cash Payments
iH 1877, was a measure of incomparably
more Importance than any financial step
OF the past or present century," and that
the subsequent and unavoidable resump-
tion Of Cash Payments by the bill of 1919,
in Great Britain, opened the way to
series of changes in prices, and, of conse-
quence in the relative situation, power
and influence of the different classes of
society more material than any which had
occurred since the discovery Of the mines
of Potosi and Mexico"
Yet Greeley, needless or ignorant of the
laws of finance and the facts Of history,
bellows for 'Specie Payment" with the
recklessness which marked his former
clamor of "On to Richmond"
IF the Constitution had not been tram
pied upon by an Administration composed
of usurpers, the war upon the States could
never have been begun. Once begun, it
could not have been prosecuted without
the specific violation of the clause which
inhibits anything but coin as a legal ten
der.
1t was only by flooding the country with
the irredeemable greenback currency, and
forcing the people to accept it as money,
that the m0nstr0us war could be prOsecut-
ed.
And now, elbow to get rid of this Le-
gal Tender p and "How to resume Cash
Payments p are problems, the solution of
which is imperative, and yet seemingly
impossible, without the most momentous
if not wholly disastrous consequences.
10 whom shall we look ameng the men
who have control Of our affairs. for the
craftsmanship which the emergency de-
mands?
Two special pretenders to financial abil-
ity-the s.smartest'' and most eminent of
their party-are Morton and Sherman.
But their pretensions have been exploded
within week by the press of their own
party, and both have been denounced just
ly, the first as an ignoramus, and the Sc
cond as blunderer. What is said Of
Morton the reader will find in another
place in this paper.
As to Sherman he proposed Funding
Bill, which passed at the last session Of
Congress but failed to become a law for
want of the Presidents signature. In this
bill he proposed to bribe the holder Of
Five-Twenties, which by the terms of con-
tract may be paid in greenbacks, to accept
reduced rate of interest in cOnsidera-
ti0n that the contract shall be changed to
the benefit of the holder, and the prin-
cipal made payable in coin hereafter
hn oe h