Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1869-05-26
Secretary Boutwell, in Wall Street,
The War with the Gold Gamblers.

War has been declared by the Wall
street gold gamblers against the Secreta-
~ of the Treasury. They are dead
set against the policy he has adopted of
putting in the market a million of gold
every week in exchange for government
bonds, and they have evidently entered
into a sort of holy alliance, by "buling
gold" to drive him off the field. Our
Washington dispatches inform us that
Mr.. Boutwell, sis overwhelmed with let
tiers and protests against his financial
policy - that every day he is visited by
patriotic individuals anxious to enlighten
him in his duties; that among others Mr..
S. B. Chittenden, Of New York, has been
irving his powers of persuasion, and that
he fatty told the Secretary that gold
would go up to LIS shortly unless his
present financial policy be abandoned;
but that "Mr. Boutwell, has such conf
dence in the soundness Of his w theo-
ries that he could not be moved by his
own party friends or the friends of his
chief
From this we NAV infer that through
his friends the gold gamblers have been
getting round to the weak side of Gener-
al Grant. Doubtless, however, he has
left the management of the Treasury TO
the full discretion of the Secretary, and
we have no apprehension that the Presi-
dent will interfere with him in behalf of
the Wall street gamblers, the bulls, who
buy gold to-day TO sell out on a rise to-
morrow. It is a simple matter of arith-
metic that a million of gold from the
Treasury thrown into the market every
week is so much added to the available
supply for our merchants in the payment
of duties, and that in the of time
the purchase of hfty-two millions Of
bonds annually will of itself extinguish
the national debt and reduceYgold to the
value of our paper money, dollar fordOl-
lar. As this looks TO the extinguish-
ment of the business of these Wall street
gamesters and ali their political afhlia-
tons, radicals and c~opperheads, they
naturally combine to brighten the Secre-
tary off the course.
Their devices to this end are some of
them very sharp and some very shallow
and ridiculous. They hoard up gold to
make it short; they I'LL the street with
wars andrumors of wars. The President
at one moment has resolved TO proclaim
beIiigerent rights for the Cubans; next,
the sensation in England over Senator
Summers exposition of the Alabama
claims means war;; then the Bank of
England, it is given out, will tomorrow
raise its rate of discount; and then there
are dreadful dissensiOns in the Cabinet
which signify an ~"irrepressible conflict
in its councils on the question of peace or
war; and by such sharp practices and
artful lodges the fluctuations of gold
among the panic-stricken gamesters are
made to run the profitable gauS tlet to the
bulls of two or three per cent. in the
course of an afternoon. This, too, is
done in the face of the fact that United
States securities on the dollar command
from 100 forthe ten-forties to 1874 for six
per cents extending to 1881.
In the face. then, of such facts as these,
and of increasing revenues, internal and
external, promising, in the old ruts, a
s.-plus over the next fiscal year expen-
ditures of fifty millions, and, with any
thing like proper economy, retrench-
ment and reform, a surplus of a hundred
millioDs-in the face of such facts we see
the power of the holy alliance in Wall
against the Treasury. when, upon
the himsiest rumOrs and devices, it eau
run gold up TO III against a million a
week from the department These Wall
street gold rings are, in short, the heavi-
est deadweights which the Treasury and
the country have to carry. Compared
with them the whiskey rings are a baga-
teIle; but powerful as they are, with
their political gambling affiliations, they
cannot long maintain the game of locking
their gold for a rise against a steady
stream from the Treasury i the purchase
of gold-bearing bonds of four or five mil
lions a month, and the turn which the
took toward the close of business
yesterday begins to show the reaction.
As for all these Wall street stool-pigeon
rumors and theories of war, by which
gulls and gudgeons are so readily caught,
they are utterly absurd, There is no
of war between the United States
and any European Power or any Europe
coalition. The time is eminently in
to the administration in behalf of
a bold, decisive foreign policy touching
the Alabama claims, Cuba and Mexico,
because. we have the game in each case
completely in our hands. NapOleOn's
Mexican adventure has satisfied him in
reference to armed interventions in
American affairs directly affecting the
of the United States. The Brit
ish reform movement among the people,
including Ireland, is security for Eng
land. and in the New Dominion we have
a hostage next door for her good behavior.
Spain is still in the labor of ~deliverance
from a quasi state of anarchy; andneith-
er England, France nor Spain is in a sit
uation TO propose or entertain a PROPOSE
ton for a triple alliance for the protection
of Cuba. The internal condition of each
of those Western Powers is revOlutiona-
and from Paris to Rome the Continent
is ripe for combustion. The general
feeling in Europe of insecurity is Operat-
ing to swell the currents of European
emigration to the United States, and TO
give stability to our bonds of all descrip-
tons.
We therefore contend that a vigorous
and progressive foreign policy from Gen
eral Grant will not only meet the general
appreciation of the country touching the
national honor, dignity and expansion,
but that this policy abroad will be entire
" consistent with the domestic policy of
economy, retrenchment and re-
form, the payment Of the national debt
and the reduction of gold to the level of
our a money. In any event wen a
million of gold weekly expended in the
purchase of gold-bearing hye-twenties is
much gained to the Treasury and the
country, and so much lost to the gold
--.LTo-- A., Vol TTag.nyh Nav 81