New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-03-08
THE REVENUE IND ITS GUARDIANS.

Gen. Grant selected the great officers who
are to constitute his Cabinet in absolute indie
pendence of cliques or cabals, and with refer
epce solely to their fitness for the work they
were required to do. His choice of Alexander
r. Stewart for Secretary Of the Treasury was
emphatically his own, and governed by con-
siderations of fitness purely We owe great
National Debt, which our new President means
TO nav quite as fast as the creditors choose to
receive it; we are paying Six per Cent. inter
est on most Of it, though our right to redeem it
has accrued or is rapidly accruing, and we
ought to be able to borrow at lower rate the
means Of redeeming and canceling these obliga-
lions, and thus reducing the burden of our
Debt by Twenty or Thirty Millions per annum
"a sum which, duly husbanded, would extin-
euish the principal Of our Debt within the next
half-century. This conversion Of our Five
"Twenties" into an American Consol drawing
lower rate Of interest Is the financial
achievement whereby Gen. Grants Admins
tration is TO be distinguished and honored i'll
History. If peace hath her victories no less
renowned than War;" then the CONVEX
sion of our various Debts, which last year
called for over One Hundred and Forty
Millions of interest, into Consol which
should require Twenty to Thirty Millions
less, would DO equivalent to providing
for the extinction of the entire Debt half a
century hence, without imposing therefor an
additional dollar of burden on the People
And, with this end distinctly and prominently
in view, what choice more natural than that
of the most eminent and successful merchant
"a man thoroughly familiar with all that is
or can be known Of Finance and Exchanges
and who comprehends that intelligent Economy
is the high road to prosperity and wealth. We
estimate quite moderately when we say that
Mr.. Stewart, by devOting to the public service
rs Secretary of the Treasury tho great ability and
tireless industry which have made him what he is,
could save at least Ten Millions of Dollars
which now leak from the public chest through
all manner of cracks and gimlet-hOles while
he would probably achieve an equal saving in
funding the Debt ut lower rates Of interest
than we are now paying thereon. We by no
means assume that he is the only man who
can effect these economies; but we do insist
that his experience, his business habits, and
his worldwide credit, give assurances of tri-
umph with A. T. Stewart as our financial Pros
perO which scarcely another name could afford.
The French proverb that Nothing succeeds
"like success" is here eminently pertinent.
We ardently expect the day when an Amer-
can COnsol, untaxable and drawing an in
terest of four per cent, payable quarterly, and
redeemable in coin thirty to fifty years hence,
may be fOated at par or very near it, and all
our Five-Twenties rapidly converted into this
COnsOl-conyerted by the simple process of
Offering the holders the option Of taking this
new Consol Or payment of their bonds in gold
Others standing ready to pay the gold and
take the Consols if they decline them. And we
know scarcely one other man under whose aus
pices as Secretary of the Treasury we should
feel quite so confident of seeing this effected
within four years as under those Of Alexander
7. Stewart. Whatever may be the immediate
result We hold the wisdom OF Cen. Grants
choice abundantly justified.
But the law which says to the new Secretary,
Take your choice between your great bust
ness and this great ofice,b is wise and
righteous. 1t is no acknowledgement of that
superiiuous "red tape" which it is the fashion
OF the day to sheer at-but that fundamental
Higher Law" which antedates all human
statutes-which stands between Mr. Stewart