The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-03-11

have now incurred.
No doubt it would have been a serious prao.
ilcal difhculty that, II tue largest dealer with
the Government, ii ths largest i'm porter ware
TO represent the ,roverument at the head OF
its finances he would have daily to act on oases
in which he would be interested ad varsslv IN
the Government Bat that mischief. which "a
all that the Republican press ot this citv oon
sdered-that mischief which the "arohaugalio''
purity of Mr. Stewart might indeed sasilV
OveTcome-was about the least of all tha mia
chiefs incident TO the situation.
The unseen, unguided influence of him
the superior officer, upon his subordinates
would have been utterly destructive to all the
motives which are relied on TO insure the BRO
lection Of the Government in the dealings of
men with the head of the Treasury. Nj.
Stewart might both be an archangel aud
have angels at the head OF every bureau; but
for bis clerks and agents, and for the Govern
ments appraisers and collectors aud Gu stoms
officials, he could not have drawn upon The
angelic host.
The intrinsic, radical, and oversh Allowing
evil OF the situation was thi-:-Tne Secretary
of the Treasury is not only required by law 70
advise Congress as TO the measures 1t should
pass to improve the revenue, as to the taxes
il shall put on and the taxes IL shall take of,
and generally as to the fiscal and financial
leeis alton 1t shall enact, but in the practical
administration of his departm .nt so wide
officer, and so vast are the transactions of
the Government compared with those ofprivate
business, that the Secretary has become the
practical regulator aud controller of the gold
market, thereby OF the rates of foreign ex.
change, thereby of the cost Of all imported
goods, thereby of the prices of all our ex-
ported commodities-wheat,c corn, flour, to-
bacco, cotton, petroleum, beef, aud pork. He
has also become the controller OF the money
market. He determines the abundance or
scarcity OF loanable capital, the rate Of inte-
rest, and thereby the prices of securities and
stocks as well as merchandise. Whether 80
wide discretion was wise or necessary Is not
the question. Under the legislation of the
| last nine years and the growth of our debt it
| exists.
Now, that Mr. Stewart, the importer who
has occasion to buy more exchange than any
man in these States, should continue to direct
! the operations of his house in purchasing gold
or exchange and renting to pay for his ex-
ported goods; and that Mr.. Stewart, the Sec
retary, should at the same time decide
whether or not the Government should sell
! gold, having on hand, with authority to sell,
| q quantity 30 vast that the sale of fifth of it
| would depress its price and make a oonvul-
sion from Wall street to San Francisco this,
| we say, is an absur !. au impossible situation,
act or no act of 1859 But this act, with its
charity for human weakness, marks and de-
fines the sbsurdity and impOssibility of the
! situation.
Neither General Grant nor Mr.. Stewart nor
the Republican press of this city Gall alike
ignorant of the law exhibited the faculty to
| perceive this obvious principle of prudence
| and morality upon which the law was ba ased.
But how did none of them see, what is better
suited to their faculties to see, that Mr..
Stewart in SO false aud absurd situation
could not possibly have or keep the public
confidence Were he, as Secretary, to sell
gold or adopt any measure which should
depress the foreign exchange, and thereby
cause, as so often has happened, a fall in
imported or exported commodities aud an
interruption in the courses OF industry and
trade-cannot he see, cannot everybody see,
that all men who We're damaged in their
interests thereby would have said that Mr..
Stewart was buying gold or exchange and
trying to buy it cheapG
IT, on the other hand he were to allow the
rate of exchange to rise, would not every man
whose interest was in its fall have felt and
said that Mr.. Stewart, having got his ex-
change, was now putting up his goods which
were yet to be sold
And though Mr. Stewart were to reap
profits only from his business for the next
four years, as it would be hard to prevent his
firm from doing were he Secretary of the Trea-
sury and were he to devote those profits to
New York charities, would his rivals fail to
feel or fail to cay that in those profits he,
the muDluCent DeStOWef Ot tuou, udu al lu-
terest, direct and indirect utterly beyond what
he could have We're they simply flowing into his
private Golfers. For, were those profits small,
rival merchants would suffer by his under
selling them, and he would draw still larger
stream of custom to his bazaars to increase
nightly his subsequent profits. The Tribune
praised its own business sagacity year or two
ago in running its establishment twelve
month at no profit, and doubtless the policy
was sagacious.
On the other hand, were the profits of Mr..
Stewart's business large and the sums be-
slowed upon our charities considerable, would
lie have no interest, direct or indirect, in such
, a worldwide advertisement of his liberslity
aud wealth Six millions in four years, il it
went to his bank accounts, could neither in
, crease the sum of his present luxuries or COM
forts. nor the popular awe before such opu-
) lenee. But thus bestowed, it would aggran-
die his real possessions, and confer upon him
, something wherein no other human being s
''interest" could equal hs-namely, fame
beside which John Jacob Astor's, Smithson's,
{ and Peabody's would pale, and which he, like
, Peabody, would be living TO enjoy. Mr..
! Stewards 'interest" in his private profits for
t four years would be insignificant beside his in
4 terest in such public munifcence.
I Yet we would not dOgmatize on the law oil
i 1889 Mr.. Stewart at least knew enough when
Q his trouble was manifest to seek and bs guided
: by competent legal advisers, even If his letter
t to the President stgmatizes the disabilities as
3 technical which they deemed insupersble
: But his nomination was not fit to have been
t made, and General Grant has been driven tc
perceive II, despite the journals which invited
| him from blunder on to blunder.