Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1869-04-01

event mas taken place there will be nc
other circulation than that issued by
the national banks, amounting to thret
hundred millions, which will be at least
equal to the natural amount required by
the business wants of the country, and
will, of course, be nearly or quite on a
par with gold; but to assume that it will
be so, Congress may provide that the
banks shall retain all the specie there
after received for coupons until they re-
sumo payment, and if needful, the banks
may be prohibited from holding the
compound interest notes as part of
their reserve of lawful money. That
would compel the banks to supply
themselves with the necessary amounts
of specie. 1t will, however, be found
practically that as the volume of.the
currency is brought near to its natural
limit, much of the gold forced cut of the
country during the expansion will be
returned las Was the case in 1878
while all our own product will be retain-
out effort or expense will accumulate
all the specie their wants require.
ECONOMY OF THE MEASURE.
"If it be objected TO the foregoing
plan that it obliges the government to
pay interest on its own notes. it may be
replied that such a result is unavoidable
whenever the greenbacks are funded, rs
in some form they nfdst ultimately be,
the government has promised to pay it's
notes. and-as il is not able to discharge
them with specie, it is bound, in COM
mon equity and honesty, to pay interest
,saon them until it can. Tie transitional
plan here proposed, by which, through
the ISSUE Of compound-interest notes,
the float promises of the Treasury
will be evss>sally funded, while one
that is perfectly Honorable will be found,
it is believed, highly satisfactory to the
public.-Certainly it will be an econom-
ical> sspent, because the govern
ment, so far from losing interest, will
gain largely by the operation, since it
must result in a rapid restoration of the
national credit to that point at which
the whole public debt may be consoli
dated into one uniform stock at not over
four and one-half per cent. For the
want of well-settled and judicinus pol
icy for resuming specie payment the
nation is now losing more than it gains
in the annual interest upon some three
hundred and sixty millions of dollars of
its circulating notes.
"Unless the country is to suffer for an
indefinite period all the disgrace and
loss inseparable from deprecated credit;
unless it is to be given over to all the
evils and dangers incident to deprecia-
ted currency, some definite and efficient
measure must be adopted to secure its
to a specie standard The
plan is therefore submitted
with great Difference, yet with entire
to your consideration, in the
belief that, since it does not arbitrarily
from the people one dollar of
but simply permits them to
invest their greenbacks, if they choose,
in the course of five years in the ten
forty bonds. it is more likely to be ap-
proved by the law-making power, more
safe and practical, and more in accord
ance with the laws of trade and the in
dustrial interests of the nation than any
that has thus far been presented to the
attention of Congress. Faithfully, your
friend, "AMASA WALKER.
WASHINGTON, March 1852"