The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-01-14


hoarding meantime several huudred millions
of coin, IL utterly impraotoable. lfhe has done
little towards building the required edihoe, he
has oafted of n good many loads OF rubbish
from the spot on which It's ioundauons must
Test. ..
But while We have no ianatioal devotion TO
apeeie, we cherish fond reoolleotions OF the
DAYS lang syne when silver half-dollar was
not quite go rarely seen ~ roc's egg or a
live unicorn, and we should really like 20 see
one again before we die. IL rather more amazes
than delights us, therefore, to hear a veteran
Jackson Democrat talk of old d-fashioned cash
after this sweeping fashion,
Nv q have divested our Government OF every
trait of the despotisms, every attribute of tle
of the Old World cave one. and that Is, the all
controlingsnnd allabsorbiDg power by which
masses of the people OF all nations of the earth
have been enslaved-coincd money More than
5000 years ago. the despots of the world, as the
most potent method TO enrich themselves and
their favorites, and perpetuate their tyranny,
hit upon the device OF tmpressing their Image
upon pieces of two of the metals. not the most
lntrinsically useful or the most beautiful, out
the most scarce and difficult Of attainment by
the masses of the people, thus arbitrarily
making measure OF value and equivalent for
exnbanaed. PBecause Of ibeir oSpabilities of
being so converted into equivalents of power,
tne So Gale caed 10 PR PreG,ons metals were sdgehry ;h
came falsely To- be deemed to have a special in.
trinsic value themselves, equal TO the ettigy Of
the peopla of these free commemorative (Greek
and Roman) became deteriorated by vices and
luxury, yielding their liberties TO tyrants either
by choice or usurpation, did gold and silver, the
eveT-ready adjuncts of despotic power in all
its forms and degrees. obtain place and scope 10
do their appropriate and never failing work, the
enslavement of the labor of the masses"
We are sure General Butler has here put
the cart before the horse. Kings may have
shit upon the device" of coming money, but
gold and silver were the money of the world
before coinage was thought Of, probably
before kings existed. They were spontsne.
ously and generally adopted as the measure
of values in trade, because, though not abso-
lutely unohaDgeable in value, they came
nearer to being so than any other substances
that exist in the requisite abundance. Now,
we never desired an exclusively metallic cur
rency, but when We see gold and silver be-
rated and DETAINED as they are by General
Butler, we are impelled to initiate the Califor-
nian who, hearing youDgster stigmatizing
the whisky before him as atrociously bad,
gravely repreved him in these terms:-
"Youpg man You mustn't call whisky bad.
AL whisky is good, but some whisky is bet
ter than the rest" We think much the same
of money.
General Butler considers two qualities emil
nently desirable in a currepcy-stablity and
elasticity. 1t seems to us that, if the Govern
ment will take care of the stability, the people
may be trusted to take care of the elasticity.
While we are mining gold and silver so abun-
dainty, and understand so thoroughly the
uses of engraving and the printing press,
there ought to be no concern on this head.
General Butler thinks it "a great error"
that greenbacks were not made legal tender
for all purposes, so that the revenue from i'm
ports might be collected and the interest on
| the public debt paid therein. We believe the
exceptions he deprecates saved the whole con-
Germ from the fate of our fathers Continental
money and the French assigpats. We thank
the General none the less for his frank admis-
sion that these things are not as he would
| have them.
General Butler thinks we have been won
deriully prosperous ever since we made green
backs legal-tender, except when, for a short
period, we we're contracting with intent to re-
sumo. But are not people always jolly and
flush when they are running deeply into debt,
and only sad and short when they are trying
to pay upH Would not General Buffers logic
prove that man should alw ays keep about
so drunk-all the pain and misery in the pre-
misses resulting from his mistaken approaches
to sobriety
We close with thanks to General Butler for
the frankness with which his views are pre-
sented, and the light they cast upon the entire
situation. We note but single hagrant mis-
statement in his entire speech-viz.: that the
banks obtained their bonds by selling gold
wherewith to buy them at discount of sixty
backs in payment Of loans of coin its
equivalent-were compelled by the Legal
tender act so to receive them. They then
funded them in Government Five-twenties, as
that act expressly authorized and invited
them to do. Whether we are or General But
ler is right as to the mode and medium OF
payment for those bonds, we will not here
argue but we cannot both be honest in the
premises.
Again we thank General Butler for the
fraDkness with which he identifies the call for
resumption with hostility to repudiation.
Payment of the bonds in gold, or, what is
equivalent, return to specie payments is
his language. Every hour makes clearer the
issue between solvency and honesty on the
one hand, and what seem to us rascality and
repudiation on the other. May the American
people prove wise enough, great enough, to
prefer the way of right, though rugged and
thorny, to the more seductive path that leads
through flowers and gauds softly down to dis
honor and ruin