Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1870-02-03
Letter from u. &. Treasurer
Spinner.

demptiOn for many years back.
'iLetter from q. g., Treasurer
Spinner.
ii9E WASHINGTON, Jan. Il.
The following is copy of letter
addressed by Gen. i. Il. Spinner,
Treasurer of the United States, to
Mr.. Karl Seufferd, Domain Steward
of the Grand Dutchy of Baden, in
response to letter from that official
proposing a plan for the resumption
of specie payments in this country:
TREASURY OF THE L. S,
WASHINGTON, Jan.7, 1870.
MY DEAR SIR. Your two es-
teemed letters, the one on the nth
Of February and the other Of the LIST
of July last, were each received just
eighteen days after their respective
dates. Answers were withheld, not
from want of respect for your finan-
cial views, and much less from any
want of regard for you personally.
| An illness of four months duration,
and consequent accumulation OF
official business that has required my
constant attention ever since, must
plead an excuse for any seeming
neglect.
/ sympathize with you in your
perplexity, in reading and under
standing my letters. I presume,
however, that you have no more
difficulty in reading my English than
/ have in reading your German
letters. .,#, t..f.....s
Since last ] wrote you, we, in this
country, have made rapid and great
strides in the march of human prog
ress. Our trans Continental railroad,
that points to Asia, and that connects
us with your East by way of the
West, has been completed, and is
now in successful operation. Within
the last four years and four months
the National Debt has been reduced
by 1908, 942,61S, being over eleven
per cent. of the whole amount. Its
payment is now going on with an
accelerated movement--in the seven
months from June to December,
both inclusive the reduction has been
$56, G65 ,GG0, being at rate OF very
nearly 500, 100000 per annum. Our
legal tender paper money is feeling
the effects of this. In my last letter
/ stated that this kind of money was
worth ,at a time in 1866. only. 35 cente
on the dollar. 1t had risen in value
up to that time, in 1868, without any
further reduction of its volume, adj
vanced to SO cents on the dollar, in
coin. Many Of our ablest financiers
believe that without any legislative
interference, it will, in short time,
come up to the par of gold. Unless
the volume Of our paper money is in
some way considerably increased
this result will soon be reached.
The number of our people is more
than doubledIin every 80 years. II
increases at q uniform rate Of more
than 35 per cent. in each decade.
When tits considered, in this con-
nection, that our legal tender paper
money has been reduced since the
close of the Rebellion, and since the
commencement Of the reduction Of
, the public debt, from $4OO. 0OO. 900 te
1856, 900, 600; that the people of the
eleven States late in Instruction
numbered at the commencement
of the. Rebellion over nine millions
who did not then, but are now
obliged to use this kind Of money
and that the whole population has II
addition, since that time, been in
creased by at least five and half mill
, ions more people; you will see one o
| the causes for this appreciation, ant
. why it will continue, unless inter
fered with, until the two kinds Q
our money, paper and gold, viii
become, dollar for dollar, each thu
/ equal of the other. At the close O
f the war the loyal people who uset
the legal tender notes numbered
about twenty-six millions; the in
. habitants of the insurrectionary
/ States about ten and half millions
: the increase Of the whole nation sine!
: that time has probably been five ant
t half millions, making grand tota
r of the people of the United States a
f the present time Of fOrty-two mill
t ions, now using only 1856, OOO, 900 0
i this kind of currency, against onl.
twenty-six millions Of people usinl
t $500, 900, 900 Of it, at the close of tn,
i. war. The proposition is plain one
4 If the same proportion of dollars t.
| the people had been kept up, WI
would now have had $647 zoo, 900, in
+ stead of the 1856, 100000 legal tende
paper dollars that we now have
This is really contraction of thi'
/ kind of currency equal to n per cent
In other words, when the war closed
this kind of circulation, to every per-