Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-08-12
THE NATIONAL FINANCES.
A New Departure Needed
Gen. Thos. Ewing on the
Situation.
Proposed Abolition of National
Banks.
Plan for a Self-Adjusting Cur
~-n rency. F. ~ -1

COLUMBUS, o., Aug. 11.-Gen. Thos.
E wing addressed a large Democratic
meeting at the West Front State House
tonight. His speech was very long, in
W hich he discussed the New Departure,
the Ku Klux Law, finance, tariff and
land grants. The following is what he
called the Democratic financial new de-
parturc:
From this whole system of finance,
past, present and to come, as adopted
and proposed by the Republican party,
the Democracy of Ohio announce q
new departure which will relieve the
people of much of their burden of taxes,
leave no heritage of debt to Cypress and
enslave our children, and 30 establish and
regulate the currency as to greatly reduce
the interest and thus distribute the net in
crease of wealth equally between labor
and all forms of capital.
They propose that the general govern
ment shall furnish all the money of the
people in an issue which shall be legal
tender equally with coin for all public
and private debts whatever, except where
the contract expressly calls for specie,
and with it redeem the five twenty bonds;
and to prevent an undue expansion of
the currency issue, three per
cent bond which shall be exchangeable
at par for legal tenders at any time, and
into which the legal tenders may, at the
option of the holders, at any time be
converted. 1t is not at all likely that the
currency would fall so far below in gold,
that any bond wonld be redeemed in less
valuable currency than that the govern
ment got for i. Itf such instances occur,
the hardship will not be great, however.
Take the bondholder of 1854, who,
according to Jay Cookies tables, gave a
little less than forty cents in gold for
their bonds. They have already received
six per cent on their investment and got
the principal returned to them, and still
have the bonds; so if the currency
in which the bonds are redeemed
were to fall even to Coo in gold on the
dollar, which is not to be anticipated,
these men will not have suffered much
by their sacrificing purchase of the
bonds at forty. l know whole families
who have suffered more by the war and
by the legal tender act, but there is no
probability that this policy will depre-
ciate the currency at all for any length of
time.
Our 20's have been below par in Eu-
rope not because of any lack of faith in
the resources or stability of our Govern
ment, but because it is well known the
people regard them as justly payable in
greenbacks, and that our necks are not
yet callous enough to bear whatever yoke
our agents put on US.
The credit of Great Britain rose when
she compelled her creditors to take three
per cent for bonds bearing higher in
terest, and if we, in strict accordance
with our contract, make our debt easily
supportable, and therefore sure to be
kindly borne, our bonds will have value
denied to those compounded of repudia-
ton and extortion.
The effect of this system when out
standing notes and bonds are all convert
ed by purchase or payment in the three
per cent. legal tenders will be, first, to
give Us currency superior to any we
ever had in two important particulars:
l. 1t will be legal order for all purpo-
ses whatsoever. 1t will pay every debt,
taxes, and, in fact buy every commodity,
and rule every money transaction with
the power of gold.
2. 1t will be stable currency. Its
constant conyertability into bonds bear
ing fixed rate of interest will give both
it and the bonds value as stable as that
of the consuls of Great Britain. This
quality being obtained, it will be of no
importance, SO far as the adaptability of |
the currency to all the uses of the people |
goes, whether dollar of it will buy ex-
sctly dollar of gold than whether it will |
buy exactly bushel of wheat. Gold will |
remain as now, mere article of COM
merce, and of no more influence on CON-
merce than any other article, except as it
is the measure of value in about half the |
countries with which we trade. If the |
American measure of value, the paper |
dollar, and the English, the pound, keep
about even proportion to each other, as |
they do now, our foreign trade will not !
b, iDjuriously affected by the fact that
the measures are not the same, any more
than our trade with France in silks is |
affected by the fact that our measures of |
length are not the same as hers.