Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-09-22
POLITICAL.
Greeley on 'Change at Cincinnati.
What He Knows about sCorners.,
His views ON the Currency anu Ma.
tiOnaI Finances.

4 IL
nine to Change hour, Mr.. Greeley received
friends and citizens al the Burnett House.
many persons calling. He was received at
the Chamber Of Commerce at noon to-day.
He entered accompanied by Mayor Davis.
S. +. Covington, President of the Chamber.
and j. l.. Keck. He was introduced by
Mr.. CoyiDgton, and was received with great
applause. When quiet was restored he
spoke as follows:
Mr.. President and Gentlemen OF the Chamber of
| Commerce:
You will do me the Justice to believe
that | would not have chosen TO appear be-
fore you as an instructor, for so it will seem
TO you, with regard 10 matters which you
must unjerstand be,ler perhaps than l.
am here because l am asked 10 be here, and
being here l propose 10 make to you few
suggestions which trust will have prac-
tioal bearing fully comprehend that
you are business men and that this
Is a business hour and that what
ever is said by me al any rate must
be very brief. To plunge at once then in
the middle of the subject, am one of those
1 who do not feel entirely satisfied with the
financial and commercial condition and
] prospects of our country. realize that we
| have Just secured very abundant haryests
and that these are very important eie-
ment of commercial prosperity. l realize
that we have currency quite abundant in
Its volume and acceptable at par over the
larger portion Of our country. We have
many elements of strength. And yet there
seem to be also elements of weakness,
which ought not to be passed over in ST
lence. You viii bear me witness that for
| the last two or three years We have heard
| more, felt more, suffered more of a CONNER
cial collapse might say commercial difficult
/ ty, from the operation of what are popularity
| called rings, than ever before in the history
OF this and think In the history of any
| country. Corners in wheat, corners in
oats, corners in pork, (great lsughter) cor
ners in gold, corners in stocks, and so on AID
80 on. Now gentlemen, am not here to
say that this particular clique, which tried
| to force up prices, or that opposite clique,
which tried TO force them down, was
right or wrong in any instance. l am not
sufficiently familiar to Judge. What say,
and think you must believe with me, is that
these exhibitions, these ebullitions, are
symptoms Of financial weakness, if not finan-
| cial disease. They are Incidents which are
not likely to occur in perfectly sound aud
healthy condition of commercial business
a
get on with them IS well as we can, or
rather we chose ole way and another that
soon presents it all. And every now and
then in the great commercial centre where
my work has been carried on, there comes
a superior correr, SONS kind OF Black
Friday, or something that threatens
commercial disaster, general disaster,
and then appears The Secretary |
Of the Treasury with his horn o.
plenty and be lets loose somathf g
or other. he either buys stocks, or lie sells |
gold, or he does both. He puts us az rest |
for little time again. Now, L am not here |
to decide that that is not the best thing he !
can do. don't know about that, but l |
do insist that the business Of the country |
ought not to be in condition to require |
this continual application of something ar
tificial, something let down from above; |
that there should be q state Of things where |
in business men aud business interests |
should take care Of themselves and not re- |
quire the continual interpositiOn of some |
public authority in such q dictatOrial form. |
Some men ere swamped when he appears, |
others are relieved. Peahaps the greatest |
good to the greatest number is accom- /
plished for aught l know; but | |
want 10 see state of things WREN |
the Government is not continually called |
upon to help us out. IL reminds me Of
the state of things that existed in my /
earlier DAYS, when every once in a while |
Mr.. Nicholas Biddle was called TO Wal ,
street in about The same capacity that the
Secretary of the Treasury is now, 20 put his
shoulder TO the wheel and lift us out of |
some catastrophe, lift us out of some mire, |
or ward off some catastrophe. think we
ought TO be able, that you gentlemen ought |
to be able to devise the ways and means /
not only Of getting us out of one particular |
corner, but Of preventing corners in the fu-
tuTe, rendering them impossible, or al all |
events disastrous to their contrivers. Now
am supposed to be man of isms-or |
what is the word?-a man of hobbies, on |
this subject. Some men imagine that l am |
a very furious demander of the immediate |
resumption Of specie payment. My opinion |
was years age, and have seen no reason 1
TO change il, that when we had one hun
dred and twenty five millions |
of money in the treasury, mainly |
gold, and when we had a revenue /
exceeding the necessary outlays of the |
treasury by more than one hundred millions /
per anuum, that we were then in condi- /
ton to resume specie payments that if the |
sumo, we take our greenbacks as gold and |
we will receive them as gold, that there |
would have been no difficulties in making |
that resumption under that state Of things. |
l have seen the bank of England resume, /
have known banks of our country to re-
sumo with very much less, with very |
much smaller proportion of available assets
to liabilities than the Treasury of the |
United States had at that time, so that it |
seemed to me TO be a perfectly feasible |
thing. But we did not resume mainly be-
cause the people, l mean the business peO
pie, did not want to resume; aud in my |
Judgment that reason will operate just as
well next year, two years, five years hence |
as it operated then. 1t is my judgment
that we are not likely TO resume,
don't known when, but in any
near period of time. Then, l say, If We
want to resume, we need all the resources
we had then, and we ought TO have hus-
banded them carefully. But if we were
no, as you and know We were not, to re-
sumo for long time to come, then it seems
to me a business policy was required of the
Government. That is, TO pay out all its
gold, all its treasure, beyond fair working
balance, reduce it's debt by so much, stop
the interest and lea ave the gold and the eur
rency in the hands Of the business men, in
stead of boarding it up in the treasury TO
make one of these periodical [the cOnclu-
sion of this sentence was lost in applause
But am not dogmatist. ] do not pre-
tend to present this as a matuTed and set
tied conclusion. What do here ask, what
ask ofthis chamber to originate, is inquiry
and investigation by men Of business and
capital as to where the proper remedy for
these disorders of which l speak is 10 be
found. Let us be calm about it.
Let us take time. Let us
investigate slowly, carefully, and let the
business men of the country come TO a.
conclusion as to the proper remedy, Nos for
a particular disorder to-day, but something
which shall be a protection against the
periodical recurrence of these disorders.
This is what would have the business
men of this country do. Look at the mat
ter as disease, not at one particular symp-
tom, and determine just what and whereas
the remedy. Iventure TO say if the men |
who compose Chambers like this will agree |
upon what that remedy is, they can hsve
behind them the press of the country with |