Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1873-12-04
John Sherman on tke Financial
SituatiO,l

| We are indebted to the Philadelphia
Ledger for the following condensation
of Senator John Sherman's views on
| the financial situation: ~,
Senator Sherman, Cairman of the
| Finance Committee in the U. S. Senate
has been ventilating his notions on the
subject of the currency, and by reason
of his position, What he says is closely
criticised. He fav0rS a law which will
authorize q convertible live per cent.
United States bond, with the right in
the Government to an Alternative re-
demption either in coin or bonds. This
bond, he thinks, should mark the pro-
gress to specie payments by providing
ior a, provisional redemption, and
should be in itself so intrinSically valu-
able that it would be generally at par
with gold. Such value would not be
maintained by the rates of 1865. Mr..
Sherman believes that if as long ago as
1868, when the subject was irst pro-
posed, Congress had authorized United
States notes to be received for five per
cent. bonds at par, we'shouid have long
since been at specie payments. The
notes, when received, could be paid
out again to meet current expenses
and for the purchase of bonds. In this
way, when our five per cent. bonds
were worth par in gold we should be at
a specie standard. Our increasing
credit, he contends, wo'd have brought
currency to par with gold, exactly as
it has brought all forms of bonds to par,
aud even above par, in gold. Whether
the currency would be contracted
would depend entirely upon the
amount of currency necessary to con-
duct the cuisines OF the country. MIR.
S. considers that the restoration of the
currency to a specie standard l3 the
most important subjectfor COngressiOn-
al legislation, that the price of gold in
dicatrs thai such legislation would
now be both timely ana practicable,
that legal tender notes have never been
50 nearly at par as now, and that il is
essen tial to the business prosperity of
the country, and due TO our national
honor, that we place our currency upon
the solid basis of the worlds money,
and redeem our national obligations.
That as to the cost of what we buy
abroad is added the depreciation of onr
currency, we should seek to rid our
selves of the folly of paying in gold
and receiving in currency, that curren-
cy can never be made flexible until
specie resumption becomes possible,
since the suspension of specie payments
suspends all redemptions of paper
money; SO long as United States notes,
are irredeemable national bank notes
must be irredeemable, and that nation
al banks have now no object to secure
the return of their notes, and both the
United States and the national banks
have the advantage of forced loan
from the people, without interest, and
without the burden of redemption. In
connection with his plan Mr.. sherman
proposes no contraction of the curren-
cy. q Indeed, he would declare that the
amount of the legal tender circulation
should never exceed four hundred mil
lions OF dollars. lie would make it
lawful for the Secretary Ofthe Treasury
to issue ihe,so-called forty-four million
legal tender reserve, but would leave
it unissued except as necessities might
require. On the subject of the forty
four millions reserve Mr.. Sherman
still maintains the opinion that the
right to reissue doas not exist with the
They have been Withdrawn
and cancelled, and canaot consequently
be reissued. The above includes the
substance of what Sherman is reported
to have said, and in it all there is moth
ing that favOrs an expansion of the cur
rency. 81 He says doubtless a great
many people desire imitation, and sup
pose it would benefit them, but he did
not think they knew what would be
good for them, and that if this feeling
should secure the passage of a bill for
imitation by the House of Representa-
tives, such a bill would be promptly
killed in the Senate" ID ,ar9 9-. f,7.-I-,,-