New-York tribune., 1874-03-13


ton Of the word which we have already given.
Piohegru, at the head of the army of tho
North, with nominal pay of four thousand
francs month, was in the actual receipt, III
1705, of less than forty dollars in coin.
There was no redundancy i'll his eX-
cheouer. 1t would, Indeed, be the great
est of blessings if men in all ranks aud CON
ditions of life could, even for single week.
have more money than they knew what to do
with. A drunkard might produce such re-
dundapcy among half a dozen bootblacks by
shedding his money! upon them but Con
gressmen vastly OvereStlnatc their power II
they think, as many of them appear to do
that thoy can successfully accomplish the
same thing for forty millions of people.
Let our readers fix firmly i'll their minds
the true meaning of the word dollar. as well
IA that important part of the definition OF
money, which is 50 often overlooked, namely,
its being the standard of Da'ue, as well rs the
instrument of exchange, and they will never
fall into the habit 80 inyeterate with infia-
tionists, of using the words redundancy'
money" &c, without any conception
of their real meaning. TO quote the
words of Sir Robert Peel in 1919:
"Sir Isaac Newton. retiring from the sublime
studies in which he chiefly passed his life
from the contemplation of the heavenly
bodies-from IN investigation OF the laws by
which their motions were guided-entcred on
"the examination of this subject; but that
" great man came back at last to the old, the
"vugar doctrine, rs il was called by some,
I" that the trne standard OF value consisted in
ga definite quantity OF gold or SILVER
every sound writer OH the SUBJECT
"came to the same conclusion, that
"certain weight of gold or silver with an I'M
"pression on it.. denoting 1t TO be OF that GER
tain weight. and of "A certain fnenesS, con-
"stituted The only true, intclligiblc and ade-
"quate standard Of value; and to that stand
card the country must return, or the dlificul-
"ties of our situation will be aggravated rs
"we proceed" With the fact of depreciation
right under our eyes, with the premium
of rnnuipe over spurious dollars quoted
every day in hundreds of newspapers, how
supremely ridiculous it il to compare the cir
culaton per head of France or Germany with
the United States to prove, fOrs0Oth, that
there is no redundancy. What else can be
the object of such comparisons! The proof
of depreciation, Of OvcIissue, OF redundancy,
of super1utY, and of too much money, Is COM
plete in the existence of the premium on gold
dollars The discount on paper dollars Is
fact, an evil to be cured, not an hypothesis to
be proved. It's existence no more stands in
need of demonstration than that of the Sun
ut twelve o'clock on a rloudlcss day. The
real question Is, Shall the United States follow
the example of the Plantagcnets and BOur-
bons, in lowering the standard of value and
defrauding their creditors, by making that
quantity of gold or silver twenty-siN or thirty
dollars. which formerly was but twenty
three That is not, IL is true. the precise
shape which The question now assumes, but
The fact cannot be ignored that the four
hundred and thirty millions of legal-tcnder
notes and fractional currency outstanding on
Saturday last arc promises OF the United
States Government 20 pay definite quantities
of gold anl silver of standard iincncSS that
the said promises are. and for twelve years have
been at an average discount of more than ten
per cent and that during hat whole period there
has been no fixed standard of value for mort
gagcs notes coupons. bills Of exchange. or
any other obligation to pay OF receive the
lawful money of the country During all that
time the standard of value has been fluctuating
with public opinion. with the varying success
of operations in tlia Gold Room, and more re-
Gently with the incalculable fances of the
Secretary Of thc Treasury. The value of what
should be the standard, but is nOt-that il to
say Of the gold dollar--is subjected 10 influences
more caprcious than the purposes which the
ancient idolatcrs ascrIbed to their gods. How
Morton and Logan could hold serious cOnyer-
sation on tho finances, we can no more i'm
agine than We can two sOothsayerS looking
each other in the face without laughing.
When we read the debates in the Senate we
cannot doubt, 10 borrow an idea from Mr..
Mill, that q majority could bc rallied to re-
solve that the earth is square, if it were be-
leved that such "a decision would bc agreeable
to the mass of voters in the West and South.