The New York herald., 1874-04-07
The Maa who Lsughs-Oid-Fashio
Ststesmem ON Insintion.

i Senator Logan is the man who laughs.
He laughs in derision, and, as our Washington
report puts it, be laughs broadly in that sense
and he is excited to it by the notion casually
expressed in the Senate that the President
might not accept the prairie clamor for ex-
pansion as final word on the subject might
have such perception Of his duty under the
| constitution and such sense OF national
honor as to veto the financial bill This seems
ridiculous to Mr. Logan 1t seems to him
such crowning evidence of semi-idiocy on
the part of the person who uttered it that he
does not deem a word of reply necessary
laugh of "broad derision" is his only answer
to the utterance of patriotic hope. This
is the Western style Of debate II is
| evident however, that Mr.. Logan knows
the Presidents mind; perhaps he knows
it even better than the President himself
does and, for aught that appears to the
contrary in the wisdom of many of the Presi-
dents acts. it may be that Mr.. Logan even
instructs him as to his constitutional duties.
If Mr.. Logan has this time instructed the
President in the full gospel of Western WIS
dom our financial honor as nation is i'll
bad way, for the President is the only hope
that remains against the votes initiating the
currency by an addition of ninety million
dollars of paper money, which addition will
run gold up very near to what it was just after
the war, and will correspondingly postpone
the possibility Of the resumption of specie
payment; that is to say, it will keep the
country in the region of financial quagmires
until repeated calamities enforce the use of a
desperate remedy to save us from the wise
men of the West
There have been some men in the
country who did not laugh derisively
at the notion of saving the land from
the scourge of paper money. Our
Washington correspondence this morning
brings to our attention some additional
views on the question of imitation which may
not be without interest as throwing light upon
the debate that is now over. We yesterday
pointed out what Washington and Franklin,
Jefferson and Hamilton thought on
subject which, no doubt was far above
them, and could only be comprehended
by the breezy statesmen of the present
time--our spontaneous productions of the
Rocky Mountains and the prairies, our
divinely gifted and prescent Logans and
Mortons. The opinions OF these venerated,
if sadly -out of date statesmen, were singularly
harmonious on one point-that the issue of
inconvertible currency would be folly and
crime. This doggedness and obstinacy are
startling evidences of the darkness that rested
upon the souls of men whom we are accus-
toned to honor as singularly gifted and wise.
But it is painfully apparent that whatever
these early fathers knew about liberty and the
constitution and human rights, they were
ignorant of the true methods to ssdevelop the
country
We have the still more painful duty of show
ing this morning that this ignorant obstinacy
was not confined to the early fathers. The
great men of the second generation Of the Re-
public seem to be as emphatic as their ances-
tors. Let us take Henry Clay, the pride and
darling OF his time. Henry Clay. was not
profound man like jefferson, or with mind
of the philosophic breadth of Franklin, but he
had singularly accurate and honest percep-
| ton of what was due to American honesty
and the good name of the Republic. "The
emission of PAPER" said Clay, constituted
the very worst of all conceivable species of
currency The opinion of Clay is strength
ened by that of jeremiah Mason. The fame
of this man, never noisy in its character has
grown dim in these lurid days of blood and
fame, but in his time he was conspicuous
among our ablest men. Well Mr.. Mason was
rude enough to call the author Of scheme for
a paper bank a mountebank-an epithet that
must crate rudely upon the souls of our
Mortons and our Logans. There are many
men, even in the present Congress, who re-
member the pride with which they followed
Daniel Webster. Even war has not shattered
the stupendous influence of his name and
genius. There is something gigantic in the
earnestness with which he enters upon the
currency discussion. "A sound currency"
said this gifted but, unhapply. effete states
man, ''is an essential and indispensable
security tor the fruits of industry
and honest enterprise. ga disordered
currency is one of the greatest Of political
evils. TT is against industry, frugality
and economy To crown all, and show at
the same time how indiscreet and frenMed
these obstinate men became when excited
upon questions which they could not under
stand like our Camerons and Spragues, we find
him making this most intemperate declara-
tion -"Of all the contrivances for cheating
the laboring classes of mankind none has been
more efectual than that which deludes them
with paper money" And, again, this most
inconsiderate and extravagant statement: t:-
Ordinary tyranny, oppression, excessive tax
alton, these bear lightly on the happiness OF
the mass of the community compared with a
fraudulent currency and the robberies COM
mitted by deprecated paper" As we read
these extravagant sentences how the mind
turns to our dear and fluent Logan and