The Portland daily press., 1874-04-18

,erance. Taking up point after point, he |
Illustrated their appropriateness as applied to |
his evil. The parallel was nicely drawn, and |
he sermon was closely woven together in all |
is parts. No analysis of the discourse can |
10 Justice to it as a whole.
HIGH STREET CHURCH.
Rev. Mr. Fem delivered a sermon on fnan- |
,ial heresies, which may be entitled ''Regulat-
rom Micah vi, s. He spoke of the half |
ruth that the ideal legislator, journalist or |
preacher are no set to mould public sentiment |
out to represent it, that nations cannot be gov
,rned according to conscience, but by practi- |
,al instincts, common sense and comnromise
and of ths too generally current belief that
there are no ultimate nor objective standards of
morality, no absolute tests of truth. Special
illustration of the low standards in economical
science was Their. given, and of the dishonesty in
volycd in tolerating aught but the highest and
soundest principles of finance
Ever since men have hegun to reason upon the |
matter of finance with anything like precision.
silver ard gold and nothing else have been the
OF value, which ought to be accepted
in the markets of the world. And this because
specie has in it an Intrinsic and indestructible
value. 1t is not merely the representative and
the common measure of all other commodities.
it is the universal equivalent. They carry no
promise to pay. They do pay and are worth
the face of them as nearly as anything on earth
can be-.
But the doctrine of the hour which is seek
ing to gain the mastery of legislation over us,
seems to be that even coin has no value other
than purely arbitrary and conventional one,
and that it is entirely within the prercgrative
of any community not only to issue paper
promissory ofmoney but at its pleasure to 90 on
adding to the same. But laws, however Sc
we're, cannot alter the inherent and essential
qualities which determine the relations of
value. Call your pieces of paper by what de-
nomination you will, you cannot effectually
countervail the nature Of things Issued by
authority they are a forced loan, and as such
stamped at once with certain want of credit
Though clothed by law with the character of a
legal tender, what good there is of standard
weight yoked with it to make up the currency
of the country will have an irresistible tenden-
cy to escape from the depreciation inwhich it is
by law retained. And this first depreciation is
soon accelerated by the necessity of augment
ing the issues in proportion to their diminished
value and so on from worse to worse.
will not ask have our people delegated by
constitution to any persons the right to issue
such tender, to change the price of all commo
dites and to break in upon contracts. But
putting aside constitution and laws, can there
be greater national crime than to legaliZe
Cheat, or more pernicious example than that
OF people en- masse putting away from them
all sober judgments, and not merely justifying
fraud but desiring to go on and wallow in it?
AND what is fraud if this issue by the United
States is not one? Here are promises to paw
by the hundreds of millions lingering along
ten years after the war measures which were
supposed to necessitate their issue, without an
etfectnal motion on the part of our representa-
t tlyes t toward payment. If any day at all was
SET three years, five years or twenty years
hence, 1T would assume different phase. But
there is no day of payment determined or moth
ing that looks like contraction. The best business
men almost to man, cry out with horror
against decreasing the volume of the currency.
Possibly majority to-day demand expansion
Are we lost to reason, justice and honor? Is
there any way to cancel debts but by paying
them, and can we pay them except by economy
and str2itening? Do we not know that God is
not Knocked, and that the day of judgment
against shams, however long deferred, cannot
be evaded. Bubble-blowing is play for chill
dren, but it is time for men to put away chill
dish things and prepare for the collapse which
must come, gradually if we will, suddenly if it
must.
So much for the plain dishonesty involved,
but now look at the corrupting tendency of
such currency. Standing as we now do in
mortal fear of what the Executive may do or
may not do, every account, every statement OF
price, every bank bill, check and note are
now uncertain quantities. All large contracts
are accordingly put by and the business of the
country is at a stand STILL No man can fol-
low such fluctuations in detail, or long venture
calculations on such a basis without more or
less gambling. But suppose the currency to re-
main fixed as it is-its volume permanent
How few persons take an inventory of their as
sets and obligations on gold basis. We are a
people who are buying and selling according to
the appearance and not the reality. But few
abandon the deceptive and fictitious greenback
standard. Though we know that gold is sta
tlonary and greenbacks are f1uctuating it is the
same as if the true were false and the false
were true
Were the volume and value of our paper cur
rency ever so steady and settled there is no lit
tie danger to the moral health incurred in an
atmosphere so highly charged and stimulating
as onrs is by initiation.
All paper money accelerates the pulse of
trade and unduly intoxicates the public judg-
ment There seems to be more money than be
fore Debts are easier paid; men feel richer,
think themse yes more generous to the poor,
and seem never to have done so fine business
The very shrewdest can manage by juggling to
make high profit out of the speculations of
the hour, and having plundered and preyed up
on the simple will seasonably unload and in
vest In real values. But for the mass it will be
as as IN the days OF Noah, eating and drinking,
lnarrylng an1 giving in marriage. until tho flood
came: The fragrant crime and wickedness of
TINS tall from true financial standards appears
most therefore, in its effects upon the unwary
ana the poor. A paper currency, in Mr.. j. S
Mills, expressive language,is the most effectual
OF all contrivances for cheating the laboring
classes. How much more so for those who are
scanty income The common laborer's wages
are nearly standard value and hold a tolerably
steady ratio to the price of provisions. But the
WIDOWS slender dividend depreciates Just in
proportion to the excess of paper issue OF what
avail then comparatively is your open hand
and the winters gift of few dollars, if mean
while through your representative you lend
your influence to double the expense of her liv-
ing: Play not the hypocrite nor betray the poor
with KISS. Our prayers are acceptable to the
N n1r hon Nv, i,,1so
bic, but christian public can give the strait
ened no better help than to be restoring as rap
IDLY as possible to each sickly dollar its former
round and shining face. In these days when
the West and South seem drunk with the new
VINE OF expansion and many politicians, some
OF whom evidently know better, are only too
ready to execute their pleasure, let us stand
ike rock. We are no precpitationists, fam
atlcs for immediate shrinkage, nor even believ-
ers in the arbitrary contraction of four millions
a month. Let the Secretary of the Treasury
have liberty to convert given quantity of
greenbacks within given number Of years in
to honds Some system of contraction gener-
ously accommodated to the fluctuations of
not title of authority should be given to aid
so much as one dime of paper more. Such it
seems to us is the high and imperative policy of
the time for all of us, but specially for the la
bOrer and the masses.
Indeed, instead of lowering our ideals or re-
al! It's manifold departments, there is, unmis-
taxable evidence that the standards themselves
need continual revision and correction. Her
schel tells us that the most accurate astronomi,
cal instruments are never exactly right ex ept
by some happy accident No clock, not even
the sun gives us mean time. We are compell-
ed even in the more refined proofs of the higher
applied mathematics to introduce law Of av-
erages and set off mean between opposing err
rors But we are not thereby to be dishearten-
3D. eE IL
Some evils create their own reaction and
cure themselves, as some machines work their
own safety valves. But no engine has yet been
invented to consume its own smoke No per-
fect organization has yet been set up, either in
social or public life. Even the pelty and adj
mlnlstratiOn of the church of Christ are far
from perfect, and require all sorts of small de-
laDoTers and keep them at work.
The true reformer of practical life and judg- |
ment may never allow himself to despair, be- |
cause OF the imperfect rules and often imprac- |
tlcable plans which are in vogue. Tentative |
and provisional as all our efforts toward reform |
are for the time condemned to be, we must not |
hesitate to get as near the foundations as wa |
can, and by heaving up the pillars of state and |
society, elevate the entire plane of our life. To
this end we need to reform the very reformers |
to re-balance aud seal the bal |
ances, to call back to the mint the clipped and |
worn impressions of a former issue, and to /
utter them anew. plump, milled and sterling. |
Having higher, more truthful and painstak- |
ing science we NAV have higher and purer