The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-04-16

The President and the FOhhcy Oh IN
nation-His Record and His Duty.
Everything now rests with the President
The passage of the Senate bill by the House
sends that measure to him for approval. The
House bill viii hardly 20 through the Senate,
and we presume it has been passed in spirit
of bravado by the House, q quiet hint on the
part of the representatives of the people
that we had better bear with the ills we have
than fly to others we know not of. We do not
suppose that the leaders of the imitation policy
ever meant to make the House bill q law. But
| it now stands as . menace to the President
and the country, indicating what the imitation
lists will attempt if they are defeated in the
Senate measure. On the other hand this
Senate measure imposes peculiar embarrass-
ment upon the President His Secretary Of
the Treasury during the panic, and in order to
relieve the di stresses of the business people,
issued certain part of the Treasury reserve.
This Senate bill confirms that issue. Now, if
the President vetoes the Senate bill he is in
the position of rebuking his own administra-
ton, of declaring virtually that his Secretary
acted without authority of law. For the Sen
ate, and particularly the House, will not be in
the humor of approving the act of the
Secretary of the Treasury unless the Presi-
dent is willing to accept it in its present
shape. So that, any way in which we look at
the question, it becomes one Of great embar-
rassment and we can understand the pressure
that will be brought upon the President to
consent to this insidious measure of imitation,
under the pretence that it is necessary for the
ton.
At the same time we are profoundly con-
WINGED that the President owes to the country
duty far higher than any that can pos
sibly be demanded by the comfort Of
his administration. However anxious he
action by Congress in the issue Of the
reserve, he must not do this at the terrible
sacrifice imposed upon him by the approval
of the Senate bill He can say truly, and the
country will sustain him in the averment, that
he cannot permit fragrant attack upon the
public faith and credit under the specious
guise of an Endorsement of his Secretary of
the Treasury. He will find the highest inspira-
ton in his own record. There is no question
upon which the President has expressed himself
with SO much frequency and force as the fnan-
cial question. It came to him at the outset of
his administration as the most important issue
before the country. After his supreme and
transcendent successes in war the President
naturally felt that, if he could only succeed in
funding the national debt, returning to specie
payments and advancing our credit to the
proud position it held before the war; he would
have gained new and even more brilliant
honors-would have added in some measure
the fame of Hamilton to the fame of Wash
ington. Accordingly the whole record of the
President has been in favor of financial in
tegrity and solvency, The financial mistakes
Of Boutwell,, and his administration of the
Treasury was little more than series of mis-
takes, were condoned by the country be-
cause they clumsily expressed the yearning of
the people for specie payments, for solvent
bank system and for the restoration of the
national credit. We were mainly satisfied to
learn on the first of every month that
Mr.. Boutwell, had, during the month
preceding, redeemed so many millions of
been wiser for the President and his Secretary
to have given more attention to the general
financial condition of the country, leaving
the immediate duty of paying the debt to the
future, when we had recovered from the i'm
mediate burdens of the war and found our
selves strong enough in the added resources
of increased prosperity to meet the expenses
of the war without strain.
But so eager was the President in urging
his financial policy that he made every con-
sideratlon secondary to its success. The
time has now come for him to prove the sin
cerity of his declarations Let us look ct his
record for q moment and see what we have
right to expect from him at this time. We
find him calling the attention of Congress to
the duty "of securing to the citizens q
medium of exchange of fixed, unvarying
value" This the President wisely regarded
as lone of the highest duties of the govern
ment, implying "a return to specie basis"
for which no substitute could be de-
vised. On December 4, 1870, the Presi-
dent, in message to Congress, insisted
that we ''should look to policy which should
place our currency at par with gold at no
distant day." In 1871 we find him again urg-
ing the same policy in terms of unusual en-
phasis, saying truly that the condition of the
currency ''fostered spirit of gambling preju-
dicial alike to national morals and the national
finances" This, we repeat is an emphatic
opinion from a man as moderate in his phrases
as General Grant, and we can understand the
annoyance its publication at this time will
be apt to give to warm supporters of the ad.
ministration like Logan and Morton. Still more
So we have the statement distressing to a mind
like that of General Butler, for instance, that
1--WE can never have permanent prosperity I'M