Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1874-03-26

pending consideration the Senate adjourned
| The House OF Delegates, when quorum
was present, was engaged ID discussing the lax
bill.
! The Currency.
Initiation is The order OF the day. Yesterday
the House of Representatives passed the bill
to make the legal tender circulation four hun
drcd million dollars which legalizes the TWEEN
ty-six millions already out without authority OF
law and adds eighteen millions to the whole
amount. Apparently the Senate will concur,
and, of course, the President will sign the bill,
for he is without financial policy and has no
ground of opposition. He is apparently as
much at loss for financial plan as General
Mcclellan once was for military plan; and,
. without policy of his own Inconsistent with
the vote iu the House or otherwise, veto
would be mere vagary, wanton obstruction.
He will not object, therefore, notwithstanding
what has been said on that subject. Moreover,
Initiation is sectional measure, and the PreSl.
money.
We are fairly launched, therefore, on the
illimitabie waters of the ''vasty deep" atoat
and IN the current; mounting beautifully as
the level of the swelling sea rises from the trlb-
utary streams poured in by thousands Of paper
mills and printing presses; and people who do
| not inquire too curlously will suppose 1t Is oil
prosperity, as things 60 up, up, up, Till they
| fud that they have been litt,d away from even
the water at last and are mounting on mere
banks of vapor, and they will only open their
ewes to the truth just as general explosion
lets them all suddenly down, down, down.
With three hundred and ftty-siX million dollars
the legal tenders were irredeemable, but hon
estly so they constituted volume OF lrredeem-
able paper that the country had come BY against
its will and in great national exlgency, when 1t
had to choose between giving up gold and giving
up the ghost Paper was issued, and the people
assented that the form OF law should be given
| to a forced loan because they were willing to
| give for the government promise to pay part
of their property, 10 order to save that without
which all property would cease to have value IN
their eyes-frecdom and sell: government. But
now a step has been taken which puts the
| whole legal tender paper in pew light; which
| not only leaves it irredeemabIe, but seems to
announce that we never shall redeem it, which
| is the first step toward definite reputation OF
the rational pledge for its redemption; tor
of course the issue of greenbacks is forced
| lnan-nether more nor less. People must give
their grain, their CATTLE their services Tor pieces
| of paper printed over with the promise to pay
| dollars, which promise there Is now not the re-
hottest possibility will ever be kept. In war
time people asserted to this because the de-
fence of the country was in the scale, and be-
cause there was SOmc faith IN the printed pro-
mise now they must assent to the same fact,
not for the salvation of the country, but for the
convenience of a section.
He that once sins, like him that slides on ice,
Goes swiftly down the slippery ways OF vice.
Apparently the vote now for initiation is
turning point in our financial career.--N. I.
Herald
THE STATE DEBT. The State Journal takes
strong ground against paying the State debt,
because of the Acknowledgement OF the State and
10 an editorial on the subject says:
1T Is the first duty OF this State to bring this
question into the Uuitcd States Courts. 1t is
alike to the interest Of the State and Of the
bondholdcrs that this should be done, aud that
promptly The court can make but one decl'
sion; either that the partition OF the old State
was Illegal or that the power making that par
tition is responsible for the debts of the old
State"
10 this connection, We notice that the Mar
tinsburg wv, W Statesman, reproduces
speech delivered by the Hon. Charles James
Faulkner, Minister to France under Buchanan's
administration, in which that distinguished
gentleman takes the broad ground that West
Virginia does not owe one cent of the debt OF
the State of Virginia.; ard we have reasons to
believe that Mr.. L. represents the opinions OF
very large majority of the people of West Fir-
gnia, democrats and republicans. Congress
will doubtless have to take a hand in solving
this knotty question. -LWchburg Republican.
THE BODIES OF THE SIAMEsE TWINS have
been delivered to their sons, who were expect
ed to start Oh their return home with the re-
mains Saturday evening. They deny the re-
port that the family intend to make specula-
ton of the remains by exhibition. So deeply
do they feel in the matter that they inquired
anxiously if the enbalming process could not
be undone and the bodies allowed peacefully
to decay, and on being assured that the process
could not be reversed, and that decomposition
must now be BY very slow process, they ex-
pressed evident regret. They also spoke strong
" about the report that the commission went
south with a large sum of money, and that the
transfer was the result of business bargain
with the widows of the twins. They said this
report was generally credited in their section,
aud that all the family could say could not dis
abuse the minds OF friends and neighbors Oh
the subject. They desired Drs. Pancoast and
Allen to give them formal written denial OF
this rumor, to be shown TO the people, and, If
necessary, to be published; which request, of
course, the commission at once complied With.
The bill making an appropriation of $4,000
to the State Agricultural College at Blacks |