The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-06-04
Financial Dilapidation-What Can
Secretary Bristow Dot

Secretary Bristow Dot
Even if the new Secretary of the Treasury
possessed the financial genius of Alexander
Hamilton, and if signal displays of ability in
that line had given him solid claim to
public confidence, his appointment in the
expiring days of the session could bring no
immediate relief to our disordered monetary
condition. He has neither weight enough nor
time enough to exert any perceptible infiu-
ence on legislation before the close of this
session. Mr.. Richardson ought to have been
removed and a capable successor put in his
place eight months ago. The most that the
new Secretary can do until Congress shall
reassemble in December is to administer the
bad laws he finds in force when Congress
adiourns. But if his talents are ut all equal
to his great position his earlier appointment
might have contributed to extricate the coun-
try from the deplorable monetary chaos from
which there is now no prospect of early
deliverance.
There is no point on which President
Grant has SO misjudged as in renounc-
ing the just influence Of the admin
the beginning he has formed q mistaken
estimate Of the functions Of the Executive
Department. and has accepted kind Of sub
ordination to Congress not warranted by
sound presidents. This weakness can be more
easily accounted for than justified By his
education as soldier he was deeply imbued
with sentiment of subordination to superior
I'M &c D.
johnson to maintain 'my policy" against
the will OF Congress 80 disguised and exas-
perated the republican party that when it
nominated General Grant as Johnson's sue
cessor he declared in his letter of acceptance
that he would have no policy Of his own to
oppose to the wishes of the people as expressed
through their representatives. He thus bound
himself to kind of implicit submission,
which was virtual surrender of some of the
constitutional prerogatives of his Office, and it
is only recently that he has become sensible
of his error. When he vetoed the Initiation bill
General Grant found that he had policy of
his own to assert against the representatives
of the people. But the only consequence of
the veto is to bring legislation to dead
lock; whereas if, like former Presidents,
he had attempted to influence legisa-
ton in advance and had organized his
Cabinet with that view, the government would
not to-day realize his own apt military figure
of an army organized like team OF horses
pulling in opposite directions. The President
may as legitimately promote good legislation
as obstruct bad. For the latter purpose the
veto is his efficient instrument; for the former
q Cabinet of great weight and commanding
ability in their respective departments. In
the Finance Department especially it is the
province Of the administration to propose
measures and of Congress to sanction them.
In our government, and in all governments,
great measures of this character originate with
the Executive.
At the beginning of our government its
financial policy was the work Of Hamilton.
Webster's rhetorical eulogy of that statesman
was but highly colored representation of
substantial historical truth. HE smote the
rock Of the national resources" said Webster
"and abundant streams of revenue gushed
forth. He touched the dead corpse of the
The tabled birth of Minerva from the brain OF
Jove was hardly more sudden or more perfect
than the financial system of the United States
as it burst forth from the conception Of
Alexander Hamilton But where was Con-
gress when the first Secretary of the Treasury
was working these wonders? Hamilton had
no more authority to enact laws than the i'm
beetle Richardson, and his great measures
amounted to nothing until they were enacted
into laws. They became laws because Con-
gress recognized the hand of master in the
Treasury Department. We have more re-
cent and almos. equally conspicuous illustra-
ton. The authorship of the financial system
of the war unquestionably belongs to Secre-
tary Chase. Chase was as powerless as Ham,
ilton or Richardson to enact laws; but he had
no difficulty in carrying his financial meas
ures through Congress because that body
recognized and respected his abilities and was
willing to defer to his judgment. His financial
system was not in its purpose, an initiation,
but an anti-infation policy. His main object in
establishing the national banks was to prevent
q ruinous redundancy of the circulating me-
dunn. What he chiefly aimed at was to fur
nish q means of retiring the excessive green
backs and prevent their swelling the channels
Of circulation. BY destroying the State banks
and replacing them with system Of banks
whose circulation was secured by national
bonds he opened channel for retiring or
funding greenbacks and abating the flood of
paper money. H. expected return to specie
payments soon after the close of the war; and
devised the national bank system as a means
of creating market Tor government bonds
and converting redundant greenbacks into
funded debt and thereby getting rid of the
excess. Congress has perpetrated the mistake
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