The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1874-01-17
LEXINGTON, VA, January IA, 1874

Editors of the Dispatch
| Ipyour issue of yesterday, under tne cap
tion "Mr. Calhoun and National currency,
you find "that eminent statesman forcsnau
owing ''-and approving" present na
t;onaI currency, which has proved QUE I'll, T.
the greatest of national blessings" hls n pns
trouble, YOU think, was in "not seelnS ,ts a,
eno1,oh Of that currency for the WaI wal ~, u
commerce was to be set atoat az" r,.s
herause he 8 did not then dream u ,r ~ -:
,,o,ional debt as we now have" 1 uaI - ~
Az 't,oIhoun favored currency WHICH
81. ,I.or,,h Ie-sa currency Dased on ueD'
H.I.'t ;,,tarest y: which has no liked reia'
Wltho"o ~ Standard Of values recognized by
tioh .oan nv world; which can be eX-
tne 1oin nt the discretion of Congress; which
pan' 10 arbitrary act Of that body has
~, Wy made legal-tender in all transactions
! betyeen man and man, but which by like
arbitrary decree has been declared MT re-
ceiyab in pa, ment of Government dues
TINT is, of duties on imports. Aud this
" greatest of national blessings" which Mr.
Chase and his compeers favored by the ext
gencies OF gigantic civil war-itself, too.
their wopk-have bestowed upon grateful
people, would, you think, have been fore
stalled by Mr. Calhoun could he only have
devised ways and means for building up a
national debt sufficiently large to serve as Its
basis! Perhaps he might have found such
means in Mr.. Clay's American system, and
vet, strange to say, he was not so ardent an
admirer of that system as you seem to be OF
Mr.. Chase's. Fortunately for Mr. Calhoun
reputation, your quotations from him snow
that he advocated no such currency as this.
What he proposed was "lhat the
Government should use its own
credit to the amount of its o,oa
transQctions"; this at time when
the annual revenue and expenditures were
very small in proportion to the wealth of the
country; the debt almost nominal, and all OF
that debt funded, the bankable paper based
on which would of course cover only the
amount of the interest. Tue paper which he
proposed was " to be issued by the Govern
ment with the promise to receive it for an
its Dues" and, mark you, "leaying its credl-
tors to take ii or gold and silcer, at their OPP
ton." The outrage Of forcing any paper
currency whatever on free people as
legal-tender could never have been suggested
by Mr.. Calhoun-an outrage which even
Mr.. Chase found himself constrained to de-
clare from the Supreme Bench he had never
recommended when Secretary of the Trea-
sury. The fact seems to be that he did
recommend it, and that more than once (;
vet, when he came TO view his own act
from the responsible position he then
occupied, it seemed to linn too monstrous
to be his. Further, the currency proposed
BY Mr.. Calhoun was to save "the commu-
nifty from being compelled to give six per
cent. discount for the Government credit
blended with that of the banks, when the
superior credit of the Government could be
furnished separately eoiHout discount" Now,
YOU are aware that this greatest of national
blessings" so far from furnishing without
discount" is disbursed By those chartered
mouopoles the national banks at d carer
rates than any known in MIR. Calhoun's
time. This parallel might be carried much
further; but 1 have perhaps said enough to
let Mr.. Calhoun down from that "bad emf
hence" on which you would place him-be-
side the Chases and Stewards and other
"sayiors of the nation" Theirs, not his, be
such need of honor as shall attach to this
"bessing," as we'll rs to all else for winch
the country stands to them indebted.
Please pardon this intrusion on your col
umns, and acquit Inc of any purpose to ar
raign you as Wilfully misrepresenting Mr..
Calhoun, which is very far from my lnten-
ton; but it seems to me you have written
rather hastily on very grave question; and
the good name of the fathers, which we both
hold equally dear, is our best Inheritance.
The examples of integrity and wisdom they
have left us will prove our safest guide 10
this financial trouble, as in the many other
difficulties that beset US, and unless L have
entirely misread them, neither Mr.. Calhoun
nor any other of the great statesmen of the
past would be pleased to have fathered on
him this bantliug of the " Union savers, - of
which the more spacious among themselves
would now greatly rejoice to be rid. Do not
let us, then, be too eager to adopt their ques,,
tionable offspring, which is for us type and
reminder of many other bitter Things, as
well as of threatened bankruptcy. j.