Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-12-31


Government paper promises" Where
would such promises 60, in the hands
of every poor man, should Grant un-
dertake to gobble Cuba and bring on a
war with Spain /? Down TO 40 cents ?
The last time they were 40 cents, our
national debt was only half its present
size. We have pretty well glutted
Europe with our bonds, aud they are
coming back on us. What was done
with fresh credit twelve years ago
could hardly be repeated now with an
exhausted credit. Does ''Greenbacks y
pretend TO say that the present system
Of finance suits half the country
Does it suit the South? He kinGlIJJ
tells us that
Paper money, the volume of which
shall be regulated by well-established
and universally recognized laws of poll
ticai economy, viii constitute for a
national currency the nearest possible
approximation to the great desider .tun
of currency, uniformity of UaIue, Of
any that has yet been devised.
Where does he expect to find that
wonderful knowledge Of the laws of
political economy requisit, to regulate
the volume of currency? Where has
it ever existed, or even been claimed,
outside of the simple rule that leaves
supply to be regulated by demand?
Does he expect such wisdom in the
average politician or the average Con-
gresham? And viii their action be
biased byno extraneous considerations,
no local pressure, no moneyed Hobbies.
The "well established and universally
recognized laws Of political economy, "
point to one mode, and one only Of Sc
curing ''uniformityIin value, forpaper,
and that is redeemability in gold
''Greenbacks" gives another column
of philosophical distinctions between
the words intrinsic and extrinsic. In
mercy to our readers, we forbear fol-
lowing him, though We could prove in
a jiffy that, after all, any tolerable phi
losophy must recognize the existence
of even intrinsic value" Such dis
putes belong to the school men of the
middle ages. 1t is enough that Green
backs" himself says, "the term in
trinsic value is, indeed, often applied
to gold, even by political economist"
We used the word merely to show that
gold, unlike paper. has a value inde-
pendent of legislation.
"Greenbacks" has much to say
about the funding and contraction of
1867. under President Johnson's Ad-
ministration. Well, the old Cont
nentals had greenbacks in their day
and failed to fund them; SO they went
to the winds. But there is reason in
all things. In 1S67-S, the UNION AND
AMERICAN, in common with the
Democratic party, thought the Gov
eminent was going altogether too fast,
and offered to the country a
very different policy, in hope that
some medium between the two
more endurable to the people, might be
adopted. Since then, millions of con-
tracts, made when greenbaeks were
worth 40 cents on the dollar, have been
settled at so or 80 cents. Most of the
mischief done by the contraction of
1867 has been consummated, and is now
without recall Our critic attributes
the panic of 1873 exclusively to the
contraction of 1867. This is a partial
view. Let US face facts. In 1872,
Grant swept triumphantly into his
second term on the grand Republican
argument OF prosperous" country.
All manufacturing and agricultural
industries were going on swimmingly.
Railroads were building all these years
from 1867 with a rapidity never before
witnessed New enterprises were
springing up on every side. Wan
street had its hundreds of millions to
gamble on. Speculation was active in
devising new schemes to absorb the
money constantly Offering for in
vestment. So it continued up to the
moment of the Jay Cooke crash. The
currency had not been contracted one
centfrom theyearprevious. The marked
feature of the panic was the Wholesale
locking up OF currency. We have had
a larger volume ever since by S26,000,-
600. What then was the main cause OF
the panic and Of the resulting depres-
sion thatstill fingers: twas that wewere
going too fast, as a people, and as in
dividuals. The Changers have discov-
cred this. Payday, at last, came for
the fastest man in the country, Jay
Cooke. He could not Pay, panic en-
sued, and all confidence was destroyed
in a night by the Geographic wires.
Confidence is a creature of slow growth;
hence our slow recovery. So many and
so prominent firms failed, that CONNER.
cial confidence has never been restored,
and all the devices of exchange, bills.
discounted bills, etc, have fallen into
comparative disuse. The attempts of
Congress at its last session as well as
this, to get up financial bills which
mean nothing, merely that all Republi-
cans may seem to stand by them, have
delayed the restoration of confidence.
The great lesson, however, is that
such panic, reaching every mans
door throughout the country, and even
the negro's cabin in the South, was
possibly, only under a centralized sy5-
ten such as still prevails and which
''Greenbacks" lauds to the skies. If
the sum of his financial wisdom is that
every mans dollar should be forever