Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1875-02-25
THE STATE DEBT AND A HONE
CURRENCY.


the bonded Indebtedness Of the State,
now pending in the House, and propos-
ing to issue State Treasury notes to
the extent of 100000, is a scheme
worthy Of the palmiest days of carpet
baggery in any Southern State. This
bill would make these Treasury notes a
legal tender for all taxes and other OBJ
legations due to or from counties and
municipalities as well as the State. 1t
would make them legal tender in the
payment Of interest on our bonds held
in other States or even In Europe.
Still further, it would make them legal
tender In payment Of the bonds them
selves issued before the war on a gold
basis, no matter whether the holder be
a citizen of Tennessee, New York or
England. Such are its practical pro-
visions, and the bare statement shows
its arrant absurdity, injustice and ille-
gality.
As to the relief these SlG,OO0,0O0 of
Treasury notes would afford the people
in the way Of currency, we have had
ample and varied and costly expert
ence with ineonvertible paper. If any
one cares to approximate what such
paper would be worth as a circulating
medium, let him look to those Southern
States witch the carpet-baggers have
flooded with State scrip; let him look
back to home experiences with county
scrip and city scrip. Such schemes
have always resulted in cheating out Of
his wages the man that labors either in
field or shop. The upper classes and
merchants endeavor to accommodate
their transactions to them and succeed
in a greater or less degree, but the low
er classes, with none below on whom to
shift the loss, must bear the brunt.
Ten million dollars Of such a currency
would derange business calculations,
disturb all existing values, and impair
confidence and credit between indi-
viduals.
As a means for securing a home cur
rency that would be in every respect
legal, and without risk Of excessive Is
sue, we have seen nothing simpler or
more practical than the plan suggested
in the last Comptroller's report, from
which we quote:
That the Comptroller be authorized
to have engraved his warrants upon
the Treasury, OF the denominations of
five, ten, twenty, fifty and one hundred
dollars, each denomination to be prop
erly numbered from one upward. These
warrants, if made receivable for taxes
and all other dues to the State, would,
t) a certain degree, furnish State cur
rency. All who owed, or were likely to
owe the State, could safely take them.
Their being IN the denomination, form
and shape Of bank bills, would cause
them to be more readily received and
regarded as currency. As now, the
Comptroller should be required to keep
payable warrant book, showing to
whom and for what purpose every war
rant was issued, whether the total
amount was five or fifty thousand dol
lars. To make the check perfect, these
warrants should not be reasonable, but
should be cancelled whenever they went
into the Treasury. By this arrange
ment there would always be money
enough IN the Treasury to pay the odd
dollars and cents on balances. If not,
the COmptrOller's warrant issued, as
now, for the odd dollars and cents,
would be quite as good as it is at pres
ent.
The basis here proposed is the long
established and universally recognized
system of Comptroller's warrants,
thus obyiating any need Of paying
$50 per cent. interest, as proposed by
Mr.. Tiuman. Being made receivable
for State dues only, they escape all the
legal obstacles that swamp the plan Of
Treasury notes, as elaborated in the
pending House bill. Their legality
would be as unquestionaIIe as that Of
the milkman's tickets for pints or
quarts Of his dairy fluid. Being en-
graved in the denominations and style
of bank bills, they would be adaptable
for currency if the people, saw fit to so
use them. The danger Of over.issue
is amply guarded by the provision that
those returning to the Treasury shall
be cancelled. If the people are dis
posed to take up with such a sub
stitute, the fact would be ascertained
positively when the first years taxes
come in. Supposing,an should return
the first year IN the shape of tax-pay-
ments, it would prove that the people
lack sufficient confidence in them, but
no harm would be done; they would
have been issued in payment Of cur
rent expenses, and. been returned in
the shape Of taxes, without affecting
our interest account either way. But
suppose that a half or two-thirds Of
them remained IN circulation, the
State would receive their equivalent in
greenbacks, with witch to redeem them
in the future. The State might thus
continue to issue them as long as the
people developed a capacity to absorb
them for currency purposes, and when
the maximum volume Of safe issue was
reached, the fact would be speedily in
Dictated IN the tax receipts. The whole
plan would be a safe experiment, that
might be discontinued at any time if it
proved imperative, and would involve
no loss beyond the cost of engraving.
Short Of a State bank, it seems to Us
the most efficient method Of Offering
the people financial relief in the shape
Of a home currency, and at the same
time testing the feasibility Of such a
a currency without any risk