The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1875-09-22
KrpcnI ot the Act Providing Tor
specie Payments.

W. notir, that our much respected
contemporary, the Pittsburgh EOening
Tluwt hi' adopted ~ its specially u
cy tr the ropall Of the act passed Jan
unry lat providing for the resumption
ui specie payments on tho lst day Of
January l'70. The Telegraph Ia opposed
bath to initiation and contraction, and nd.
yoratrs strictly let alonO policy. This
isa position with which n great many
people sympnlhi2c, ourselves among
tn, number, We recognize TINT II il
lik, "wadins through slaughter to u
throne to bring this country back
to specie payments after such Il
carnival Of imitation As it ha' seen, IN
the remains Of which ii isstill to accrtUin
extent cnmeshed. We realize and ap.
prcciatc the hardship and, for that mat.
ter, the injustice, ot requiring q debtor to
settle his debts in II more valuable eur.
rency than that in which he contracted
them. The hardship consists in the fact
that while the debt Of the debtor remains
a, he cDntraclcdit, the whercwitlal with
which he hoped and expected to pay
dwiniIc4 away, in the face Of specie pay
mcuts, to perhaps one half or less Of its
nominal value nt the time the debt was
contracted.
Aitcr the war closed there was u great
deal Of litigation in the South growing
out Of the proper adjustment Of contracts
People bought property down there dur
ing all .IAgcs Of the war and gave their
note, for deferred payments. These notes
matlred after the currency in which they
we're contracted had ceased to exist, and
demand was made Tor their payment,
dollar for dollar, in greenbOcks. OF
course the legislatures interfcred for
tue protection Of debtors under such
circumstances, and instituted policy
Tor the scaling Of all debts according to
the real value Of the debt, as near as
could be determined, at the time II was
contracted. For instance, II a man had
bought farm In the South during the
liral year Of the war, and given his notes
Tor the deferred payments, II was teasona.
to suppose that he bought The farm for
very near It's value before the war,
inalmnch "a Confederate currency
had high purchasing power at
the close Of the first year Of the
war, something like IS cents on the
dollar. 1t was vastly different however
when party made the same sort Of
purchase in the third or fourth year Of The
war after property had become immense.
Iy yinI|N,clin order to keep pace with the
heavy depreciation in Confederate
money 4 farm that could have been
bought at the close Of 1851,
in tha! money, for five thousand
dollars, could not perhaps have
been bought for less than seventy
five or hundred thousand dollars in
1861, inasmnch as the value OF said
money had fallen at the close Of 1864 to
about eight or ten cents on the dollar.
InIccd, it is doubtful whether the depre-
cIl'ion Of Confederate money really kept
pace with the appreciation Of good prop.
cr,y
Vnicr such circumstances there was
an Imperative necessity that the law
should intervene for the protection Of
debtors in the South, after the close oI
the war Otherwise vast numbers
olpcoplc in that section would have been
utterly ruined. And ruined too by the
most tl1grant injustice that the laws
Would be guilty Of permitting.
lti' to he said, however, Of this stale oI
thing, in the South, that 1t was Nnoma.
hnsin its character. We never had any
thing like 1t before In this country sinct
The lays OF Continental money. II wa
bora Of war, just ns the depreciation o
sr"CnbOcks was born Of the same war
Md odallhonSh there Ia a parallel, asa mat
'eroiprinciplc, between the depreciation
That took place in both c Confederate money
0nlgrccnbacksyctth the parallel did not rur
tarcnoush in the same direction to crealt
aoniycrsal public sCntimcnIin the North
a. did in the South, for the protection
olIhc clawsin favor Of debtors. The dcclln,
oinomintl value, was not wholesale at IN,