The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1875-09-09
4 FIRE IN THE REAR.
Wendell Phillips Declares for Green
back Currency.

The following letter from Wendel
Phillips has been addressed to MIR. Eu-
9enecBeebe, Secretary of the New York
Legal Tender Club. 1t gives in forcible
Language that gentleman's views on the
delicate question of a circulating medi-
um. and will be read with interest by all
who have money or want it:
p. 10. AUGUST 2Srd, 1875.
,Air. Eugene Bee6e, Secretary Legal Tender
GLIB: - ;!
DEAR SIR-I, appreciate the great i'm
portance of, your agitation to prevent
further contraction of the currency, and
am sorry I shall not be able to attend
,yourameeting in September. L seems to
me. there are but two questions to be con-
sidsred touching the CURRENCY:
First. Upon what basis shall it rest?
Second. Low much Of it shall we
hono9 = : i :: ri :; =
a long time ago there might have been
arthird: of what shall it be made, gold
and silver or paper9 Bat the experience
of business men long ago answered that
inquiry and settled it beyond recall, that
throughout Christendom the currency
must be paper. It is idle to talk to-day
of a specie basis. That gentle hallucina-
ton has been encouraged to quiet timid
men and delude the masses. But the
thingitself has not really existed for fifty
ora hundred years. Great Britain, where,
If anywhere, such basis could be main
tanned, has to-day fifty cents of coin to
500 of paper. Patterson, Science Of
Finance, PIP, 5, 6, q, %, 81, SS. Edin-
burgh, 1852
Any Individual may have that fifty
cents, provided he does not need it, and
provided there is no special reason why
he should haze it. IF at any time his
business absolutely requires that he
should have that fifty cents of coin, at
that time he cannot have it. A specie
basis of fifty cents coin to support one
hundred dollars paperl 1t reminds me
of that Irish six-bottle topper, who always
sat down to drink with small bit of a
strawberry at the bottom of his wineglass
and kept it there through the evening
"It gave, So fine favor to the wine!
Doubtless that fifty cents coin gives a
strong specie flavor to the vast system of
British paper, and makes Bull feel warm
r
and comfortable.
Political economy settles very few
points by theorizing., Now and then
experience decides question, and it
passes into accepted and undeniable
truth. In this way business experience
has decided that currency, in civilized
and commercial nations, must rest on
credit, and consist of paper. Thus ex-
perience answers our first question; the
CURRENCY does rest and must rest on cred
it. Whose shall that credit be? Shall
it be the credit of banks and their custo-
mers or the credit of the nation? This
question also experience has answered.
Before the war we had banks resting
each one off its own credit. We all re-
member the result. The bills of bank
ceased generally to be current hundred
miles from Its, own counter. You lost
ten per cent. in changing those of the
South and West for Eastern bills; and
Horace Greeley demurely told the COM
mittee who paid him handful of Western
bills, eff convenient, should much pre-
for a well executed counterfeit on some
Eastern bank" What makes our nation
al bank bills good, and equally good, cv-
erywhere to-day? The nation stands
behind them. Such notes pass every
where, and everywhere at the same value,
because the nation guarantees them. All
the note currency we have rests on ma
tional credit, directly or indirectly. No
man can give a reason why they should
not all rest directly on national credit /;
why all bank bills should lot be with
drawn and legal tenders supply their
place.
In buildipg.a house you do, not put a
dation:: CERTAINLY not. Your walls rest
directly on'your foundation. To-day the
nation pays the banks $40 600 or
more to allow them to play the useless
part of standing between. it (the nation)
and its own currency. DR.. Franklin's
hero. who asked his victim to pay for
heating the poker, was most reasonable
Detson and Solomon compared with
ourselves in this matter. have heard
of an incompetent man put under guar
dianship and obliged to pay trustees lib
orally for taking care Of his property,
but I never heard of one put under
guardianship and paying his guardian
literally and then obliged to do all of
his own business besides, which is exactly
our case. We furnish the credit that
supports these bank bills, and then we
,pay the banks for using that credit.
Bagehot. the highest authority in Eng
land, says the public takes Bank of Eng
land bills without inquiry or hesitation,
because it knows that in any emergency
the government will sustain the bank.
Here our bills pass because the govefn-
ment. is distinctly pledged to do so. The
two great commercial centres have drifted
into currency based, in fact, on govern
ment credit, and they deliberately accept
the situation.
Our first question ION what sha i our
currency rest9) is fully answered by facts.
In commercial nations it rests, and must
sest; on government credit.
Second. How much currency shall we
aave?
No single man, officer or institution
can decide or ever did decide this ques-
tion. Currency made up of bank bills,
deposits notes.; bills of exchange, &C., is
alike anttether article Of Manufacture
we make as much. of it as we need. The
business of a country, when not inter,
fered with, always settles the amount OF
it's currency. Business creates, every
where and at all times, just such and just
so much currency as it needs. Banks
and Secretaries of Treasures imagine
thev determine the amount of the cur
.nncv As well mipht Old Probability