The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1876-03-13

/, IIsbed when the. premium, fell g three o.
tanr m eoid and to nothing on silver. Tbet
me1asthougtltgt The time they Lao looked FOL
had come their calculations baG been veri
fed. their expectstfonsb been fulfilled
their reasorlings confirmed their predictions
made good. They thought that the Gay %
resumptton had sdaWued that the twilight
would soon brighten into broad day. Every.
| body felt secure OF the result, thought that
the problem was solved, were willing to
await the .ripening influences of time
thinking that while. men were deffberatfDg
time was acting-silently, secretly aud
surely-and that men had nothing to
to do but to watch its Developments and
follow its openings; that resumption OF
specie payments was in its nature work
transcending the power, the wisdom, the
foresight of men, and depending mainly on
the element of time. But the panic two
years ago came and reversed all QUE notions,
dissipated all our pleasing anticipations,
scattered all our theories to the wind, unset
tied all our opinions, COMPOUNDED all our
reasonings, and plunged us at once into a
slate OF doubt, dependency, and fear; all
because, perhaps, ne had omitted some ele-
ment in the calculation and allowed ourselves
To be taken aback too suddenly and driven
into the opposite extreme of unbelief by
some unexpected result.-unexpected,t though
perhapsit might have been foreseen. Let us
not abandon the sure results OF experience.
Though misapplied, they may mislead Us.
Yet, properly, Interpreted: and. applied, they
are the only light we can follow. Ii up to
the panic we had watched the; course of
events and had found that as our exports
increased and the balance of trade and the
rate of exchange had become more favorable
to us and our export of specie less, so the
premium on gold had declined and bad
reached its minimum when the above causes
were in fullest operation, We might infer that
the period Of resumption must principally
depend on our foreign trade, as that is the
only means by which the stock of gold and
silver can be replenished 80 that resumption
can take place. a carefully-prepsred view
Of the exports and imports for the ten years
preceding and the ten following the war,
with the. exports of specie and imports,
snd the stock on hand at the end of
each year, so as to show how our stock of spe.
Gle since the war compares with that before,
prepared by Mr.. Welles, would be very in.
structive. think the true solution Of our
financial problem will be found in such re-
searches as these, and not in barren specula.
tons and abstruse metaphysical questions as
10 the abstract nature of money as
whether money, as such, has any value, and
whether some material like paper, utterly
yalueless, might not be substituted for silver
and gold. Such specnations are merely
after.thoughts. They never occur to q
people at the time when, under the
dread of invasion or civil war, ander
the impulse of patriotism or the en-
thusiasm of freedom, they. incur a debt
and issue paper money 10 ackno wledgament,
not payment, of it; but only when, after
the war is over, payday comes and finds
them unable to pay. Then they catch a.
these wild theories. Does not every paper
money purport TO be payable in gold and
silver? Who, at the time 1t was issued, ever
thought of its being paid only in irredeem-
able paper. or who would have taken it to
be so paid? Philosophers may satisfy them.
selves that u paper money irredeemable may
by some financial contrivance be invested
with value, and be (as General Butler says q
better national currency than gold and silver.
But could be ever get the people-the vul.
gar, as he might choose to call them-to
take it for what they have to sell? No. Such
test would settle the question forever.
4.. 3 OUBaO.