Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1876-10-05
CREDIT OF THE NATION IN
1860 AND 1876.
The Democratic Plat
form and Tilden's
Letter An
sWered.
By an Official Letter from
the Treasury De-
partment.
READ AND REFLECT
READ AND REFLECT :


In recent conversations between
Senator Cragin of New Hampshire,
and Mr. Charles +. Conant, Acting
Secretary of the Treasury the follow
ing passages from the st. Louis plat
form and Mr.. Tilden's labored letter
of acceptance were discussed, and
Mr.. Consnt was requested by the Sem
ator to put his lucid exposure of the
falsties and fallacies of certain pas
sages in those documents in an official
form of writing. In compliance with
this suggestion the Secretary has
written the letter printed below.
When Mr.. Tilden reads this letter he
VIII inwardly curse the arithmetic
man of the World who led him blind
fold into the scrape.
The following is the text of
THE EXTRACTS ANSWERED.
From the DemOcrAtlC plAtIOfm, 1901
Reform is necessary to es tablish a sound
currency, restore the public credit and main.
tain the national honor.
We denounce the improvidence which, in
eleven years of peace has taken from the peo-
pie in Federal taxes thirteen times the whole
amount of the legal-.ender notes. and sqnane
dered four times their snm in useless expense
without accumulating any reserve for their re-
demption.
From Mr.. Tden's Letter of Acceptance.
To the Secretary OF the Treasury | said early
in 1866:
"Therc is no Royal road for a government
more than for an individual or corporation
What YOU want to do now is to cut down your
expenses and live within your income
would give all the ledgerdemain of finance and
fnancering; / would give the whole of it for
the old homcly maxim, Live within your in
comc."
This reform will ho resisted at every step,
but it must be pressed persistently,
'Public economies official retrenchments
and wise finance" are the means which the ST.
Louis convention indicates as provision for re :
serves and redemptions The best resource is
a reduction of the expenses of the Government
below its income, for that purpose no new
charges on the people. If. however, the i'm
providence and waste which have conducted
into period of falling revenues obhge US to
supplement- the results of economies and re-
trenchments by some resort to loans we snould
not hesitate.
There is no necromancy in the operations of
Governments The homely maxims of every.
dav life are the best standards of its conduct.
A debtor who should promise to pay loan
out of surplus income, yet be seen every day
spending all he could lay his hands on in riot
Gus living, would lose all character for honesty
and veracity.
The numbers of those gathered into the
ranks of office-holders have been steadily in
creased beyond any possible requirement OF
the public business, while inefficiency, pecula-
ton fraud and malversation of the public
funds, from the highest places of power to the
lowest, have overspread the whole service
like leprosy.
Government ought not to speculate on its
own dishonor in order to save interest on its
broken promises, which it still compels private
dealers to accept at fictitious par. The high
est national honor is not only right but would
prove profitable. OF the public debt nine
hundred and eighty~fve millions bear interest
at six pcr cent. in gold and seven hundred and
twelve millions at FIVE per cent. IN gold. The
average interest is 5.5S per cent financial
policy which should secure the highest credit
wisely availed of, ought to gradually obtain
| reduction of one per cent IN the interest on
most Of the loans. A saving OF one per cent.
on the average would be seventeen millions a
year in gold That saving regularly invested
at four and a half per cent. would, in less thar
thirty-eight years, extinguish the principal
The whole seventeen hundred millions of fund
ed debt might be paid by this saving alone
without cost to the people.
THE LETTER OF Mr.. C0NANT.
TREASURY DEPARTxSSr,(
WASHINGTON, d. C. Aug. IS 1875.
| Hon. A. H. CrdgiH, L. s. Senator
SIR: In reply tn, vnnr verbal IN. IN,
ouiries concerning the amount OF the
reduction of the public debt and Of
the interest thereon; the expenses o.
the Government during the past tis
cal wear, as compared with former
years, especially that of 1860; The
amount of receipts for the past clever
wears. and for what they have beer
expended: the amount of defalcatlon
Of public officers; the condition OF tn
public credit, as compared with q nix
period previous to the late rebellion
!; &c. &c, have the honor to trapsml
herewith certain official tables, set
ting forth, in part, the information
desired, and in connection therewlt
to state rs TO the reduction OF tn
debt and interest, that from these t.
bles and from the records of thu
Department it appears that from tn
: first day of March, 1869, to the TIN
: tieth DAYS of June 1876, the publ
: debt, as represented on the books
the Department, has been reduce
:, 1926, O25.915.02, and the annual int
II rest charge on the debt during IL
same period has been diminished s3l
{, 2s5, 28loO.
From August 81, 1865 when tt
\ represented debt reached its highe
= point, to March /, 1869, the reductic
7 appears to have been $3.50, 96s, 331.4
: making a total reduction of the repr
sented debt TO June 80, 1876 of s65t
: 992, 246.44.
J. Your attention is also invited 10 Il
s. following official statement of receip
: and expenditures of the Governme
from 1860 to 1875, inclusive, bell
= the eleven years of peace since I
81 late war of the rebellion.