Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1876-02-11

all these features fill the ideal requirement Of
bank as foreshadowed by Jackson, and if it does
not indeed far transcend any ideal jackson had il
its freedom for all to engage in it, and in its abso
lutte security to the public, and in lis singular
adaptation to act as a regulator of the currency
preventing undue expansion and undue contrac
tion with equal and unfaing certainty, and adjust
ing itself at once to The specie standard wherever
the Government shah place It's own notes at pal
with coin
1t is urged by the opponents Of the Banking svs.
TEN that the three hundred and twenty millions oi
bank circulation be supplied by legal tender rs
and the interest on that amount Of bonds stopped
HOW Does any gentleman suppose that the
bonds owned BY the banks, and on deposit in the
Treasury will be exchanged for legal tenders of q
new and inflated issue Those bonds are payable
principal and interest, in gold, and with the pres
ent amount of legal tender notes they are worth
in the market from Sll6 TO Sl.25. What will
they be woith IN paper money when you double
the amount of legal tenders, and postpone the
day of specie resumption far beyond the vision OF
prophet seer, And this enormous issue of leg al
tenders to take the lace Of bank notes, is only the
beginning Of the policy to be inaugurated The
wants Of trade" would speedily demand another
ISSUE for the essential nature Of an rredee mable
currency is that it has no limit till q reaction is
born OF crushing disaster. A lesson might be
learned (by those willing to be taught by fact aud
experience) from the Course of events during the
war. When we had one hundred and fifty mil
IOuS VI leSal teuNtl III lOU, IL S.OOu u
long while nearly at par with gold. As the issue
Increased in au ount the depreciation wss very
rapid, aud at the time we fixed the four hundred
million limit, that whole vast sum had less pur-
chasing power in exchange for lands, houses, OF
merchandise than the hundred and fifty millions
had two years before. In the spring Of 1862,
$3.50, 100000 of legal tender would buy in The
market Sl47, 600 900 in gold coin. In June, 1864
400,000,000 of legal tender would buy only ss40,-
0O00 900 in gold coin.
And if we bad not fixed the four hundred mil
lion ic.lt, but had goue on issuing additional
amounts according to the "wants Of trade, as now
argued and urged by the modern Democratic
fnanciers the result would have been that at each
successive initiation the purchasing power of the
aggregate mass would have been made less, and
the value of the whole would have gone down,
down, ill it reached that point of utter worthless
ness which so many like experiments have reached
before; and the legal tender, with all its vas,
capacity for good in great National crisis, would
have taken its place in history alongside of the
French assienat and the Continental currer cy
The four hundred million limit happily saved us
that di eful experience, and at once caused the
legal tender TO appreciate; but unwilling TO learn
by this striking tsct, the ntaionsts insist upon a
scheme Of expansion which would speedily raise
the price of bonds to unprecedented figures, and
by the time they should succeed in purchasing
those that now stand as security for National bank
circulation, they would have increased the Nation
al debt by countless Millions and instead Of max
ing saving for the Treasury they would end by
deprivIng il OF the eight millions of tax annually
paid by the banks, and the people would have lost
the additional eight millions of local tax derived
from the same source.
l have not spoken of the confusion, the distress
the ruin, that would result from forcing twenty one
hundred banks suddenly to wind up their affairs
With nearly thousand millions of dollars due
them, which in some form must needs be liquidated
and settled. The commercial fabric of the coun-
try rests upon the bank credits aud nothing short
OF financial lunacy could demand their rude dis
turbance. Whoever would strike down the banks
under the delnslon that they can be driven to sur
render their bonds for inflated legal tenders,
knows little of the laws of finance and still less OF
the laws Of human action.
Among the anomalies presented in the currency
discussion, Mr.. Chairman, is that the West and
the South should have so large an element clam
orous for imitation. OF all sections interested in
the specie standard, the West and the South stand
irst. The great staples Produced il those vast
and fertile regions, wheat, corn flour, beef, pork
hides, tobacco, hemp, cotton, rice and sugar, are
inevitably ard peremptorily subjected to the gold
standard when sold The prlce of cotton sent TO
Lowell is just much determined by the golG
standard as that which is exported to Manchester,
and the breadstuff, sold in New York are daily
equated with the prices Of the Liverpool corn ex-
change. And of all the other commodities.
And yet We hear representatives of the great in
terests that are thus compelled to sell at gold
prices, resolute and determined in their demands
that they shall be allowed to purchase all their
supplies on the paper basis. When it is remem-
bered that the whole of the annual crop in this
country, reckoning all products reaches the enor-
nous amount of three thousand millions on the
gold basis, and that the surplus not consumed by
the producers Is many hundreds of millions OF
dollar, and that the value Of the whole is est-
mated by the gold standard, the farmers of the
country may find profitable TODD for reflection in
calculating what the agricultural interest loses
every year by an rredeemable paper currency.
One great and leading interest Of nv own and
other States has suffered, still suffers, and will
continue 10 suffer so long as the currency is Of
irredeemable paper. ! mean the shipbuilding and
navigation intercst-one that does more for the
country and asks less from it than any other ex-
cept the agricultural; an interest that represents
our distinctive nationality in all climes and upon
all seas an interest more essentially and inte nsely
American than any other that falls under the leg
lsIu,ive power of the Government, and which asks
o ~ o,day to be left where the founders of the
Republic placed it hundred years ago Give US
the same basis of currency that our great com.
petitois of the British En-! ire enjoy, and we will
within the lifetime OF those now living float
a larger tonnage under the American flag than
was enrolled by one nationality since the
science of navigation has been known among men,
Aye, more sir; give us the specie basis and the
merchant marine Of America sailing into all zones
and gathering gain from all continents, will bring
back to our shores its golden profits and supply
and offset the drains that weaken US in other drec
,ions. But ships built on the paper basis cannot
compete with the lower priced ones of the gold
basis and whoever advocates pcrpetuity of
paper money in this country, confesses his readi-
ness and willingness to sacrifice the navigation
and commercial interest for all time.
1t is often made the subject of reproach BY the
opponents of the Republican party, that ten years
have elapsed since the war closed, and nothing
effective has been done towards the resumption of
specie payment. Even if this were true, the
Democrats are not justified in making the charge
for their party organization has been the principal
obstacle and stumbling block in the way Of lc-
sumption. But, in fact, great deal has been done
towards specie payment by preventing infstion,
and keeping the Government thus far within the
four hundied million limit. To do this it has
been necessary to wage very sharp war with the
Democrats, and against their demands that the
nationa debt be paid in legal tender notes, the
Republicans have had their hands full thus far to
MAINTAIN the primal demands and dues of common
honesty.
As matter of fact, however, am quite willing to
admit that during these ten years no positive and
vigorous steps have been taken towards specie
payment. So long as the business of the country
was progressing reasonably well it was not pract-
cable possible to set to work deliberately, with
out the pressure of necessity to force specie re-
sumption. Every man OF affairs knows instinc-
lively, without argument, that this was so, and he
knows why it was so. Though not having the
same moral issue involved we were situated very