The New York herald., 1876-07-23
Tho Expected Currency sensatioR in
the House.

the House.
Among our Washington dispatches yester-
day was one fitted to excite public curiosity.
Everybody knows that the Committee on
Banking and Currency has long been at
deadlock by the absence of Mr. Gibson.
serving on the Custom House investigation
at New Orleans. The Banking and Cur.
rency Committee consists of eleven mem.
bers, and in the absence of Mr.. Gibson the
other ten stand five for hard money and five
for soft money. The return of Mr.. Gibson,
who is sound hard money democrat, would
have given that side majority if the othel
members had remained firm. But the Hen.
bricks intriguers have found means of in.
fuencing Mr.. Wike, of Illinois, one of the
hard money members, who has been brought
to surrender his views in obedience to
demand from his constituents. In conse.
quence of this change the committee now
stands six soft money men against five
hard money men, and it is expected
that it will make report recommending the
repeal of the law which requires resumption
of specie payments in 1879. If such report
is made it will lead to one of the most ami
mated and exciting debates of the session, a
debate in which democrats will be arrayed
against democrats in vigorous conflict.
When Greek meets Creek then comes the tug Of war.
A fierce debate on the currency between
the Tilden men and the Hendricks men
would be full of peril to the democratic
party. 1t will be in vain for Mr. Hendricks
+
abet such q contest. If his friends would
unite with those of Mr.. Tilden so unseemly
family quarrel could easily be averted, but
Hendricks has q suicidal ambition to appear
as q leading figure in the canvass. The
Hendricks wing have plausible ground to go
upon and they seem determined to make the
most of it, at whatever cost to the party.
The st. Louis platform demands the repeal
Of so much Of the Resumption act al
fixes a date, and the Hendricks faction
are prepared to taunt the Tilden men
with desertion of the national platform
if they make strenuous opposition. On
the other hand a repeal would weaken Gov
ernor Tilden and seriously impair his
chances in the Eastern States. He is COM
mitted to the Resumption act, date and all.
After its passage by Congress the New York
Legislature passed law indorsing it and
pledging the State to pay all its debts in specie
on and after January l, 1879. This bill was
signed by Governor Tilden, and he will be
put in an awkward predicament if the DEM
ocrats of Congress should censure his action
and condemn his record. Moreover, such
report of the Committee on Banking and
Currency as is expected would be gratui-
tous insult to Governor Tilden, because q
repeal of the act of 1875 is known to be inn
possible. A repeating bill might possibly
be carried through the House, although this
is doubtful, but it would be certainly de-
feated in the republican Senate. The at
tempt would only divide and weaken the
democratic party and proclaim the dissent
between its candidate for President and its
candidate for Vice President If Mr. Hem
bricks has the least particle of loyalty or
decency he will actively intervene to pre-
vent SO disgraceful and damaging a spec-