The Portland daily press., 1876-02-11
Mr.. Blaine ON the Finances.

NAAs OlhiAC UA uuC luhuCCSs
The speech on the financial question dellv-
cred in the House yesterday by Mr.. Blaine
will command general and admiring atten-
ton. 1t is luminous and careful review OF
the situation from the standpoint of states
man. Mr.. Blaine avows at the start that he
is party man, but he holds that there are
questions about which parties should agree
never 10 disagree, and of these is the essen
tial nature and value of the circulating medi-
um. Until of late, as he points sout, there
never was political party in this country
that believed liz any other than the specie
standard for our currency, and in this con-
nection he quotes the words of Nathaniel
Macon, one of the Founders, that ''this is
hard-money government, founded by hard
money men, who had themselves seen and
felt the evils of paper money, and meant to
save their posterity from it." Indeed one
would almost as soon think that political
party might arise in this country to dispute
tie multiplication table or oppose the accep
tance of the theory of gravitaton as that
party shoull at this day fly in the face of all re-
corded experience and propose not only to do
away with the universally accepted standard
of value but also to put in its place STAN
dard which has the slightest possible intrin-
sic value.
But the question has been dragged into
politics, and by the Democratic party, and
so its consideration involves review of the
political measures of the last few years and OF
the attitude of the two great parties. The
history of the past fourteen years is history
of shame for the Democracy, and Mr.. Blaine
Union was in deadly peril, and the govern
ment wasstraining every nerve to raise money
by taxation and loan, Democratic scruples in
regard 10 the legality of greenbacks were 50
intense that Democrats dared not permit
what they considered an infraction of the
constitution even to preserve that instrument
and the Union, of which it was the bond.
Later on solemn pledge was made by Con-
gress that the total amount of United States
notes should never exceed $4O0,0 900, and
to this pledge Democratic senators and repre-
sentatves assented. Their great leader was
Mr.. Pendleton. But no sooner was the
emergency past and the Union saved than
the Democrats became the most ardent advo-
Gates of the greenbacks. With that fatal
facility with which they are gifted for getting
with the greatest celebrity on the wrong side
of every question they forsook all their
traditions, discarded all their principles, and
went into the next Presidential campaign on
platform demanding an issue of 81, 100000
600 of greenbacks; and the platform was
heartily endorsed by the "hard-money' DEM
ocrats of New York. So shameless effront-
cry was never recorded in the history of pol
itica] parties. So long as legal tenders were
needed for the salvation of the country the
Democracy was bitterly hostile to them, but
as soon as the necessity for them passed it
clamored for more. 1t opposed war measures
in time of war and called for them in time
Of peace.
Passing quickly over this sad and shame.
full history Mr.. Blaine, with an allusion to
the substantial unanimity of the Republican
party on the currency question, proceeds to
consider the two propositions advanced by
the inflationists: viz, to abolish the national
banks, and then to have the government
issue legal tenders TO the amount of the bank
circulation. His defense of the national
bank system is made in few words, and he
passes to the consideration OF the second
proposition, rising above all consideration of
party politics and taking the statesmanlke
ground that the circulating medium shonld
be taken altogether out of the control of
Congress, for the reason that as Congress is
always governed by partisan majority the
currency, instead of having fixed determin-
ate character, will be shifted, and changed,
and manipulated according to the supposed
needs of the ''party." The argument is clear
and forcible, and no abstract can do it JUS
tice.
The closing part Of the speech is devoted
to an earnest plea for the resumption of spe-
Gle payments and computation of the fallac-
ious objections to resumption. This portion
of the argument, as the most practi-
cal and immediate in its bearings, will COM
mand the closest attention of readers. 1t
| is the argument of man who has made fl
uduCe q Siuuy, duu pIoVeS HlIHSeH thorough,
sincere and liberal student, an argument
grounded on inc2ntrovertible principles and
| carried on with great force of reasoning and
| felicity of expression. He takes unmistaka-
Bile position in favor of funding the demand
notes in long bonds, measure approved by
the highest financial wisdom. The conclusion
is fitting one to speech, remarkable for
| its directness, its force, and its unconprom-
Using adherence to principle. We the more
unhesitatingly and gladly commend it for the
reason that the ground is precisely that al
ways held by the PRESS, and the arguments
those which have apparel again and again in
these columns. Mr.. Blaine deserves the
hearty approval of every sound fnancier in
the country and of the people at large whose
interests he is so ably subscribing.
1T has been favorite amusement with the
New York journals to deliver to the be-
nighted cities of Boston and Chicago long