Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1877-11-24
The rmpossiblIlty of II.
Cincinnati Enquirer.

Cincinnati Enquirer.
Facts are the most eloquent, as
well as the most stubborn, things.
member of Congress frnm The Fifth
district of Ohio, secured the passage
of resolution in the House calling
upon the Secretary of the Treasury
for information as to the amount of
gold in the Treasury available for
purposes of resumption. John Sher-
man has answered the question.
The information is before Congress
and the country. 1t furnishes the
proper basis upon which to consider
the Resumption Repeal Bill that is
pending in Congress. The amounts
of available coin are given by the
Secretary as follows:
Gold coin in the Treasury, Sub
Treasures and Mints-.......... Sl0l, 4S6, 1854 40
Gold bars In Treasury, Sub
Treasures, and MintS... $780,. 1856 ,692 IS
Gold bullion (eStimated) in
silver 5niion in Treasury Sub 'OOOOV "
Treasures and Minfs.,......... 5,ssS,sS7 "a
Silver coin In Treasury, Sub
Treasures and Mints....-....... 2,479, 137 40
Total coin and bullion......-.. Sll7, 25l, ISL 4S
Deducting the silver bullion and
the silver and coin, the demands
upon the whole amount for various
purposes, not including accrued in
terest, we have as the net amount of
available gold coin, gold bars, and
estimated gold bullion, the sum of
$57, 1860 ~. This is all the coin
in the Treasury of the United States
that is available for resumption. 1t
is important to note that among the
demands standing against this sum
the accrued interest on the National
debt is not mentioned. The inter-
est on the public debt, in round
numbers, amounts to 100000, 600
annually. Nearly six months in
terest has accrued. 1t is only fair to
deduct nearly one-half a years in
terest from the available gold above
named-fifty-seven millions. Nor
is it easy to see why bullion and
bars should be counted as coin avail
able for resumption, save by a fig
ure of speech-Or of the resump-
tionists. But more than seven
millions in this commodity are
reckoned in the Secretary's state
ment. Counting only the gold coin
in the Treasury, Sub-Treasuries and
MINIS, and remembering the half
years interest demand upon this
sum, we have, upon John Sher-
mans showing, not dollar with
which to attempt the enforcement of
the Resumption Act. The entire
amount of outstanding greenbacks,
about $3.50, 900, must be redeem
ed, according to the Resumption
Act, in thirteen months and eleven
days from this date. Three hum
bred and fifty millions of dollars in
gold must be accumulated in the
United States within that time.
Even ignoring the interest due, or
soon to be due, and giving the ut
most latitude to the showing of
John Sherman, it would still be ne
cessary to gather three hundred
millions of gold coin prior to jan
uary /, 1879, in order to resume.
This is the plain, unvarnished
statement Of fact made by the Sec
rotary of the Treasury himself-his
own unanswerable argument
against his own infamous Resump-
ton Act. Is there a sane man in
the country, specially, is there a
sane man in Congress, that dreams
that it is possible to accumulate
$500, 100000 in gold in thirteen
months? England, the great home
of gold, would not permit $15, $780,
600 in gold to leave her shores at the
time of the Geneva award to this
country. Will Europe permit
twenty times that amount to come
to this country in this brief period +?
Boutwell,, when Secretary of the
Treasury, acknowledged his ina
bilsty to coax twenty millions in
gold from England by the sale of
bonds. Can John Sherman draw
fifteen times that sum across the sea
in a twelvemonth? England said
on these occasions that the with
drawal of even so small an amount
of gold, comparatively, would cause
a financial crisis in that gOld-hoard-
ing realm. Not all the nations on
earth can spare three hundred mill
ions of gold within these thirteen
months.
Within two days the representa-
tives of the people of the United
States in Congress will decide wheth-
err or not the threat of a resumption
of specie payments that is now
known to be impossible shall remain
upon the statute books, the terror of
business. the enemy of enterprise,
the doom of debtors. There are
numerous arguments against this re-
sumption that are absolutely ire
futable. Overlapping them all, and
rendering them all needless, so far
as the vote upon this issue pending
in Congress is concerned, is the one
Secretary Sherman has himself furn-
ished-the impossibility of it. In
the face of this let the country take
notice of the men who still vote to
retain the law,