Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1877-12-22
into coinage. What has become OF
this vast sum of coin?


1t has flowed abroad to pay OF
debts. Much more than half of ol
national debt is owned in EIrop
The interest on our national bone
held abroad is exceeded by the col
! interest on State, city, railway, an
: other American securities hel
! there; so that the aggregate coin ii
: terest annually due from the peop
: of the United States to Europe is e
timated at from one hundred to on
hundred and fifty millions of do
.. lars. Add TO this from forty to fift
! millions per year paid for foreig
. shipping, anda sum equally great f.
: expenses of foreign travel, and W
: have an aggrate annual drain {
from one hundred and eighty to tw
hundred and fifty millions Of do
lars in payment of debts and ex
penditureS abroad.
How have we paid this enormou
annual foreign demand?
First, by the shipment Of coin ant
bullion. From 1860 to 1876, boil
Inclusive, we shipped abroad Oni
Thousand and fourteen millions o
sg0ld and silver more than we inn
I sfported, being an average over fifty
six millions a year. The balance o
the foreign demandupOn us we have
paid in part by an occasional bal
ance of trade in our favor; but al
ways, in whole or in part, by selling
more bonds abroad, thus each yeal
increasing the annual drain of this
/ precious metals and making it more
I impossible for Us to get or keep any
large sum of coin in our country.
/ do not ignore the consideration
/ that our disuse of gold and silver as
money would of itself have caused
them to flow abroad. But / claim
that our foreign debts and expendi-
lures make the drain imperative,
whether we do or do not use the
coin as a foundation for a home cur
rency. Our great specie product of
the past seventeen years has become
the property of creditor nations who
have built their business on it. We
can neither bring it back, nor hold
future accumulatiOns here, by Great
ing demand for it at home, be ii
ever so Imperative; for with nations,
as with individuals, ''the borrower
is servant to the lender" No ma
ton greatly in debt abroad ever did,
or can, have a redeemable paper
currency for domestic business.
Russia, Austria, and Italy, who are
like us greatly in debt abroad, are
also like US compelled to fOrego
specie payments.
OUR FOREIGN TRADE-ITS RELA-
TION TO RESUMPTION.
But my colleage Mr.. Garfield
says in effect that this bad condition
is all changed now, and resumption
made easy by our favorable balance
of trade. So far from the balance
of trade helping us to coin, the re-
port of the Bureau of Statistics of
August q, 1877, shows that we ship
ped abroad for the year ending June
30, 1879, seventy-two millions of
coin and bullion more than we re-
ceived; in 1876 fOrty-One millions,
and in 1877 sixteen millions. So
that, Notwithstanding the unex-
ampled balance of trade in our fa-
vOr, and our great effort to accumu-
late gold for resumption, we havein
the past three years exported one
hundred and twenty-nine millions
more of coin and bullion than we
have received from abroad. How,
then, has the balance of trade helped
resumption
Mr.. Speaker, this vast and in
creasing drain of the precious metals
makes a maintenance of specie pay
ments absolutely impossible on one
third of our present volume of pa
per currency. Until the financial
policy which has taken our debt
from our people to send it abroad
shall be wholly reversed, and the
debt is held at home; until the usury
,rbo,h forbids vessels fTrilt here,
cononaff !" NM Illn0ney costs 10per cent, from
clyde, where mt6hR6e Pegilt egi on the
shall have been abated by a money
policy which shall give money and
securities a less exorbitant
interest; we can no more arrest this
outgoing drain of the precious met
ais than we can stop the waters
warmed by an American sun in the
Gulf from flowing to lave and en-
rich the British Isles.
PREPARATION FOR RESUMPTION. |
The administration has had in its
hands for three years past the whole
credit resources of our nation for the
purchase of coin wherewith to pre-
pare for resumption. 1t has been |
authorized to sell bonds bearing 4,
Al, and 5 per cent. interest. Three |
fourths of the time allotted for pre-
paratiOn has already elapsed. The |
Secretaries of the Treasury have
exerted themselves to the utmost to
accumulate gold. The national
banks have no doubt been fairly dill
igent in getting and boarding it.
The problem before the Treasury
and the banks has been to get gold
to.keep seven hundred and
thirty-three millions of paper afOat,
or to take up the paper with gold |
and destroy 1t. How successful have
they been?
We find from report of the Sec |
retary of the Treasury made to this
House last Thursday that the United |
States had succeededin obtaining to |
October 81, 1877, but $57 ,436,07I of |
gold, from which is to be de
Quoted, however, accruing interest, |
at that date to $24, ,S4O,- |
093-leaving but $32, 800, ,978 of gold |
to resumption. Whether
any of that small sum is what Jim
Fisk would have called "phantom
subscriptions by the ma
tiOnal banks for bonds payable in
gold, but not yet paid-dOes not dis
tinctly appear. In addition to the /
thirty-tWO and a half millions in
the Treasury, the national banks
hold $40, ,948, ,407 of silver and gold
How much of this is
silver and how much gold does not
appear from the bank statement. |
No doubt the chief part is subsidi-
ary silver coin, which is of no use
for resumption.
Mr.. Springer. If the gentleman |
will allow me, / would say that, ac-
cording TO the last statement of the
Cqrrency-that for November
there are, but five millions of gold
coin in the national banks, the other
specie in the banks being in silver
and United States gold certificates.
Mr.. Ewing. After nearly three
years of preparation, what have we
accomplished ? We have affected a
net destruction of over seventy-five
millions of greenbacks and bank
notes combined; but have accumu- |