New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-08-10

not new that they have been made before
and disregarded by a stiff-necked generation.
There is a measure of truth IN this but we
do not at present recall an instance h which
they have been made in so peromptory
fashion, nor do we remember that any con-
vention of late years has taken so decided
position in favor of State bank currency by
demanding the repeal of the tax on cireula-
ton. This is partly attributable, to be sure, to
the desire of the Louisiana Democrats to assert
their independence OF Federal control and their
adhesion to the Old-fashioned doctrine of State
Rights, about which there was prolonged
and animated discussion with musketry ana
artillery from 1861 to 1865; but the chief
purpose is clearly to bring back the good old
State currency, which we all remember with
such fondness. All! those were the times OF
prosperity, when the currency consisted OF
the bills of red-dog and wildcat banks char
tered by State legislatures, which couldn't
get circulated five miles beyond the bank,
and once out were never permitted to return
the days when a trader took a two-dollar bill
in the morning and spent the rest of the day
studying a bank-nOte counterfeit detectOr to
counterfeit, or the bank had broken, and what
was the discount on it, the days when only
the bills of New-York and New-England
banks had general circulation and were
accounted good-which was strange, con-
sidering how ignorant New-YOrk and New
England people are of currency and finance;
aud when the bills of Western and Southern
banks-where they are born tinanciers and
have views about currency and banking when
the oldest commercial nations never dreamed
Of-were universally refused. Those were the
good old times, which ended when the Gov
eminent put tax on State bank circulation.
The Democrats of Louisiana want them back
demand them back again. The Louisiana
mind, the Western and Southern Democratic
mind generally, in fact, revOts against the
restrictions which centralized and despotic
Federal Government has put upon the manu-
facture and issue of bank bills, and is
chiyalrOusly indignant at the humiliation
of being compelled in the first place to lodge
with the Treasurer securities for the payment
OF their notes, and in the second place to re-
deem their promises at maturity with any
thing but other promises.
We are glad to see the Louisiana Democrats,
as, indeed Democrats of all the Southern and
Western States, applying themselves with
such seriousness to this somewhat intricate
subject For it makes fair issue between
two palpably distinct systems of finance; so
distinct, in fact, that we may call them
Numerically opposed to each other. They
were opposed TO each other in the good
old times of State banks. In the West
they believed then, as now in having plenty
Of currency, and they issued it. The only roa-
son why it was not generally disseminated
was because the banks that issued it were so
opposed to contraction that they would not re-
deem it when it came back to them, but kept
it out to maintain the volume of the currency.
The Eastern banks, on the contrary, had the
same absurd notions then that are held here
now about contraction. When their bills were
presented at the counter they refused to
enlarge their vision to the effect Of cOntrac-
ton upon the volume of the currency, but
looking at a bank-note from the narrow point
of view which considered it mere promise
to pay, paid it and took it In. 1t cannot be
denied that the Eastern system involves the
more difficulty and trouble. 1t is always
more troublesome TO pay than to pro-
mise, anu lucItlu iilC NlotihNNAohf
briefly stated, between the Eastern and
Western systems of finance. The one main
taIns that the essential thing is payment: the
other that the only thing Is to make rs many
promises as you can, and keep them going
without ever paying. The Eastern is
simpler in the statement of it, and more
difficult of performance; the Western
much more complicated in statement, but as
easy to carry out as lying. The financial plat
form OF the one is in three words, "Pay
your bills" that of the other exhausts
the language in explanations and def
nitions which, when all sifted down, mean
merely, Never pay cash. The issue can
not be too often or too clearly stated, and
we are always glad to have a Democratic con-
yention do as the one in Louisiana did the
other day-put it as squarely as possible before
the people.
General Merritt made such a good Naval Officer
and Surveyor, that he ought be allowed to prove
"a, oouoItx- good CoIIector n Ina with