The New Orleans daily Democrat., 1878-11-14
THE DEM OORATS AND THE FINAN OES

Mr.. Eyarts and John Sherman have both
taken occasion recently to remind the coun-
try that the Democratic party in 1862 and 1863
opposed the destruction of tho State banks
and the creation of the legal tender green
back currency. We do not see how the re-
calling Of these facts can operate to the dis
advantage of the party now, or how 1t reflects
upon its sagacity at that date, that Its enomies
should remind the country of them, They
might have gone further and asked the coun-
try to also remember that the Southern DEM
ocrats, to whom, by o singular reversOn of
fate, the country must look for the final legis-
latlve remedy Of the financial ruin with which
the Republican party has overwhelmed the
country, carried out the doctrine Of their
Northern brethren in refusing either to dis
turb the State banking system in the Con-
federacy or to make Confederate notes legal
tender.
This Is the good old Democratic doctrine
now as it always has been, and events have
proven its wisdom. The long continued
financial troubles of the country, the
depression of values, the idleness of the
masses and the resulting poverty and distress
certainly afford abundant proof OF the I'M
wisdom Of the Republican financial system,
while we have the authority or Chief Justice
Chase, the author OF 1t, as to its unconstitu-
tionaIity A writer in the Democratic ReUic1r
for April. 1B4O, thus tersely sets forth the old
accepted Democratic doctrine as carried out
by the Van Buren, administration, which upon
all questions of finance is accepted as the
true gospel Says he: The great event Of
Mr. Van Buren's administration, by which 1t
will hereafter be known and designated,
s tho djv0rcc Of bank and state, In the fiscal
affairs Of tho Federal government, and the
return. after half q century Of deviation, to
the original design Of the constitution This
design, the Democrats have always con-
tended, is that this is q 'hard money gov
ernmcnt. with no legal or constitutional
money but gold and silver, and that, as the
Now York World correctly observes, there is
''no special grant of power made to Congress
by the constitution to create legal-tender
paper money, or indeed to do anything what
ever in respect to money except to coin 1t. ~
The position of the DEMOCRAT upon this
question is clear, and we believe it is the true
doctrine of the party. AS between the na-
tGnal bank currency and greenbacks we
have favored the latter, in order merely to
get rid of the former and to avoid the difficult
ties that must result from too sudden con-
traction of the circulating medium. But we
have favored this proposition merely as pre-
| lminary step to the abolition of the tax on
State banks and the ultimate return to the
| traditions of the days of jefferson, Jackson
and Van Buren,.
| I,oI, ;,,
they do now, that the legal tender character
given the greenbacks was unconstitutional
and unwise They were unable to see how q
state Of war set aside all the laws of finance
and political economy, IT the issuance OF
nconvertibIe money Is wrong in times OF
peace it certainly should be wrong in times
of war If it is an ai1liction at one time
there is no good reason why it should not be
so at the other.
In regard to the wisdom Of the war policy
In abandoning and destroying the State banks
and the constitutionalty of making the green
back q legal tender, the New York World
says:
1t may be debatable whether the banks o.
New York, Boston and Philadelphia which il
1867 at the request of Secretary Chase, asSo
ciated themselves and aided the government
with an aggregate or capltal larger tnal Iil't'
of the Bank Of England and the Bank OF
France combined. would not have carried the
country safely through the civil war without
the intrusion into our system of the 'tiat mon
cy' of the Republican party, if Secretary
Chase had not repelled them after using them
AND cast them adrift after absorbing much o.
their reserve of coin. The Democrats OF 1861
and 1868 contendcd that this intrusion of the
Re publican "fiat money" was unnecessary as
well as unlawful Mr.. Evarts, Mr.. Sherman
and Mr. Stoughton revile them now for this
but Secretary Chase himself, who created the
Repub lican fiat money!" the ''battle-born'
paper Of that time, from the bench of the Su-
preme Court, after he ceased to be a minister
and became judge, twice declared that the
| Democrats were right.
In the case of Hepburn VS.. Griswold a ma
ioritv of the court said that the making of
| The greenbacls legal tender was not neces-
sary to the carrying on OF the war, and there
fore that Congress could not constitutionally