The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1878-10-24
Letter from Hon. A. q. II. Stuart.
To the Editors of the Spectator:

County on the question OF finances and cur
rency which are in issue before the country,
at such times and places as might suit our
conveniences. While am duly sensible Of
the honor done me by this invitation, am
constrained to decline it, because 1 feel
doubtful whether my strength would enable
me to fulfil, in manner satisfactory to my
self or the public, the task assigned to me.
1 am gratified, however. to see, that the PEG.
pie are awakening to just sense Of the in
portance of the questions which now occupy
National politics.
These questions rise above the interests Of
parties. They are of vital concern to the
people of all parties. They affect the bust
ness Of the whole country. We are suffer
ing every day from the discredit that has
been brought upon our State, by her refusal
to meet her just obligations. If to this we
now add, the evils of a dishonest and degra-
ded currency, no man can fortell the evils
which must ensue.
Money is not actual value. 1t is the mere
measure of value, as the yard-stick, the gal
Ion and the pound, are the measures OF guam
tity.
All men will readily recognise the fact
that it is essential to the proper transactions
of the ordinary business of life, that the
measures of quantity should be uniform and
unvarylng. Ii the merchant buys by one
measure, and sells by another, it must De
manifest. to the meanest capacity, that enc
less confusion and injustice must follow.
The same Inconvenience must ensue from
en- unstable and fluctuating standard of val
ues, All bargains will become contracts OF
hazard, or in other words, gambling trans
actions.
The people of the South have had an eX-
perIence of the effects of deprecated cur
rency, which should admonish them OF the
evils of it, and induce them to frown upon
every effort, to return to it. We have borne
all the inconvenience which it was necessa-
ry to encounter, to restore the currency to
sound and healthy condition. and it would
seem to be madness, now to reverse
our policy and plunge our country
again into the confusion from which it has
been rescued. When the subject is proper
ly explained to the people, their good sense
will enable them to detect and rebuke the
mischievous fallacies by which demagogues
are seeking to mislead them.
There can be no doubt sthat the war has
tended to lower the tone Of moral sentiment
of the community. Ideas are now advanced
with boldness, which, in former years, no
man would have dared avow.
1t is thought by many, that there is a de-
liberate purpose to repudiate both the State
and national debt, and ultimately, by indi-
rection, to substantially repudiate Or scale
all private debts.
If the public mind can be educated doaun-
aoord, to the reputation of the debt of the
State of Virginia, whitehall must admit to be a
Just debt, contracted by our own representa-
tives, and for which we received full consid-
Grafton, and the benefits of which we are ev
cry day enjoying in the shape of increased
facilities for travel and reduced cost of trans
portatlon affor ded by our railroads, which
were built with the money which we bor
rowed, with how much readiness can the
Southern people be persuaded to repudiate
the national debt, which was contracted
when the South was not represented in con-
gress; when U. S. Treasury notes were at a
heavy discount; and when the money was
borrowed to accomplish the subjugation of
the Southern States.
When these measures have been accom-
plished, the reputation of county, city, and
individual debts will soon follow. The spir-
it of communism is abroad. Every one who
has loaned money to States or Corporations
| is denounced as ''bloated bondholder'' and
every creditor of individuals, as a ''Shylook.'
To accomplish this latter part of the pro-
gramme, the power Of the government is to
be invoked and perverted. The States are
prohibited by the constitution, from passing
any law impairing the obligation OF con-
| tracts, or from making anything but gold
and silver legal tenter. The States, there
fore. are powerless to repudiate debts, or to
dilute or debase the currency. But there is
no such positive prohibition imposed on
| Congress. The Supreme Court of the U. S.
| Ito which two justices were added to insure
such decision,) has solemnly adjudged.
that Congress has the power to make U. S.
Treasury notes legal tender. Under this
! decision, the power of congress over the cur
rency. wculd seem to be unlimited. If,
| therefore, Congress think proper, it may in
crease the number of Treasury notes, indefi-
| nitely, and still make them legal tender
| for all debts.
Common sense must teach every man and
experience has proved, that as you increase
| the Qnantity OF paper money in circulation,
YOU diminish its purchasing power. The
present amount of Treasury notes is $780,,
447, 01O. If you double this amount, with
out adding to the production and business,
| of the country, the purchasing power OF the
notes will be reduced one-half. So, if you
quadruple the quantity, you will reduce the
purchasing power to one-fourth, or % cents
in the dollar Then, if Congress shall make
these deprecated notes legal tenders, every
debtor can pay off his debts with a currency
worth but one-fourth Of the present money
or in other words, he can get rid of his debt
by paying % cents on the dollar This is,
in effect, confiscation, in the hands Of the
creditor, of three-fourths of every debt due
to him ! Trust funds set apart for widows
and orphans, will be reduced to one-fourth of
theif present value; the man who has
bought your farm, or house and lot, can pay
for fbo,y, in nal q
same in amount that he contracted to pay,
but which, in fact, is worth but one-fourth
of the amount which he owes you.
The people cannot have forgotten their eX-
perience in regard to Confederate money.
Do they want to repeat the experiment in
that kind of currency? l fancy not. But
if they do, then let them give countenance
to the greenback fallacy, and flood the coun-
try with the notes of irresponsible State
bank which will not pass fifty miles from
their place of issue.
Bad as the Confederate money was, the
Confederate Congress even under the pres
sure of great civil war, never dared to
make Confederate notes legal tender. No
body was compelled to receive them unless
he chose to do so. But the avowed purpose
Of the Greenback party, is, not only to di-
lutte the currency until its real value will not
but also to compel every body to receive it
as if it were worth dollar. The injustice
of this must be obvious to every one. 1t is
reputation disguised under very 1imsy
veil.
A debased and fluctuating currency may
suit the purposes of insolvent debtors, or
brokers, shavers and others who deal in
money, and make large profits by their traf-
fic. But it will not suit steady going farmers
and real men of business and the laboring
man. When the farmer sells his wheat or
corn, or the laboring man does his days
work, he wants the price Of his grain or the
wages of his labor, in gold or silver dollars
or in notes which he can, at his pleasure,
convert into gold and silver dollars.
Every dollar of paper money issued ought
to be the true representative of gold and sill
yer which is the only constitutional money.
1t is not of itself money, but it is the repre-
sentitive of money just as the receipt of the
miller OF the warehouse man, is not wheat
Or merchandise, but the representative of
those commodities. When you present such
a receipt to the miller or the warehouseman,
he is bound to deliver to you the wheat Or
merchandise, specified In the receipt. so all
legitimate paper money should be the repre-
sentation of so much gold and silver, and
enable the holder to demand its delivery on
Do.,1