The New York herald., 1879-12-08
The Administration and the Legal
Tender Notes.


correspondent, written on Thursday last
and printed in the HERALD of Saturday,
should explode the rumors that the Presi-
dent intended the most important part OF
his Message as a mere flourish. The con-
versation of Secretary Sherman with our
Washington correspondent, which we
print to-day, should in like manner dissi-
pate suspicion that he has recedea
from any of his financial recon-
mendations to Congress. There has
been such an unscrupulous attempt 10
confuse and mislead the public mind re-
specting the position of the President ana
Secretary of the Treasury on question OF
the first magnitude that it is proper TO set
forth precisely what those views are 10
which the responsible members OF the ad-
ministration adhere.
There are three officers of the govern
ment whose duty requires them to bestow
special attention on the currency-the
COMPTROLLER of the Currency. the Secretary
of the Treasury and the President. There
is substantial unity of opinion among
these officers. So lar as they differ it is
| only difference as to how fast and how
far the government should move in the
same direction. Comptroller Knox, from
modest sense of his subordinate position,
merely recommends that the national banks
be required to keep all their reserves in
coin as a mode of approaching the ultimate
result. Secretary Sherman, whose position
is more responsible and his authority
greater, recommends the divesting of the
greenbacks of their legal tender quality
and the reduction of their amount
from three hundred and forty-six
millions to three hundred millions.
The President goes still further. and
recommends the retirement of the legal
tender notes as debt which the govern
ment is bound to pay, and which it has no
constitutional authority to keep in circula-
tion in that form. Both in his Message and
in his more recent private letter the Presi-
dent is emphatic on the constitutional
point. He declared in his Message :-'It
is my firm conviction that the issue of
legal tender paper money based wholly
upon the authority and credit Of the gov
ernment, except in extreme emergency, is
without warrant in the constitution" He
says even more pointedly in his letter,
.sThe only constitutional legal tender is
| gold and silver.
| It is o question of some interest whether
| the doctrines laid down by the executive
officers of the government on this great sub
| ject are of such nature that they could
| consistently consent to postponement of
action to some future session of Congress.
| This is really question between sincerity
| and buncombe, which there would be man
ifest indecorum in discussing if it had not
been so widely raised. We propose to
show that the committals of the President
and Secretary are SO precise and uneqnivo-
cal as to leave no loophole of retreat if they
were ever so much inclined to find one.
The President said in his Message:-"The
issue of United States notes with the
capacity of legal tender between private in
dividuals was not authorized except as o
means of rescuing the country from i'm
minent peril. The circulation of. these
notes as paper money, for any protracted
period of time after the accomplishment of
this purpose, was not contemplated by the
trainers of the law under which they were
issued. They anticipated the redemption
and withdrawal of these notes at the earliest
practicable period consistent with the
attainment of the object for which
they were provided" This language
admits of no Interpretation which
would countenance further delay. 'The
redemption and withdrawal Of these
notes at the earliest practicable period"
| "a, raI Nf;o h
drawal as soon as Congress can take the
necessary legislative steps. The whole
drift of what the President said on the sub
| ject in his Message, and has repeated since,
conveys the idea that there is no longer any
excuse for postponement He maintains that
the time to pay debts is when we have the
means, and that our means are now abun-
dant. .In good times pay debts. The
legal tender notes are debts. Let them
be paid by the coin in the Treasury
and the coin that is coming in from
abroad" That this is consistent with de-
Law, that it can be reconciled to further
postponement, that it contemplates inac-
ton, is contrary to the plain purport of the
language. 1t would be irrelevant and stul-
tiiying to insist that the present season of
prosperity is the most suitable time for
paying the legal tender debt If the Presi-
dent desires no legislation to that end
during this session. The reported CONVEX
sations in q different sense were u weak in
vention Of the infiationists
Although Secretary Sherman did not 60
as far in his report rs the President did in
his Message, what he recommended was
put in form which it is equally impossible
to explain away. All the reasoning with
which he supports his recommendation is
based on the present credit OF the notes.
which he states to be so high as to render
the legal tender quality superfuous. He