The Portland daily press., 1895-12-12
The President and the National Finance

The President and the National Finance
To the Editor of the Press:
After the arbitrary and tiespotic way
In which the President has been manag
ing the national finances, partly by q
palpable misconstruction of the plain re-
quirements of existing laws, partly from
disregard of those laws; after, in q
single year of peacs, of abundant harvests
and, but for reckless financial experiments
which he had chiefly promoted, of CONNER.
cial prosperity, having added S162, 600, O0(
to the Understanding debt of the coun-
try, which he plausibly pleads was in nc
way required to make up any deficit OF
the federal revenues, it was to be expect.
ed that he would attempt to excuse, ex-
plain, and justify his policy. He had,
without any mandate of the aw-making
department, nay. with very distinct
intilnation that the law-making depart
ment would promptly and energetically
withhold any such mandate. by an act
of sheer executive discretion incurred this
| indebtedness to maintain a coin reserve
he calls it a gold reserve-to sustain
the currency of s346, 900, O0U of circulating
| treasury notes, which the laws of the
United States, sanctioned by the opinion
| of the Supreme Court, had provided
should be a part of the circulating
medium of the country. The authority
for such discretion was claimed to be
given by the act Of 1S75-aD act to pro-
vide for specie payments January l, 1879
authorizing the Secretary Of the
Treasury to issue bonds of the United
States and dispose of them for coin and
to use the proceeds for the purpose con-
templated by the statute" l quote the
| words of the Presidents message But
many eminent statesmen, and many good
lawyers were and are of opinion that s'tke
purpose contemplated by the statute''
i. g. the accomplishment of specie pay.
ment, having been effected, the authority
Of the aot of 1875 had been exhausted
The President himself acknowledges thai
the sales of the bonds authorized by that
act, together with Surplus revenues
devoted to the same purpose, had given
the Treasury a, reserve fund on January
l, 1879, Of S144, 1876, 800, which though con-
stantly fiuctuating, did not fall below
that sum until July, 1892.
SCOPE AND PURPOSE OF THE RE-
SUMPTION ACT.
The purpose of the act of 1875, was to
establish specie payment, to bring all
the legal tender currency authorized IN
der existing laws up to par, by providing
legal tender coin for every demand treas
ury note that should be presented for
payment. The current treasury notes
were due on demand strictly. They were
not due until their demand Any en-
forced payment of them before they were
duo would have been as fragrant breach
of the contract, as the enforced payment
of any of the time bonds of the United
States before the time they were made
payable. 1t was not only the leagl right
of the holders of those notes to use them
in their actual form as Instruments of
purchase and payment, but it was the
express intention of the statute, by which
they were authorized, that they should
be so used. So that it did not take a
very large reserve of coin to make COM
petely successful the experiment of specie
payments. Nor has there ever been any
deficiency of coin to maintain at par every
form Ct United States Indebtedness In
use as currency, by the prompt payment
of all that was presented. The trouble
that the President might have foreseen
that he would encounter, is that, with
obstinate devotion to tho theories of a
doctrinaire, he has refused to use or treat
as coin what Congress has declared shall
be coin with all the attributes and powers
OF money-and it is only by positive legis-
lation, since that has superseded CONNER
oia hot Gil r,olI
permanent monetary values and have
their intrinsic comm ercial values are
wholly suspended. No. his difficulty has
been not to get coin, but to get gold, as fast
as ths hoarders and speculators-the cate
gories are his own-by a every open game
of bunco-steering have kept draining
from his constantly shrinking hoard
DIVERSION OF THE REDEMPTION
But whatever may be the sound opinion
as to appealing to purpose for the
selling of bonds, which purpose had been
effectnally accomplished seventeen years
before, the President could not have found
any legal adviser to counsel him that
he could enlarge that purpose beyond
that contemplated in the acU'' of 1875
j.. e., to. provide for the payment in specie
Of such of the then existing treasury
notes of the United States as should be
demanded. What authority of law. what
opinion of legal advisers justified him in
using fund strictly devoIed to the re-
demption of such Of the greenbaoks as
should be presented for payment, the
wholeyolnme of which was about s346, 900,
900, TO other purposes, not contemplated
by the statute, to the payment for in
stance, Of the treasury notes issued under
the act Of 1890 in payment for purchased
silver bullion, and to the payment of
silver certificates by their terms made
payable in silver coin? How much of
this precious fund was thus improvidently
wasted in paying silver certificates the
President does not tell the country, nor
have been able to determine the amount
from the reports either of the United
States Treasurer or tho Secretary of the
| Treasury. 1t is a financial feat Of which
she government officials do not seem to
| be very proud. In a debate in the Senate
in 1893 it was charged that by mid-sum-
iner OF that year more than $50, 600, 900 of
this fund had been so expended and as
the President avows that thai is the only
way in which the parity of silver and