Year: 1869

rency the FIRST aEd Great DeSiGerafun..
Evils of Fluctuating Metium--Efects
| of the Greenback Debt on the Public
Credit--The Obstacles to Resumption
| Observation-Disclosures Objections Answer
ed--Senator MOrton's Plan Explained.
From the Washington Chronicle. [ooNcLUDEDr


The Secretary of the treasury, in his
last report, after making an able argu-
ment to show the evils of q deprecated
currency, begins his discussion as to the
| means of returning to specie payment
with the following statement:


''The Secretary still adheres to the
opinion SO frequently expressed by him,
that reduction of the paper circulation
of the country until it approached to the
specie standard was the true solution of
our finacial problem. But as this pol
icy was emphatically condemned by Con
gress and it is now too late to return to
it) he recommends the following meas
ures as the best calculated to effect the
desired result"


Here the Secretary reiterates his for
mer opinion, that by largely contracting
the paper currency the rest of it would
be appreciated to par. How such con-
traction would have this result he has
| never shown, and the opinion results





which depreciate the paper currency.
Suppose the greeback currency was con
tracted down TO one hundred millions,
could the remaining hundred millions
be brought to par in any other way than
by making arrangements to redeem it?


You can not pay debt without pay
ing it, and every trick or device to bring
the currency up to par without making
preparations to redeem it according to
the promise on its face will be abortive
and disastrous. The currency is depre
cia5ed because it is overdue and dishon
ored, DAVIS no interest, and there is no
time fixed or preparation made for its
redemption; and these causes would
depreciate it if there were but one mil
lion of it afoat. The effort to force de-
preciated and irredeemable paper up to
par by making it scarce and pinching
the people is like an attempt to enhance
| the price of unwholesome provisions by
producing famine.


The means he suggests for returning
to specie payments are twofold. The
| first is TO legalize specie contracts to be
executed in coin. voted for bill for
that purpose last session, without much
consideration, and have become satisfied
it was an error. The unwary would be
enticed into such contracts by the Graf
ty, and those in straitened circumstances
or under heavy pressure would be forced
into them. No man can safely make
contract, to be executed in coin, while
the currency is deprecated and the
| financial condition of the country is
| fuctuating Such contracts, when not
| brought about by coercion, or fraud,
would be in the nature of gold gambling
the one party trusting that gold would
be at a large premium when the contract
| was due, and the other that it would
command little or none. It could hard
| ly be distinguished from contract for
the delivery of gold at future time.
| Should coin contracts be legalized, how
| ever as proposed, it should only be in
connection with some general plan to
return to specie payments at a fixed
| period. But aside from the evils and
| hardships to result from such contracts,
how could they appreciate the value of
the currency any more than common
contracts for the future delivery of gold?
| They would not constitute any prepar
ton on the part of the Government for
the redemption of the currency, and
therefore could not, to any preceptible
| extent, appreciate its value.


| The second means for returning to
specie payments is contained in the
| following passage from the Secretary's
report:


Sand he, therefore, recommends, in
addition to the enactment by which con-
tracts for the payment of coin can be
enforced, that it be declared that after
the first day Of January, 1870, United
States notes shall cease to be legal
tender in payment of all debts subse-
quently contrac ed, and that after the
first day of January, 1871, they shall
cease to be legal tender On any con
tract, or for any contract whatever,
except Government dues, for which
they are now receivable The law
should also authorize the conversion of
the notes at the pleas ure of the holders
| into bonds bearing such rates ofinterest
| as may be authorized by congress on
the debt into which the present outstand-
ing bonds may be funded


1t is not enough, it seems, that the
currency is already deprecated thirty
per cent that the Government has vi
olated it's contract with the holders, and
dishonored its pledge; but it is now pro


posed to strike off at least one third of
its market value, by stripping it of its
legal-tender character Its legal tender
character, Dv Wnlcn IL Is made lawful


money, and may be used in the pay.


ment of debts, has added at least one


third to its current value. And this


heavy loss the Secretary proposes to
infict upon the holders of the currency


at the time mentioned. The Govern


ment could be guilty of no clearer act
of Reputation. To strike off one third


of their value in the hands of the people


does not differ in principle from max
ing them wholly worthless While
they are deprecated and unprovided for,
the Government has no right to with
draw from them any element which
| goes to constitute their value


To show that such measure would be
repudiation in fact, let US consider the
character of the contract between the
holder Of a greenback notes aud the Gov