Year: 1868

number of resolutions or propositions made
in Congress relative to the national finances.
This is the most difficult subject to understand
and the most complicated Of any connected
with the science of government There is SO
much to unlearn, so many prejudices asso-
ciated with established habits and interests
to overcome, in devising sound system of
finance for our abnormal condition, that
few are capable of handling the subject Yet
we see every little village politician rushing
forward with his crude nostrums. The tyro is
always more presumptuous than the philoso-
pher Propositions too numerous to particu-
lar.ze are made in both houses Of Congress
to contract the currency, to expand 1t, to fund
the debt, to let The debt remain floating as it is
for while, to reduce the interest, to pay the
interest in lawful money, to pay the interest in
coin, to keep up mixed currency, to make the
currency uniform, and so forth No one has
subRtted a thoroughly practical sys.em on
the whole Members are only tinkering with
difficult and comprehensive subject


This is not the time to lcgislate upon the ma
tional finances. Congress did well in stopping
any further contraction of the currency. That
simply leaves us where we are, prevents COM
merclal and financial disturbance, and the
derangement OF existing values and contracts,
and gives the country an opportunity to grow
gradually and hcalthfully with the present
currency up to fixed and sound condition.
Nothing more should be done at present with
the currency, so far as the volume OF ii is con-
do
however, to pass the bill, now under considera-
ton by the Committee on Banking and Cur
rency, to retire the national bank notes and
substitute legal tenders in their place. This
would neither initiate nor contract the cur
rency but would make it uniform and save
to the government and people something like
twenty five millions in lawful money year.
Such measure would be excellent, well
timed, and an admirable corollary to the anti
contraction bill that has been passed. Tho
two together would give us stable currency,
q uniform legal tender currency, issued by and.
based solely on the government, and would
save to the Treasury twenty-five millions
year. Beyond this Congress should not
attempt to legislato on financial questions for
the present.


We are approaching the time for holding the
national nominating Presidential conventions
After these have been held--in about three
months from this time-the campaign will be
carried on TO the exclusion OF everything else
till November, when the issue will be dc :; led.
Members of Congress will be 50 absorbed in
making the next President from this time Tor
ward till the question DO settled, that there
will be no opportunity for the mature con-
sderation of the difficult problems pertaining
to our national finances. Any Legislation on
the subject must be necessarily hasty imma-
ture and calculated to disorganze rather than
improve the revenue and bus ness of the coun-
try. Besides, how can Congress logis!ate
upon any general system applicable to the
whole country-and that should be the only
legisla aiiOn-while more than onc-third Of the
republic, and the most productive portion of
il, J. uarcpresentcd and rapidly running TO
ruin? How can we put the national finances
on a sound basis until we know more about
the futuref We are passing through an extra
ordinary political, social and moral rcvolu-
ton. We do not know what the radical policy
of Congress may end in. 1t has virtually
1bolished the Executive, IL has erected mill
tary Dictatorship over the South, it seems de-
termined to make the semi-barbarian Africans
Of the Southern States controlling political
power in the republic, and ii is preparing to
remove the President from his Office and put a
violent Jacobin In his place. In fact, this
radical Congress seems resolved TO make the
next President by revolutionary means and
against the will Of the people, 4 they cannot
by constitutional means. How absurd, then,
to attempt TO legislate about financial matters
when we are standing, probably, over vol
cano--vhen, at all events, the political and
critical condition Of the country absorbs all
thoughts


In the course OF few months the voice Of
the people will be heard on the great and vital
political issue OF the time. We shall then
know what The future Of the republic is to bc.
We shall know whether we are to live under
constitution, Jacobin directory in Congress
or military dictatorship. Until thon, as we
said before, i Is utterly useless, waste Of
time and dangerous to legislatc upon tho
national finances. After next November we
shall know how to regulate the finances to
suit the circumstances Of the time and tho
future OF the country, but not before. We
advise members Of Congress, therefore, to cease
tinkering with the subject till the Presidential
election be over and our future condition be
known.


TRAIN GoING 0N--George Francis Train