Year: 1868




Jay Cooke, little Buckeye village bankers
clerk, has the pretension to issue every few
days pronunciamento on the national
finances, and to inform the world what he did apd
recommends should be done with regard to this
important matter. This is the great man who
made discovery equal to that of the mag
netic telegraph or Of the steam power-the
discovery that "a national debt is national
blessing" He has made, too, another more
important discovery to himself personally, and
that is how to make millions of money in four
or five years through the favor of Treasury
minister's and without any other financial ca
pacity than that of an ordinary clerk in one of
our city banks. He happened by lucky acci-
dent to obtain the favor Of Mr.. Chase when
that gentleman was Secretary of the Treasury,
and from that time the foundation of his for
tune was laid. Any one who could not have
become millionaire with the opportunities
Jay Cooke had thrown in his way must be a
very stupid man indeed. Yet, because he has
had an immense fortune literally lavished upon
him through the accident Of his acquaintance
with Secretary of the Treasury, he imagines
himself to be statesman in financial matters,
and presumes to lay down the financial policy
of the government.


We do not propose to comment uponhis long
rigmarole-which, by the way, has been pub
lished several times beforehand shall refer
simply to the only point or two worthy of the
least notice. First, he says there is no use
practically in agitating the question of pay
ing the five-twenties in greenbacks. In this
he is right, because payment cannot be de-
manded for long time to come, and by that
time we may have returned to specie pay
ments; while in the meantime the government
can buy up at the greenback market price and
cancel as much of this debt as it may have
spare currency funds for that purpose. 1t is
not practical question, therefore, just now.
But Mr.. Jay Cooke, like Mr.. McCulloch, wants
to force specie payments in order to make the
bonds worth their face in gold, or, in other
words, wants to increase the value of
the bondholders' property thirty to forty
per cent, and to increase the weight
of the debt upon the people in the





buy up as much of the debt as possible in
the same deprecated currency in which most
of it was paid for before we reach specie pay
ments. That will do injustice to no one, and
will relieve the people of portion of the bur-
densome debt. But while Jay Cooke says the
payment of the ive-twenties in greenbacks is
not a practical question just now, he argues
that the government is pledged and bound to
pay these bonds in gold. His opinion of the
law creating this debt, his assertion as to its
meaning, is only that of an individuals but he
puts the obligation to pay in gold on another
foundation also. He, Jay Cooke, promised
those who purchased the fve-twenty bonds
that they should be paid in gold Whether he,
as the agent, went beyond the authority of
law or not in order to sell the bonds and to get
as much commission as possible is of no conse-
quence; Jay Cooke promised they should be
paid in gold, and in gold they must be paid.
The assertion. of Thaddeus Stevens, who intro
duced the bill, and Of the members of Congress
generally who passed it, that the payment of
the principal of the fve-twenties in coin was
speciaHy ohieteu, uhu tuat tuc Tcaeou Vi thiS
omission was well understood at the time, is OF
no consequence as long as Mr.. Jay Cooke
understands the matter differently and pro-
missed payment'in coin. We advise Mr.. Jay
Cooke to let this be his last pronunciamento,
unless he wants to disgust the people by his
assumption or to create greater hostility to the
bondholders' selfish clamors. Shylock-like
the bondholders may extort the full face of the
bond, right or wrong; but let them beware
how they take the blood Of their victim.


Irregularities of the Post Once.