Year: 1862




Mr.. Chase has recently been inviting proposals
for new loan Of eleven millions of dollars. and
has eyinoed great anxiety 70 procure Il. proba-
bly, with view Of discharving some of the large
indebtedness TO the army. which one o. our radi-
cal contemporaries estimated moath ago at
fifty millions Of dollars. But the loan asked
for would go only . very short way In paying
of that deb. TO the army, which has probably
accumulated by this time to At least sixty mil
lions. This disgraceful impoverishment Of tho
national Treasury is all due 10 tho injudicious
system Of finance forced upon the country by
Congress and tho Secretary Of the Treasury.


Undoubtedly this will be enc Of the first and
most important questions that will be forced on
Congress at the approaching session. Con-
gress will be called upon to regulate the cur
rency Of the country in such a way as to save
us from the ruinous depreciation which that
currency is undergoing. The mixed basis Of q
national currency and of State bank note cur
rency must be abandoned, and one or the other
must have sole possession of tho field. For our
will substitute for the present monetary chaos
the pure and simple government issues of Trea-
sury notes.


The effect Of the withdrawal Of the
$3OO,OoO,O00 of bank notes now in circulation
will be to reduce the present extravagant price
of gold, and to place the government issues on
a par, or nearly 80, with gold.


We have repeatedly instanced the case Of
England, when, in her great wars with Napo-
leon, she not only maintained her own immense
ornaments, but betrayed great part of the
cost of those maintained by her allies, and yet
managed to avoid a great financial crisis She
did this by the means Of the Bank Of England,
under the direction, however, Of her great
statesman, William Pitt. BY keeping down the
paper currency to the actual necessities Of
trade an undue depreciation was prevented, and
specie was worth only small premium, varying,
of course, with the various phases of the war, and
the greater or less excitement of the public
mind caused by new and alarming complica
tions-as, for instance, just previous to the bat
tie of Waterloo, when gold went up to forty
per cent Not so with us. We have had only
eighteen months of hostilities, and our currency





so many years. Our financial managers seemed
not to possess the intellect to perceive that
the sudden doubling of the paper currency
could have no other effect than 70 enhance
largely the price of specie and derange our
whole system Of exchange. 1t is for Congress
to set to work earnestly and inte.ligently to
remedy this great evil, which is daily becoming
more and more felt, and to devise plan for re-
storing paper currency to something like its fair
relations to specie. The solution of the pro-
blem is simple enough: it is to compel the
withdrawal either of Treasury notes or of the
bank notes Of States from circulation. Which
will it be? Let Congress decide rs soon after
its meeting as may be.


The Grand Jury and Public 3-orn1ity.


During times of war laws are very apt to be
disregarded During civil wars especially the
ordinary safeguards of morality and propriety
are often greatly relaxed Under such circum-
stances, therefore, it sometimes happens that
our greatest dangers are not from the enemies
OF the people, but from the people themselves
When the French Revolution suspended the
laws of France, universal anarchy, murder,
robbery and rapine ensued In our rebel
States the crime Of treason seems to have
developed all other sorts Of crimes, and the
rebel papers complain Of men shot down in the
streets, of frequent burglaries Of highway rob-
berries, of incendiarsm and of the terrible in
crease Of all sorts of criminalte- consequent
upon the practical abrogaton az loca, laws
<ha q
behooves the guardians of the public peace,
therefore, to be especially careful dnring such
times as these that no offender shall take adj
vantage OF the popular excitement and escape
notice and punishment. The necessities Of the
period demand the strictest vigilance from all
legal officers, and particularly from our grand
juries and district attorneys. whose duty it is
to indict criminals and bring them to trial.
We sincerely hope that, in this city at least
this necessary vigilance will not be wanting.


If there be anything which our laws and their
executives should strictly guard during this
civil war IL certainly Is the right everv
citizen to exercise the elective franchise unmo-
Tested and undeterred either by force or threats.
Popular elections are the safety valves Of the
republic. Remove or obstruct them. and either
official despotism or popular revolution must
ensue. But if thus supremely important during
the most ordinary times, how much more i'm
portant Is tho undisturbed exercise Of the right
Of suffrage during . revolutionary period like
this Those who interfere with 1t at any time
are deserving Of severe punishment; but for
those who interfere with 1t now no punishment
can be too great 1t is the duty of the Grand
Jury therefore, to thoroughly investigate the
circumstances connected with the recent elec-
ton in this State, and TO spare none OF those
who have been guilty of doing anything to pre-
vent full and fair expression OF the will OF the
people. There is Cassius NJ. Clay Tor instance,