Year: 1862

rcncy.


The finances Of the country are so rapidly
going TO ruin as to create the most serious
alarm in the minds of the business men of this
commercial capital. The currency of the coun-
try is so deprecated that a paper dollar is
worth only from sixty-eight to seventy cents in
specie, and the wages of the clerk, the me-
chanic and the laborer is to that extent cut
down, SO that discomfort is universal; while the
national credit has so suffered that the govern
ment is embarrassed for the means OF carrying
on the war. According to a statement in the
Tribune, the sum of fifty millions was due to
the army month ago, and it is still due, with
the exception of twelve millions paid q few
days ago, having been raised by temporary
loan in Wall street. There is, probably. the
same amount due to the navy-perhaps to both
arms of the service one hundred millions with
no immediate prospect Of payment. The troops
and sailors are naturally dissatisfied. What
the national debt now is, including outstanding
bills as we'll as those audited, cannot be ascer
tanned While Secretary Chase says it is less
than seven hundred Millions Thaddeus Stevens,
Chairman of the Committee of Ways and
Means, asserts that il will reach two thousand
millions by the end of the year, which is no
small difference.


OF the whole debt there are only one hundred
and forty millions funded, while the rest is
floating about in Treasury bonds, certificates,
United States legal tender notes, &c, to the
amount OF about five hundred millions. This
enormous currency, added to the currency Of
the State banks, already sufficient for the wants
of tho country, has produced depreciation of
the whole and an imitation of prices which
press upon the masses of the people with
great severity. Either the issues of the State
banks ought to have been prohibited or check
ed by tax, or the demand notes Of the govern
ment ought never to have been issued. The
prime cause of the evil is the doubling Of the
currency.


For this Secretary Chase is responsible. He
came here a lawyer from Ohio utterly ignorant
Of finance. We endeavored to enlighten his
darkness, and so did the fnanciers Of Wall
street, who at the same time gave him one hun
dred and fifty millions of money to help him
along in his department.. But the instruction
and the money were thrown away upon him.
His financial schemes adopted by Congress in
its last session, have proved equally ruinous TO
the national credit and to individual interests.
History was written in vain for him. Instead
of initiating The plan of Pitt at the time of the
great war OF England with the French re-
public by raising loans and levying tax
TO pay one-half of the principal and the interest
on the funded balance, which would have the
double effect of keeping down the national
debt and buoying up the national credit, by
prompt payment Of the interest in specie, Mr.
Chase flooded the country with irredeemable
paper, some CT it bearing interest and some OF
it not, and making no provision, by any system
Of taxation, to pay either principal or interest
in gold, but merely on the kiting system. pay
ing with one piece OF inconvertible paper the
interest due on another. He depended upon
temporary loans to supply the funds required
for the expenses Of the government beyond its
income from revenue-a foolish and shortsight-
cd plan Of living from hand to mouth. And
whereas it is equally customary among govern
ments and business men to make short loans
when money is dear and long loans when
money is cheap. Mr.. Chase reverses this prao-
tice and makes short loans now when money
il cheap, in consequence Of capital being with
drawn from business. OF the whole war debt
there are only sixty eight millions funded for
twenty years.


Now the question is, what is to be done un-
der these circumstances Congress, upon as
sembling in the beginning OF the next month,
ought TO take up the matter Immediately, re-
viewing its whole action in the last session
aud repeating its enormous blunders. To
this end we would direct its attention to the
ably written memorial to represented to il,
which we publish in another column, and
which il being numerously signed by tire inan.
ciers of Wall street, the merchants. the men,
bers of Congress and the members of Con-
grcss elect of the Empire City. This plan
drawn up by men who know what finance is
il remarkable for its comprehensive simplicity
and its admirable adaptation u the peculiar
condition and wants Of the American people
The plan consists of two parts. First, TO issue
legal teDdcr bonds; and. secondly, 10 return to
specie payments for all United States bills
from twenty dollars down to one. The modus
operond; is this:-The new funded securities to
be twenty years coupon bonds, bearing four
and one-half per cent interest, into which the
present irredeemable demand notes are to be
convertible within q limited time, and thus to
be Withdrawn from circulation. The bonds
ranging from twenty dollars to FIVE thousand
dollars to be legal tender for debts due by
the government or by one citizen to another.
1t is law Of finance that, when we foat more
money than can be proftably employed in
trafs, we must make ii bear interest or il will
depseciate in current value. The proposed