Year: 1864

If Themistocles was proficient in the art
of making q small city into large one, Mr..
Chase is at least equally entitled to claim the
credit of making a great State into little
one. Yet, let us not be unjust, even to this
mighty master in the art of ruin. Candor
must admit that the problem set before him
admitted of but one solutiOn-a solution
more or less complete, according to the ge-
MUS of the philosopher to which it was sub
mitted. That problem may fairly be said
to be-Given nation determined on war,
thirsting for revenge, Unsuitable of empire,
steadily resolved to conquer, but equally
resolved to conquer without any immediate
personal or pecuniary sacrifice, to extract
from it men, materials and money. AS re-
CARDS men, the resources of voluntary en-
listment were very soon exhausted, con-
scription did not yield what was required,
and the only resource left was to bribe into
the ranks those who could neither be forced
nor persuaded. The enlistment very early
became question of pay and bounty, and
the supply of men speedily resolved itself
into the deeper and more difficult problem
of the supply of money. How, then, was
money to be obtained? According to the
Old World traditions, the first step would
seem to be to increase to the utmost posi-
BILE limit the taxation of the people. But
Congress, with keen eye to its own re-
election, was unwilling to impose unpopu-
lar burdens on its constituents, and it seems
that the whole contribution which the
United States have made toward bearing
by immediate taxation the expenses of
that mighty war in which they are engag-
ed, has been the collection of the sum of
ten millions, by which the war revenue of
twenty-tour millions exceeds the old peace
revenue of fourteen millions. Ready money,
fho,, 1,at,, ,tt Of fhn Ia
before the eyes of Mr.. Chase the boundless
and enticing field of credit; and the ques-
tion naturally arose, how the credit of the
community could best be employed toward
satisfying its enormous demands. To an or
dnary mind the question would have been
between the issue OF government securities
and the initiation of the currency. 1t is
here that we recognize the hand of the mas
ter. Instead of troubling himself, as COM
mon man would have done, with arguing
the respective merits of these two schemes,
Mr.. Chase's mighty mind elevated itself
above the controversy, and determined to
reconcile the conflicting merits of worthless
paper and deprecated stocks by boldly
grasping both in the same scheme, and
working at once the issue of bonds to the
utmost extent to which they could be sold,
and at the same time overissuing inconverti-
BILE paper till it requires some two hundred
and fifty dollars in paper to purchase
hundred in silver or gold. Nay, more, as
if these desperate eXpedients were not
enough, Mr.. Chases genius contrived to COM
bine them; he Gontrived to suppress the notes
issued by private banks all over the coun-
try-notes varying in value according to
the state of the currency in each province,
and by giving the banks leave to issue gov
ernment notes against government securi-
ties he contrived to obtain the very utmost
that could be got upon credit from people
firmly resolved upon war, but still more
firmly resolved that only by borrowing and
tampering with the circulating medium
would they contribute to its expenses
These great principles once thoroughly un-
derstoOd, the career of Mr.. Chase becomes
simple in the extreme; like Columbus egg,
the whole difficulty disappears the moment
the manner of action is explained. The
maxim which lies at the bottom of the system
isto Danish from your mind all idea ofpaying
the principal, and, in order to make the re-
quired sum which is never to be paid as
large as possible, to be particularly careful
with regard to the payment of the in
terest. Interest according to the school
of which Mr.. Chase may be considered
the founder, is not sum paid for
the forbearance of money; it is rather a
DulU Dy InedilS Vi WHICH iTeSH ulOuey may
be obtained. AS long, therefore, as more
money can be got, the interest must be paid
with the utmost punctuality; the sum bor-
rowed may have sunk by the depreciation
of the currency to two-ffths of its metallic
value, but the interest must be paid in gold,
although by that means the charge is much
more than doubled. Having thus done
everything in his power to drive gold out
of the country, Mr.. Chases system required
him to do everything in his power to keep
it back, and hence number of operations
which consisted in selling at loss when
ever gold showed an inconvenient tendency
to rise, and expelling it from the country
by prohibiting those who dealt in it from
selling it like any other commodity in open
market, with the intention, when no more
money was to be borrowed, of repudiating
first the interest, and, after decent inter-
val Of suspense, the principal. If any one
doubts the truth of this picture, let him ask
himself by what means he supposes that the
present currency of America is to be restor-
ed to the standard before the war, or how
he can suppose that any one in his senses
who ever meant to pay would be borrow
ing money at a rate of interest more than
double of that which it nominally bears.