Year: 1864

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ory notes of the Government cannot buy


supplies or labor. Great manufacturers


hold out such inducements to purchaser:


who will pay in produce, that even the


stringent orders of the War Department


forrbidding farmers to barter their crops


for indispensable machinery, have become


powerless. Mechanics refuse to work


for anything but provisions. Teachers


demand pittance in eatibles or small


fortune in Treasury notes. Worst of all,


Government itself offers premium on


all taxes paid in kind, by assessing pro-


visions furnished for that purpose of the


highest market price. 1t floods the coun-


try with certificates of debt, instead of


the legitimate currency provided by Con-


gress.


The result is lamentabls, not because


there is poverty in the country, far from
it, because mismanagement has produced
all the symptoms of exhaustion, disheart-
ening the patriot and elating the enemy.


There are still ample resources in this
country. large crops are even now at


hand, public works remain. and property
of every kind abounds, Even specie has
not entirely left US, but it is no longer to
be seen it is bid away in stockings, coal
holes and inaccessable hiding places
For the political difficulties of the coun-
try stimulate to boarding, sthe chief antag-
onistic influence to The circulation of coin.
THE circu lation is its living function, but
boarding is the effect of mistrust. An
ignorant population like the rustic French
and negroe with US. always hoard.


But now, in the hour of our crisis, we
all hoard because we are all ignorant
We are utterly at sea as to the stale Of
our finances. Who knows the condition
of opr Treasury, the state of our banks
and the amount of our daily expenditure?
The people do not know it, the Secretary
of the Treasury does not tell US, and we
much fear the Goyefhment itself does
not choose to know unpleasant truthes.-
But this is cowardiy policy unworthy snch
able men, as we have entrusted with the
government of our great country, Unwor-
thy the implicit confidence that meets all
their,demands and appeals, unworthy of
a people struggling for life and death.
Never did nation pour more willingly
its treasures into the public chest. Mil
lions are paid. day by day, promptly and
cbeeEfully. The rich give their carpets
and curtains to cloth the ragged soldiers
in the field. The poor give their last
crumb of bread to feed the weary by the
wayside. Old men and striplings take
their lives in their hands and bringit them
selves at the first summons.


And is Govern ment alone to do moth
ing? Are they ever to go on begging,
begging, begging? Is there to be no end
to these appeals to the people to furnish
the army with shoes and socks and cloth
ing, to provide the hospitals with lint,
with provisions, with Stimulants, TO lend
their corn and their meat to some dis
tressed General? Whatever .is asked
.or is always forthcoming-is cheerfully
given-but what fearful vast what un-
pardonable want of system and provident
management And so with the treasury.
Is Mr.. Trenholm limited to persuasive
advertisements and urgent appeals to the
people to favor this loa and take that pa
per? No one knows better than he does
that in finance, above all, there is but
one motive that regulates its movements.
and that is interest. What we want is
not a Sangrado to bleed US to death, but
a careful steward who shall make the
most of our estate. Confding not de-
voted patriotism in the good judge
ment of our President, we accept his
Secretary of the Treasury on trust
and cheerfully put our all in his hands.
His Golfers swolIow it greedily; it disap-
pears, we know not whittier, and not a
word is vouchedsaved to US as the mann er
in which it is applied. 1t would be a
comfort, at least, to know that we did not
suffer in vain, and that if we rstarve in
silence that our brave brothers ia the field
are we'll taken care Of.


What measures have been taken to
distribute the burden equally, to relieve
it where it presses too hard, to secure the
wise and economical system of percep-
ton and distribution, to provide for re-
turn to specie payment after the subsid-
ence of the crisis? OF all these points
we are left profoundly ignorant. Is 1t
wonder then that mistrust and restless
ness appears here and there? There is
the same steadines among the people to
sacrifice the half, nay the whole of their
property rather than fail in the enter