Year: 1869

tions; Gleanings and Gossip.


Is Repudiation she Way so Resumpiions


One would think so from the arguments ad-
vanced in some Of our leading journals The
nation has outstanding two kinds OF obliga-
tions, one kind bearing interest and not yet
due, the other bearing no interest and over
due A note in which no time of payment is
mentioned is equivalent in reason and in law
u a note payable on demand. Otherwise the
promiser could without violating the letter OF
the contract, defraud his creditor of his Just
due by deferring indefinitely the time oil pay
ment A refusal to pay such notes on 20
mand is therefore, if voluntary repuu'a'ion'
and such the enlightened Judgment oi man
kind will eonstrue it. The plan OF using tne
gold in in the Treasury to buy bonds that are
not ,lue instead of accumulatlng it to pay our
notes that are due amounts to this virtual re-
pudiation. Our past failure to pay those obl-
rations ON demand from want Of means or
from inability to agree upon plan of paying
them, has prevented the more rapid restora-
ton Of our credit abroad and kept our bonds
below par. The want of plan mas proved
D90 CAOu6h' 0NNh pioA Va OOhDOh~sO AOPo-
diation by diverting to other purpose, the
means we might devote to paying our failed
paper, is just as much worse than no plan at
all, as criminality is worse than negligence.
This is the moral aspect of the question


Looking at it in merely financial point OF
view, it is but back door way to resumption.
1t will postpone indefinitely any direct at
tempt to redeem our deprecated currency,
while its effect in diminishing the supply OF
our bonds will be scarcely appreciable. In
view of the exceptionable means used to effect
the diminution, it can scarcely be counted on to
raise the price of our securities in the markets
Of the world. When we pay our demand notes
they withstand at par and we shall restore conf
dence not only in our honesty but in our. abili-
ty to pay all our obligations as they mature.
That of itself will bring up our bonds up to
their natural level without redeeming one Of
them We can then borrow money at four Or
five per cent to pay our present six per cent
bonds In this way we can save from twenty
to forty million dollars annually by reduc-
tion in the rate of interest paid by the govern
ment, while the impulse given to industry by
reducing the rate at which money can be bor-
rowed for productive enterprises by private in
dividuals, will greatly, increase our means of
payment


Contrast with this the plan of buying up our
bonds before they are due and thus leaving
our demand notes unprovided for. This in
wolves no contraction OF the currency and con-
sequently it will remain deprecated either till
the wants of business expand sufficiently to
require for circulation the whole volume at
par, or till we have bought mp all our bonds
and get ready to commence on the greenbacks.
AT the least calculation this will require ten or
Afteen years. The only influence tending to
raise the price Of our bonds will be the pres
snce in the market of q new bidder and that a
government trying to draw ncurishment from
the rottenness of its own dishoner. When we
have bought up all our bonds we shall then be
prepared with stain upon our honor, to
start where we may start now without any
such stain. We must sooner or later either f.
nalIy repudiate greenbacks or pay them. The
sooner we commence paying the sooner we
shall restore our credit. BY commencing now
we can in few years restore our credit by
lifting at most $3O0, 900, 900 or $40000O,OO0 OF
our obligations By commencing with. the
purcQaSe OF D0nuS we snail nave W iiib Dt
tween 50, 600, 900 and 90 800 900 OOO leaving
industry to wallow for an indefinite period in
the slough of an irredeemable paper currency
and thus causing loss to the country more
than sufficient TO pay the whole national debt.


1t Is as unsafe as it is unwise to postpone re-
sumption so long. Four years more will not
have to pass away before we shall have anoth-
or presidential election. Demagogues like
Pendleton and Butler will be trying and per-
haps successfully to make the depreciation OF
the currency pretense for repudiation The
sanction accoFsfed to their sctonse- weT as to
the substitute for it of buying up our bonds
before paying greenbacks, shows but too plain
ly how demoraiizing has been the effect of an
irredeemable paper currency in bunting the


moral perceptions of the community. There
are several exec llent plans for the resumption
of specie payments before Congress. Cannot
those who agree respecting the main features
Of the policy to be pursued sacrifice their in
dividual preferences in matters of detail so
that we may have good pIan even if not the
best one? eas an .4es Aas