Year: 1862

engagements


The War and the Money Question-Nhat


We Want and What Congress Should


Proceed at Once to Do.


While, under the skilful management Of Gen.
Mcclellan, our loyal people repose the fullest
confidence in the capabilities of our noble
volunteer army of six hundred and fifty thou
sand men, assisted by our gallant navy of
twenty-five thousand sailors, to do tho gum
powder work of suppressing this rebellion
before next July, we cannot shut our eyes to
the serious apprehensions afoat upon the
money questionable all-important money
question.


BY tie 1st of July next-the beginning of the
fiscal year of our government-we shall have
before us, in loans and liabilities of all sorts,
national debt of at least six hundred millions Of
dollars. How is this to be provided for? Mr..
Secretary Chase, with all his intelligent and
Jealous devotion to the subject, fails fully to
meet the question. He proposes partial taxa
ton for the immediate relief of the Treasury,
to some extent, and general issue Of United
States promises to pay. upon government bonds
by all our local banks, in lieu Of their own
paper. This plan, however, if attempted,
would, perhaps, result in serious conflict with
our State stocks and would require too much
time to carry it into general effect to answer
the purposes of immediate relief to the govern
ment and the country. In any form, the addi-
ton of six, FIVE, four, or even three hundred
millions to the paper circulation of our loyal
States, with nothing but government bonds to
show for it, cannot be safely undertaken with
out risking ruinous depreciation and financial
collapse. Why do gold and silver in our re-
volted States now command from thirty to fifty
per cent premium upon the paper of their best
banks? Because Of the universal depreciation
of their paper money by the rredeemable scrip
of their Confederate government.


But there will be no difficulty with Mr. Secre-
tary Chase in issuing q paper circulation o.
three or four hundred millions, if he can show
yearly cash account in his support Of two
hundred, or even hundred and fifty millions.
Taxation is the word, and the only word, which
is equal to the crisis. We believe that the cash
receipts Of the Treasury from the customs, in
Guiding the new tax upon tea and coffee, and
1rOm tue pubic liuCs, uuU ilVh uN AuSViAV
Tax bill passed last July, will hardly exceed
sixty millions of dollars for the fiscal year.
Putting it at sixty millions, we shall want an
additional sum of one hundred and forty mil
lions to place the bonds and notes and paper
circulation Of the government and the country
upon solid foundation. particularly as Mr..
Chase otherwise counts upon probable ma
tional debt at the end of the next fiscal year Of
thousand millions Of dollars.


Our policy is not to saddle the government
and the country with permanent national
debt, but to pay off as speedily as possible any
unavoidable debt suddenly resulting from the
extraordinary demands of a war; We want no
debt upon which the interest, in the course Of
time, will eat up the principal. 1t is the duty
of Congress, therefore, to provide the ways and
means, by direct and indirect taxation, for at
least one hundred millions of cash receipts into
the Treasury beyond the estimates Of Mr.. Chase
for the ensuing fiscal year. We understand
however, that Congress, as well as our banks, is
waiting for some great end decisive victory by
our army, under the belief hat one such deci-
sve victory will instantly relieve the Treasury
the banks and the country from oil their pre-
sent embarrassmsnts. But while the grass
grows the OK starves; and If this rebellion were
put down tomorrow we should still need the
Intervention of Congress TO prevent our fnan-
cial and commercial affairs from running into
the inextricable confusion of a sweeping paper
imitation and a ruinous explosion of the bubble.


II is the duty of Congress, against all contn.
gencies, to sustain the credit and paper issues Of
the government upon a solid foundation; and
in providing this 1t will be easy TO provide for
healthy paper and specie currency throughout
the country. In the next place il is the duty of
Congress to provide the relief of general bank
rupt law for our commercial and business
classes of all descriptions, which have been
prostrated by the unforeseen disasters and draw
backs OF this rebellion. Upon these matters the
the best possible way for strengthening the army,
the navy and the government in the great work
of suppressing this rebellion. OF all things we
must keep the head of our national Treasury
above water.


If we would escape the specie premiums of
our rcvoltcd States, and the countless issues of
worthless and indescribable shinplasters with
which they are flooded, we must resort to heavy
taxations Our loyal people are able and will
| ing to bear them, and especially when, in meet
ing them, they avoid the greater evils Of another
shinplaster imitation, to be followed by univcr-
sal financial rcvulsion Next, having established
the bonds and paper issues Of the Treasury upon
. solid cash basis, we call upon Congress for
the much needed relieving measure to our loyal
taxpaying people Of general bankrupt law.