Year: 1877




Specie resumption may come quicker than
anybody expects 1t may come, not by non
est PAYMENT but by general bankruptcy and
reputation. 1t may involve losses. not by the
ounce, but by the ton. Certainly 1t should DE
the aim of all reasonable and just men to
avoid that greatest of all calamities, forced
resumption through general bankruptcy. 1et
there are some writers, both at the west ana
at the East who are doing their utmost to
make resumption impossible otherwise than
by overwhelming disaster. One insists that
resumption must come, if at all, without con-
traction; another is equally positive that re-
sumption without contraction Is Impossible
and that contraction would be ruinous 1t is
pity that men cannot reason ftelllgen'iy'
The two opinions mentioned are equally ap-
surd and dangerous, but each has many adher-
ents.


Resumption is contraction Of the. debt now
employed as currency. There may or may not
be previous contraction or payment OF that
debt. i'm order to prepare for resumption. III
all of the debt which the holders wish to have
maid should be paid prior to the formal resump-
tion. no farther contraction or payment
would follow, for nobody proposes to go
ont into the streets and compel holders
of legal-tender notes to present them. But if,
ON tbe other hand that proportion of legal
tender notes which the country will not en-
ploy in circulation at par should not be with
drawn. retired or paid prior to resumption, 1t
would have to be withdrawn and PAID by re-
sumption-by direct payment OF specie Tor
promises outstanding. Hence 1t Is obvious
that If any part of the excess OF paper cur


Il
rency above the quantity which the country
will circulate at par should be relssned,
after having been once redeemed, the Govern
ment would only be compelled TO pay out so
much more specie for an equivalent amount OF
other notes. AS long as there Is surplus,
and to the full extent of that surplus, notes
Will be presented to the Treasury Tor redemp-
ton; and if the Government should unnecessa-
rily increase. by new issue or reissue, the
amount which IT has to redeem, 1t would he
simply borrowing money with one hand in or
der to have the expense and bother of paying
back that money with the other hand.


Now comes the Western opponent OF re-
sumption, and easily overturDing the notion
that there can be resumption (Which Is pay
ment of notes. without payment OF notes
(Which is contracton), proceeds to offer an
other notion equally absurd, viz: that all the
! legal-tenders would be offered for payment III
case of resumption, and therefore we should
| presently be left with no currency whatever,
except the coin in circulation. We waste no
time In showing that some part of the National
Bank circulation would remain. The dullest
| Ounce in the country knows that If all the
| legal-tenders should be withdrawn. some part
of the National Banks would continue to ex
ercise their right to issue bank notes secured
| by United States bonds, and would hold against
such notes the needful reserve III specie instead
of legal-tenders. If it were possible to ex-
change all legal-tender notes for coin before
o'clock this day, the country would still have
the best paper currency ever seen i'll the
United States, currency secured by deposit
of Government bonds, protected 10y as large
reserve Of coin alone as the banks now have
of coin and greenbacks, and capable of expan-
sion or contraction in obedience to laws of
| trade, only upon conditions which would pre-
vent its depreciation. If the amount should be
insufficient banking is free and the circulation
/ would at once expand


| But the notion that all legal-tenders would
be presented for payment in case OF resump-
| ton, and must be met by payment of specie,
! is superlatvely absurd. Conceding. for the
! sake of argument, the other notion that all the
| bank circulation would be surrendered because
all the lega-tenders would be withdrawn, we
appeal to the common sense of sober men upon
these propositions:


|. That some part of the legaltender notes
would remain in circulation, exchangeable at
par for coin.


III. That such part would thus remain in cir
culation "a, together with the coin in use
would supply the actual needs of the country
for circulating medium. That part would
never be presented for payment, and therefore
could not be paid or redeemed. The excess
and no more, would either have been with
drawn prior to resumption, or would be xe-
sentcd for redemption.


| ILL., That part which would remain in circu-
lation, if all bank notes should be retired
would at least be greater than the amount of
paper money used at par before the war, name
/ ", $207, 900, 900, plus any difference between
the specie in circulation then and now, plus
the increase required by the expansion of trade
and industry, the increase in population, and
| the territorial enlargement of the country with
/ in seventeen years.


1t is not merely nonsense, but very mischiev-
Gus and dangerous Misrepresentation to pre-
! tend that return to specie payments involves
the payment and cancellation of all paper notes
now in use The men who persist in this as
sertion know better. Their aim is to prevent
resumption by deceiving people as to its con-