Year: 1874

n0nCeas


No matter what may be thought of the
theories advanced in the letter Of the Hon.
Hugh McCulloch, ex-Secretary Of the Treasury,
which we publish to-day, there can be but one
opinion OF the clearness with which they are
stated. A clear statement is generally
correct one, and this is an advantage which
Mr. McCulloch has over his opponents in
financial matters for we have yet to read an
argument in favor of the imitation of the cur
rency that was not in some of its essential
parts obscure. But the letter of this dis
tinguished fnancer cannot be misunder-
Stood except by those who ore resolved upon
misrepresenting.


The opinions of Mr. McCulloch upon the
currency question are we'll known, it is true,
yet their utterance now is timely. The ques-
tion is not sectional, as it was feared it would
become, nor will it dominate politics, yet it
must enter largely into the present Congress
sional canvass. Especially in the West this
will be the case where the infationists are still
busy, and not ready to despair because they
have utterly failed to array the Western States
against the Eastern. They will in certain
districts make the main issue financial one,
and Mr.. McCulloch's splendid appeal to the
honesty and practical business intelligence Of
the American people ought to have
given strong reasons for his belief that 'the
restoration OF the specie standard should be
the end and aim of all legislation bearing
upon the subject of the currency" and that
to expand our irredeemable paper would be
only to extend our misfortunes. His plan
for resumption does not differ in its impor-
tant features from that recommended by the
President. He would fix December, 1876, as
the time after which United States notes
should cease to be legal tender; he would
retire at least fifty million dollars of United
States notes per annum until all should be
retired, and prohibit their reissue; he would
issue an equal amount, if required, to ma
tional banks, and after the specie standard
has been established by these means he would
make banking free. These we believe to be
the best and quickest methods of
obtaining q paper circulation that shsn
be to the full value of its promises
convertible into gold or silver If there is
better way than that of the withdrawal of the
legal tenders it has not yet been found. Of
the proposition of the Democratic Convention of
Indiana to pay the five-twenty bonds in depre-
ciated greenbacks Mr.. McCulloch speaks in
fitting terms, and shows how falsely the law
under which they were issued has been inter-
preted by these fnanciers of the prairies. ''To
repudiate all these promises now," the ex-Sec-
retary emphatically says, 'the people of the
United States would reach depth of degrada-
ton and dishonor to which no nation has yet
descended" Happily there is no danger of
such an act of suicide. Reputation is by
both political parties repudiated. Even the
Indiana Convention passed its resolution for
the payment of the bonds in greenbacks be-
cause it was ignorant of what it was doing.


The views of Mr.. McCulloch upon the tariff
are given with considerable tulness, and, of
course, incline to free trade-toward ''a tariff
in which revenue should be the object and not
the'incident" But that which gives to his
letter its greatest value is the positive, manly
manner in which he has advocated sound
measures for the speedy resumption of specie
payments and for free banking, and the power
full arguments with which he has demolished
the theory that imitation can create wealth and
prosperity, and, in his own words, proved that
''the value Of property is not dependent upon
fiction"