Year: 1867

FINANCE AND CURRENCY.


Under the above heading the New
York Tribune, has some pertinent re:
marks which We present to cur read
ers that they may see for themselves
the evidences of the financial storm
which is now brewing. That paper
says:


ssAs to the prospective action Of
Congress on finance and currency,
our guess may prove quite erroneous;
but it is our impression that the sum
total of the doings Of this session will
be just about nothing at all. We
Judge that there is majority in the
House who would be grati6ed if fur
ther imitation and debasement could
be covered by any decent prctcxt; VIC
trust that there is no majority in eli
ther House ready to venture upon it
without a pretcxt. The Senate, we
hope, would not vote to initiate wheth-
er with or without pretext, but it
has yet not broken ground for prompt
resumption; and does not allow us to
forget that it originated the provision
of last session whereby the Secretary
of the Treasury was forbidden to
make good the Governments grcen=
back promises to pay. Until further
developments; We shall presume that
proximity of the 4th of March and
urgency Of other business will pre-
clude decisive action on the currency
at this session. Meantime. Seereta=-
ry McCoiloch will 60 on with his
regular withdrawal and destruction
of greenbacks at the rate Of $4,000,-
600 per month. Thatisnotm much, but it
is better than nothing.


GAS to the various projects which
look to the wholesale Withdrawal Of
the notes of our national banks and
their replacement by greenbacks, we
regard them ali with complacency, if
not with positive favor; but We insist
that resumption shall be the first step.
Let us have no more systematic ma
tional falsehood. When our green
backs we're first authorized and issued,
it was distinct understanding that
they should be convertible into inter-
est-bearing bonds, at the option of
the holder, and that they should be
redeemed in coin at the earliest pos
sible day. They were issued asa 81
gantic forced loan, in satisfaction of
our imperiled Unions urgent impc-
rious needs. The expcdicnt scarcely
differed, little in principle from, hut
was an Improvement upon, that de-
basement of;the coinage so familiar to
the despotic rulers Of the middle ages.
Its justification is found in the ma
tional peril wherein it originated, and
Which it powerfully aidedto overcome.
But, though a weary army may be
marched FIVE miles further on the
stimulus of a gill of whisIey per man,
it by no means follows that its eff
cheney would be increased bykecping
it drunk evermore. 1t is high time
that we began to taper off for, though
getting sober is less delicious expe-
rience than that of getting drunk, it
is decidedly more wholesome, and
the lapse of time renders it indispen-
sable.


"When the greenbacks were first
issued, they were tacitly regarded as
promises to pay assponas VIC could
so soon. at least, as the stress of war
should have passed away. Now that
we have peace and are are paying off
the national debt rather than incur
ring it, let US resume payment; at all
events, let us not multiply falsehoods
which have not even the doubtful
merit of deceiving. Only let the
Treasury resume payment in coin,
and then if there bean equitable
mode Of replacing our bank note cur
.Tency by greenhacks, we have not
she slightest objection.


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