Year: 1878

SOUND VIEWS BY GEN. MCCLELLAN.-Ir


contrast with the financial heresies of Rep


resentative Bland, Senators VOORHEES,, Stan


ley Matthews and others comes the view,


of Gen. Mcclellan on the great question


now before the nation. They were delivered


in his inaugural address at Trenton, New


Jersey, last week, on being sworn in as Gov


ernor of that State. He takes strong
financial views, as the following extract
will show:


Again, savage tribe, cut off from the
rest of the world by the forest or ocean,
may agree among themselves that a cowry
shell shall pass current for pig or a cow,
or for hundred of them; but when civil,
lied men, or other savages who do not place
the same value upon cowry shells, come
among them for the purposes Of trade they
Will inevitably refuse to accept them at a
price beyond their real value elsewhere un.
less they happen to know of some other SIM
pie races having something to sell who will
take them at the fictitious appraisal.


Now, this affects the agricultural and
manufacturing classes of the West and
South quite as much as it does the CONNER
cial classes of the seaboard. Unless COM
merce can dispose of the surplus products
of the West and South their interests must
languish, suffer, and perish. The CONNER
clal men cannot use cowry shells abroad,
nor can they. under a system which enacts
that cowry she'll shall be dollar, profita-
bly, dispose at home of objects purchased
abroad under a system which provides that
a dollar shall be just dollar, and nothing
more nor less. If the farmer is foolish
enough to accept q cOwry for a dollar in
the sale of his grain, he will find when he
desires to eXpend it at the store that he
will receive for it only what the storekeeper
considers its intrinsic value, and not dol.
lars worth, for the simple reason that the
seller cannot afford to make him present
OF the difference in value The reason why
the legal-tender notes deprecated so much
at one time was that there was then little
confidence in the ability of the Government
to redeem them. As that confidence in.
creased and approached certainty, so the
difference between legal tenders and gold
diminished, and whenever the feeling is
universal that the Government can, and
speedily will, redeem them in full in gold,
then they will be at par. The legal-tender
paper money never had any intrinsic value
In itself any more than the cowry shell its
only value was In the greater or less conf
dence that it would finally be redeemed in
gold. The case may be briefly stated thus;
1t is our interest to fund the debt at the
lowest possible rate of interest in order TO
diminish the burden of taxation; it is our
interest that large proportion of our
bonds should be held abroad, in order that
the money paid for them may remain in
this country and increase the amount of
gold available for domestic uses; it is our
interest to develop to the greatest practical
Die extent our commercial relations with
all parts OF the world, in order to dispose of
our surplus products, obtain what we need
OF those OF other countries, and secure for
ourselves the profits resulting from the
transaction; 1t IS our interest to place our
currency, or circulating medium, on
sound basls,which will prevent unnecessary,
frequent, and always injurious fluctuations
OF values, and to adopt the same standard
with the rest Of the world, in order to facil.
ltate commercial transactions; finally, as
the great object of all, it is our interest to
hasten the return of confidence, security,
industry, economy, and prosperity to our
suffering people.


There is probably no grave objection to
the reconciliation of silver within proper
llmits--that is to say, to making it legal.
tender Tor small amounts, so as to secure
its use in making change. But if the pro-
posed measure becomes a law, by which a
silver dollar, really worth only about ninety
cents, is declared to be legaltender for a
gold dollar in all transactions, values will
again become unsettled, returning conf.
dence will be destroyed, and a blow struck
at our national honor and credit, from
which we will not recover for long years,
and even then, not before we have passed
through a series of misfortunes, losses, and
dishonor that no lover of his country cares
to contemplate.