Year: 1867

OUR FINANCIAL DANGERS.


A very proper complement of the late pro-
ceedings in Congress on the currency question:
is the proposition of Mr.. Davis of the House
member from New-Y York. TO authorize the Sec
retary of the Treasury to issue legal tenders
not bearing interest to redeem the 7.3O loans
due this year and next. Tins proposition was
offered 10y Mr. Davis after the passage " the
bill for the issue of Sl00,OO0,000 of greenbacks
but a single objection was sufficient to arrest
the consideration of his resolution. Proposing
to pay the per cent compounds in this way
naturally suggests paying off the remainder
of orr national liabilities in the same man
ner. 1t certainly would he great
saving of interest TO adopt Mr. DayisS
scheme We are paying sjOOoOoO
a year interest on our 7.3oS. Why should MT
we save it by paying them off, bodily, IN
legal tenders They are payable IN cur
rency, and are not grccnbacks currency, and
legal-tender currency We are told on all
sides that nothing can w 92ssltSI. 2sI. q ! ha-3 9i
banking, "a an instrument OF trade a. cur
rcncy for the people. than Uncle Sans prom
ises to pay They are claimed 10 be just as
good as gold dollars, or silver dollars for all
the purposes for which money is required for
our internal trade. And We are sometimes told
it by men who are not positive fools on the
subject. We have been complained of for
styling our National Banking system a rotten
"system,r because it is based on lying promises
to pay. Now here is a proposition which tests
the sOuudncs5 OF our criticism. II the legal
tender notes are as good rs is alleged,
why not pay off the 7.3O loan in them.
"a proposed by Mr.. Dayi,3 Why pay
SJ0,OO0000 a year interest on this loan
when we can 80 easily get nd of such bur
densome tax? If the legal tender notes of tho
United States are just good as coin for our
internal trade and business, as we are told
if they are in fact moncy-thcn we cannot
have too many 0t Them for no people under
heaven can have too much money. The aTgu-
mont is irresistible that not only is it good
thing TO have the 7.3OS paid in gTeenbacks,
but it is the very best thing for everybody to
have them 50 paid. And when we shall have
paid the 13O5. we have only TO pass one more
legal tender act, and under it pay off our
5-2Os 10y the same process. When we have
done this. we shall have realized the logical
results of the initiation policy, supported by the
thirty majority of the House in It's vote Of Thurs
day last II this policy is sound for one sin
gle step it is sound for every similar step in the
same direction, until you fctchup by paying your
whole loan, the entire National indebtedness,
in iTcdccmable promises To pay. And we say
to the holders Of the National loan, and OF
every form and description OF the National
obligations drawing interest, that the logical
result Of the action of the inflationists in the
House Of Representatives is the utter destruc-
ton OF those securities by their conversion
into worthless paper money. There is no end
TO the mischief which can be wrought by the
vicious principle of the inflationist-that the
irrcdecmable legal tender note of the Govern
mcnt is money, or is rs good as money for any
purpose under heaven. We say that in its
irredecmable state it is a worthless rag a
transparent swindle, a giaring lie; and the
whole fabric Of trade, commerce, industry,
speculation, banking, based on it, is a rotten
fabric, resting on rotten supports, and liable to
crumblc and go down in one universal crash


The more especially, we say, is this true when
the whole superstructure and foundation rests
on reckless majority Of spectators in Congress
The inflatiOnists need not tell us they do not
mean this, and they do not mean that. They
do not know what they mean. Their error and
their vice is that they trust themselves to the
guidance of an unsound principle which leads
them, nolcns volens, willing or unwilling,
straight down the precipice of individual and
National bankruptcy. They hold that to be Sc
curity which is not security. They hold that
to be money which is not money. They bedeyil
themselves and they bedeyil the country with
the idea that the irredeemable paper money of
the Government is blessing. Following the
lead OF these false and pernicious ideas, they
reason and they act accordingly. Adopting the
vicious principle that small initiation is a good
thing, they pave the way for large initiation
as better.


If the holders of Government securities do |
not wish to see these securities substantially |
lepudiated. and themselves stripped, they have
got TO send somebody 10 Congress beside in1a-
IonistS, whose ideas and whose measures lead