Year: 1879

Suggestion to Secretary sherman.


The republicans in Congress are in the
condition in which ship is said to be by
seamen when she is ''in irons" They have
fallen head to the wind. have lost headway
and are unable to cast on either tack. The
advisory committee Of their caucus has. as
our special Washington correspondent re-
ported several days ago, and as is now
officially announced, decided to recommend
that the party shall oppose any action
whatever on the currency, either for the re-
tirement of legal tender notes or for the re-
peal OF the legal tender clause. Senator
Blaine, we observe, has taken the same
ground, and on the ridiculous pretext or
assumption that to repeal the Legal Tender
act would ''work great injustice to ma
jority of the people of the country" which
means, if it means anything, that in Mr..
Blaine's opinion Treasury notes should be
legal tender in perpetuity.


We do not mean now to combat the rea-
sons which are given for the republican in
action. They are all fallacious. and no
harm will or can come to any legitimate
interest by the abrogation of the legal
tender quality of greenbacks. For the
present we wish only to suggest to Secre-
tary Sherman the propriety and usefulness
to the country of explaining somewhat
more fully than he had occasion to do in
his report the groundwork of the conclu-
sions which he there made public on this
question.


There is no doubt that the Secretary's
Recommendation to Congress to repeal the
legal tender clause, wise and necessary as
party. Some of the republican leaders.
among whom we notice with regret
Senators Conkling and Blaine, oppose
it. We do not doubt that the Sec
cretary has been surprised at this
opposition, for he apparently believed the
assurances SO often and persistently given
by republican orators to the country that
they were in an especial manner the friends
of sound currency. The opposition of
Messrs. Blaine and Conkling and other
prominent republicans has caused gen.
eral halt along the lines of their party.
It's leaders, in and out Of Congress, do not
know what ground to take-whether to
support Mr.. Sherman or to stand by Mr..
Sherman's republican opponents and join
these in violating all the promises Of the
party.


Mr.. Sherman would, in our judgment, do
a service to the country If he would at this
moment, when his party hesitates, and
when the democratic party looks coldly at
Mr.. Bayard's proposition, explain in some
detail not only the reasons why he thinks
the legal tender clause should now be re-
pealed, but also what additional legislation
he believes to be advisable, the reasons why
no harm will in his Judgment come to any
legitimate interest in the country from the
repeal, and what the real consequences
will be-. Such an explanation, coming from
him at this time, would have an important,
we believe very important, influence in
shaping the policy of his own party, and
perhaps of both parties, in Congress, and
would enlighten many members who do
not understand as they ought the bearings
of the question. We need not repeat that
we hold Mr.. Sherman's recommendation to
be most judicious and timely, and that we
entirely agree with him that it is better that
Congress should repeal the legal tender
clause than that it should be left to the de-
cision OF the Supreme Court.


A~