Year: 1866

| the United States or In his present rank as the


Presidents highest and most trusted adviser,
General Grant is no politician, and the politi-


clans may as well give up the idea Of con-
trolling, using or abusing him.


| Our Position ON the Question Of Specie Pay
| ments-Errors Of the Prcss.


| One Of our contemporaries, protesting to be
| an organ Of the commercial community, mis-
represented in a late issue the position we have
taken on the question Of the currency and q
return to specie payments. It saysS"The
HERALD has become q thorough convert to
government paper currency" and that we
close sight Of the important fact that if the
money value of property were to fall in con-
sequence Of return to specie payments Its
| exchangeable value would still remain the
same" This writer either has not been able
to comprehend our position and arguments or
purposely misrepresents them.


/ We are not in favor of paper money, and
| are decidedly in favor Of hard cash as soon as
we can return to that without producing ruin
| GUS consequences. The difference between the
resumption theorists and ourselves is this





specie payments, not seeing the evils that
would follow, or being regardless Of them,
while we propose to reach the same desirable
object by gradual and healthy approxima-
| ton through the natural growth of trade and
accumulation of wealth, and by prudent finan-
cial measures of the government, SO as not to
create q revulsion and general bankruptcy.
rh;s ;c &bo d;NEoraroo hnfxU oou


The writer of the sentence quoted above
loses sight entirely Of our argument We have
never said that the exchangeable money value
of property would not remain relatively the
same, or nearly the same, under specie basis
as at present, though it is much easier to bring
down the price of labor and the immediate
products of labor than to reduce the value of
by sudden resumption Of specie payments,
terrible crisis would be brought upon the coun-
try ; that all who should owe anything (and
these would be the mass of business men and
the industrious and poorer classes) would find
themselves unable to meet their liabilities.
Their debts would be increased in amount over
thirty per cent. Universal bankruptcy would
necessarily follow, for the products Of industry
would instantly fall at the same time that their
means would be reduced and their liabilities
enormously increased. As we have said in q
former article on this subject, the rich would
become richer and the poor poorer, relatively.
But one Of our strongest objections to an un-
wise and forced resumption Of specie pay
ments is, that while the value OF all other pro-
perty would be reduced TO the extent proba-
bly,, Of FIVE thousand millions, that Of the
| bondholders would be increased something
like eight hundred millionA Of course the
national banks Jay Cooke 4 Co., all the rich
bondholders both here and abroad, all the stock
gamblers, and the press in the interest Of this Inn


mcnse monoyed power, clamor for resumption


Eight hundred millions added to their wealth,


while the property Of the rest Of the commu-
nifty would be propsrtionately reduced, is o
prize they will not lose sight Of They will
move heaven and earth to reach it They
have, too, powerful agent in the Secretary Of
the Treasury, but ii Is TO be hoped Congress
will have wisdom enough to defeat the schemes
Of the fundholders and their agents


| Our contemporary, who refers 70 the history
Of the resumption Of specie payments in Eng
land by Peel's bill in 1919, and subsequent


measures OF the government is evidently


ignorant Of the subject Historians tell us,
and even those who may be termed bullionists,


that the cause of the widespread bankruptcies
and terrible distress in England, following the


forced resumption of specie payments, must


be attributed chiefly to that measure. In o
/ - ~ r. ~


bill of 1919, from the merchants and bankers


OF London, the petitioners said they chad reason


to apprehend that the measures with reference


TO the resumption Of cash payments would tend


to a forced, precipiiate and highly injurious
contraction Of the currency Of the country


Alison, in his History Of Europe, referring to


this action Of the merchants and bankers,
says that "the effects of the proposed measure


were foretold with q clearness and, as the
event proved, with TRUTH" which rendered


the petition among the most valuable and


instructive documents recorded in history.


Common sense, sound principles and the evil


dence Of history all concur to show that q


violent disturbance Of established values


based upon the existing currency must cause


the most serious and lasting evils. Il has been


said that the disasters which followed the


return to specie payments in England might


have been avoided by making the effort


earlier. Peel's bill was passed within five
years Of the dennitive conclusion Of peace,


and to say that after the most exhaust
ing wars and a suspension Of specie


payments for nearly quarter Of .
century England could have returned i'm
mesiateiy TO permanent hard money basis, is
simply preposterous. II might have been at


tempted, but would have failed As 1t was,


with all the careful preparations and progress