Year: 1874

Baltimore American.


1t is evident that at the next session
Of Congress strong pressure will be
brought by the mOneyed interests of
the East for the entire repeal of the
Legal-tender Act. Arguing that the
revival of trade and the renewal of
commercial stability have not kept up
10 the promises of the earlier months
Of the year the NetC York Journal Of
Commerce traces the cause to the pOpu-
lar lack of confidence IN the present
financial foundation. Tins country"
remarks that paper, will never be
wholly re-established. in competition
with other Nations, until we embOdy
in the fundamental law the great rule
of equity that promise of payment is
only fulfilled when the creditor receives
the weight and value promised When
a man before the var promised money
to his creditor, he meant by it,
if he was honest, not what
future Congress might declare
to be a legal-tender. but the actual
coin of the weight and fineness then
current, or its accepted equivalent
Our Supreme Court, at first, sOlemnly
pronounced the inviolability of this
promise, and all true men breathed
more freely. But that august body
was reOrganized, and the new majority
reversed this decision. After this our
Government thought to save the Treas
ury from the injury to our national
credit sure to result from such false
hood by inserting in its bonds prom
ise to pay in coin, but even this would
not do. The lenders of money in Eu-
rope saw the promise, but they urged
that it, too, might be kept to the ear
and still broken TO the hope. The
Treasury might pay in gold coin, but
in pieces of a weight and fneness be-
low the present standard. Thus, to
avoid the consequences of its own folly,
the Treasury was compelled to prepare
a plate for its bonds in which theprom-
Use to pay in gold coin of the weight
and fneness now current is conspieu-
ously inserted, and only then could our
Government borrow money at five per
cent. per annum."


IntimatiOns similar to the above have
appeared in many of the papers in all
sections of the country that last win
ter helped to fight the LATHE OF the
hard-money people against the intia-
tiOnists. 1t is apparent that the defeat
| of the latter, which was secured by the
veto of President Grant, was in reality
only a partial triumph for the other
side. 1t was at most a compromise
perhaps the best that could be secured
at the time, but still not satisfactory in
the long run, because 1t settled no well
defined policy. That the country could
not 90 on with system that wavered
between two opposite and irreconcilable
theories was apparent months
ago, but since then it has been
clearly shown that National pros.
perity cannot be built up un.
til this shadow Of uncertainty has beer
removed. Men are afraid TO make in.
vestments except in speculative ven
lures, or in enterprises from which
they may expect to get their money
back on call or at short notice, and 81
legitimate business lags along without
much spirit, while the gambling feyel
is encouraged and prolonged. 1t j;
fortunate that the logic of events II
breaking down the Western faith II
the beauty and utility of the greenbacl
currency, but it is still by no means
certain that in the coming session oI
Congress their Representatives vii
omit to continue their struggle of las
winter against getting back to tn
| eonnd bacis of S1,acie Davmauts