Year: 1876

states OF business, II tluctutcs with reg
ularity at different seasons; for instance,
when buyers OF grain and other agrlcuI'
tural products begin their operations
they usually need to borrow capital or
circulating credits by which to make
purchases aud want these funds in cur.
rency capable Of being distributed in
small sums among numerous sellers; an
additional need OF currency at such times
as five or more per cent of the wnole
volume, and if surplus beyond what is
required for ordinary use does not hap
pen to be on hand at the money centres
II scarcity ensups and also stringcncy in
the loan market. 1t WAS in reference to
such eXpediences that in the discussion
of this subject in my annual message to
the New York Legislature, in January
1875, a suggestion was made that the
federal government was bound to redeem
every portion of its issues which the
public does not wish to use. Having
assumed to monopolize the supply of
currency and enacted exclusions against
everybody else, II is bound To furnish all
the wants of business require; the sys-
TEN should allow the volume of circuat-
ing credits to ebb and flow according TO
every changing want of business it
should initiate as closely rs possible the
natural laws Of trade which It has super.
sedcd by artificial contrvances. In a
similar discussion in my message OF
January, 1876, it was said that resump
tion should lie Effected by such measures
as would keep the aggregate amount of
currency selfadjustine during all process,
without creating at any time an artificial
scarcity, and without exciting public
imagination with alarms, which impair
confidence and contract the whole large
machinery of credit and disturb the
natural operations of business. Public
economy, oflcia retrenchment and wise
finance are means which the st. Louis
Convention indicates as provision for
resources and redemption. The best re.
source is reduction of expense of the
government below its income, for that
imposes no new change on the people.
II, however, improvidence and waste
which have conducted it to a period of
falling revenues, Oblige US to supplement
the results of economies and retrench-
ments by some resorts to loans, we should
not hesitate. The government ought not
to speculate on its own dishonor in order
to save interest on its broken promises,
which II still compels private individuals
to accept at fictitious par. The highest
national honor is not only right, hut
would prove profitable. The public
debt Of nine hundred and eighty.fve
millions bears interest at per cent. in
gold and seven hundred and twelve
millions at per cent. in gold, the aver
age interest is 6.5S per cent. A finan-
cial policy which should secure the
highest credit, and wisely availed of,
ough, gradually to obtain reduction of
per cent. interest on most Of the loans.
A saving of per cent. on the average
would be one hundred and seyenty-seven
millions year in gold that saving reg
ularly invested at Al per cent. would in
less than 3s years extinguish the princi-
pal, and the whole one thousand seven
hundred millions Of funded debt might
be paid by this saving alone, without
cost to the people. 1t Is best even when
preparations shall have been matured on
the exact debt, that it would have to be
chosen with reference to the existing
state of trade and credit operations in
our own country, and the course Of for
eign commerce and condition Of ex-
change with other nations.


The specific measures and actual dates
are matters Of detail having reference to
ever changing conditions. They belong
to the domain of practical, administra.
tive statesmanship. The captain Of
steamer about starting from New York
to Liverpool does not assemble council
over his ocean chart; human in,elli.
gence must be at helm to place the shift.
ing forces Of waters and winds, to feel
the elements day ly day, and guide to
mastery over them; such preparations