Year: 1870

Mr.. Boutwell, may not be o 9Teat tnancler
but his sincerity, bis honesty, are unquestioncd;
and it must be that the weighty words he
embodied in his Grand Army lecture on Mon
day evening will make a deep Impression on
the public mind. He employs no arts of the
orator or rhetOrician he makes n plain, clear
exhibit such as the simplest must comprehend,
while the loftiest intellect must feel and
admit its force. The naked fact stated
by him that, should we stop reducing the
principal of our vast Debt, we shall, within the
next thirty-fve years, have paid FolT Billions
Ttco Hundred Millions as interest, yet owe in
1905 lust as much as we now do; whereas, if
we pay but S18,000000 Of principal in 1870,
and keep on paying so much each succeeding
wear, including interest on the sums yearly
wiped out, until 1905, we shall have paid off
the entire principal of cur Debt, ought of it
self to carry conviction to every candid mind.


Mr.. Boutwell, does not antagOnize Resump-
ton of Specie Payments to the funding of our
Debt at a lower rate of interest, nOT either of
these to a steady and rapid reduction b. pay
ment of the volume Of our Debt, but regards
the three ends as alike desirable, alike attain
able and all parts of one consistent whole.
Let us persevere in the rapid extinction of our



long Consol at low interest will be easily and
speedily effected, and Resumption will come
as naturally as flowers i'll Spring. If we had an
American Consol, untaxable, payable specifically
in coin at the close of forty years, and drawing
interest meantime at the rate of one per cent.
quarterly, or four per cent. per annum, we
| firmly believe that it would be only necessary
to offer that Consol at par to every holder of
| Greenbacks, and the disparity between Coin
and Greenbacks would forthwith disappear.
| The vice of the Greenbacks at present is that
they are payable nowhere, in nothing, and at
no specified time. Make them fundable IN an
American COnsOl, and they would have a
| tangible basis of value, and would soon mount
/ to an equality with specie or very near It,
| There is. and for at least three years there
has been, no obstacle to the Resumption OF
Specie Payments but the hostility of those who
found or fancied debased and unstable Cur
rencv conducive to their personal advantage
1t was formerly supposed by the vulgar that q
pound of butter might consist of so many
ounces as any one chose to indicate or require
and many still fancy that they can make money
by having the dollar consist of six to eight
silver dimes, as circumstances or manipulation
| may from day to day determine.


We do not believe that the country was
signally unprOsperous throughout the pas
year. The grain growing Northwest suffered
heavily from excessive rains in Summer anC
Autumn, just as Virginia and the contiguous
States suffered from protracted drouth, whereby
tho crops of both sections were seriously
diminished, and the quality of much WesterI
Wheat badly degraded. These were calamitie
unavoidable by human effort; and th'
low price of Wheat and Flour, baseC
on a heavy decline in the European markets
has aggravated its injurious effects. But, in 81
far as the last year was unprosperous, th'
causes lie deeper than these. The Outh-Wes
had fair crops of Cotton and Corn. while th'
prices realized for the product are good; ye
complaints of hard times reach us from tha
ouarter also The NeW-O Orleans Prices Cmren
of the 1st inst, in its annual review Of the sit
uation, says


"What is our actual condtoni General gloom AM
dependency from end Of the country to the other


property Of all kinds fallen and falling In value; credit
the lowest ebb aud confidence l0st The cause must b