The currency.
It is of the utmost consequence that Congress should do something upon this subject before adjourning.
It ought not to be put off a day; but we very much fear if the subject were once introduced it would lead to an endless debate, in which some of the members would make at least one hundred speeches.--The majority, who are desirous of working, might, however, cut short debate by the ten minutes rule, and by the previous question after every man had spoken once.
What we would propose is as follows:
‘
Let Congress make Treasury notes a legal tender.
Let all payments from the
Government be made in Treasury notes.
Let these notes bear no interest, and be convertible into bonds bearing not more than six per cent, interest.
Let the bonds be payable at the will of the
Government, but convertible into notes at the pleasure of the holder.
The Treasury note will then be the money of the country, and the value of the money will be
regulated by the rate of interest; for, if money be worth less than six per cent. the notes will run into bonds, and if money be worth more than six per cent the bonds will run into notes.
This is the only way in which Congress can ‘"regulate the value"’ of money, for gold is as much an article of commerce as tobacco, and is liable or subject to like fluctuations in price.
The only use for money is to pay debts and purchase property.
Such an issue of Treasury notes may be made of equal value to
gold and
silver.
For while the whole annual product of
gold and
silver is estimated at but $175,000,000 the exports of the
South will be more than $400,000,000, and our imports should not be $200,000,000, leaving a balance of $200,000,000, which we may require to be paid in gold or Treasury notes.
This will make a foreign demand for our bonds as a means of paying for our exports, which will enable us to reduce the interest on our public debt to the rate paid in
Europe — say,
three per cent.
But the extent to which the public credit, in the shape of Treasury notes, may be substituted for the credit currency heretofore used in the financial and commercial operations of the country, will enable us to convert the public debt into the means of individual and national prosperity.
Mr. Colwell, in his analysis of the payments made through the agency of the Banks of the
United States in 1856, states that the sum thus paid was $85,000,000, and
M. Chevalier, by reference to the returns of the
Stamp Office, found that whilst the sum of Bank notes and specie used in
England and
Wales had in the ten years from 1846 to 1856 decreased nearly $8,000,000, the sum of credit currency, in the shape of bills of exchange, had increased at the rate of $90,000,000 per annum; there being in use at one time $900,000,000. Why should we make our Treasury notes payable in specie six months after peace?
The face of the note is a fraudulent lie, which admits a necessity of resorting to such a subterfuge to give currency to that which otherwise would be valueless.
Why should we give our notes or our bonds, bearing eight per cent. interest, in exchange for Bank notes, bearing no interest?
Why should we pledge ourselves to pay that interest in specie to the Banks, which have themselves suspended payment of specie?
Why should we, by a forced loan, place $200,000,000 of our bonds, bearing six per cent., in the hands of an unwilling people, when all the demands upon the Treasury may be paid in notes without interest, and when the effect of the forced loan will be to create a monetary panic and greatly depreciate the value of our credit by the wildest inflation of the prices of all commodities?
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