The Finances of the Country The Bills Before Congress.
Published: January 14, 1863
We publish this morning Mr. SPAULDING's speech on the public finances -- the necessities of the Treasury, and the best mode of meeting them. No more important topic can engage public attention. The Government and the country are in a condition of extreme financial peril. An immense amount of money is wanted at once; and Congress must decide promptly how it shall be raised. It is of the utmost importance, also, that the decision should be wise as well as prompt.
There are only three ways in which the wants of the country, in this respect, can be supplied. Money, for the payment of the armies, the purchase of supplies, and the support of the Government in all departments, must be raised in one of these ways:
1. By loan -- selling the bonds of the United States for what they will bring in the market: --
2. By issuing paper, which is simply the promise of the Government to pay at some future time: -- or,
3. By creating Banks and authorizing them to issue notes on the basis of Government bonds as security for their redemption.
These three propositions are before Congress and the country. The Secretary of the Treasury prefers the last; -- Mr. SPAULDING and the Committee of Ways and Means in the House prefer the second. No one advocates the first, simply, because in the present condition of affairs it is impracticable. If bonds are to be sold, they must be paid for in currency of some kind. They cannot be paid for in specie, nor is there Government currency enough accessible in the country to pay for what is needed. Payment must be made in the notes of State banks, which rest on no adequate security, and which could not possibly be made the medium of Government transactions. The choice is really between the issue of legal tender notes and the national banking scheme of Secretary CHASE.
One point should be understood at the outset in this matter: no scheme can possibly be adopted or devised which shall be free from very serious objections. We are restricted to a choice of evils. Raising money on credit in any way is always open to very grave objections. Congress and the public should, therefore, dismiss from their minds all thought of devising any financial scheme against which a very strong argument cannot be made. All that can be done is to select that scheme which promises the greatest advantages in exchange for the fewest and the smallest injuries. It is perfectly natural that the advocates of any one project should conceal its bad features and exaggerate those of its rivals. Mr. SPAULDING sets forth, at length and with force, the objections to the Bank project of Mr. CHASE, but does not dwell upon the reasons which recommend it; nor does he bring into any considerable prominence the undoubted evils of relying solely on the issue of legal-tender notes.
We do not propose at present to enter upon any comparison of their merits. We desire simply to protest against the spirit in which the discussion is sometimes conducted, and to warn all concerned of the absolute necessity of waiving all personal feeling, all individual interests, all local pretentions, and all State pride and ambition, and of canvassing this subject with sole reference to the general good. Secretary CHASE has proposed his plan, not because it is faultless or free from objection, but because he deems it essential to the salvation of the country. He regards the further issue of Treasury notes to an extent sufficient to meet the emergency, as certain to involve a depreciation absolutely ruinous to our credit, to render impossible the collection of customs in gold and silver, and to plunge the Government into a bottomless abyss of expenditure, the only alternative to which is repudiation. He looks upon such a Bank as he proposes as furnishing a means of funding the Government debt, as supplying a currency of equal credit and value throughout the country, as providing money to meet the wants of the Government, and though last, not least, as creating a bond of attachment to the central Government among the loyal States, which may become absolutely essential to their continued union. His plan is national in its scope and in its spirit. It aims not only to aid the Government in crushing the rebellion, but to foster the spirit of union among the people. It is entitled, certainly, to the most candid and charitable consideration of every loyal man, and unless there are insuperable objections to it on national grounds, it ought to be adopted.
But how has it been met? The Democratic Party assail it with bitter vehemence, partly on account of their sympathy with secession, and partly on account of their partisan hostility to the Administration. A very large and powerful class oppose it because they have special interests to be affected by the inflation of the currency. And then the banking interests of the several States oppose it, because they fear they will lose something by its adoption. All these motives are natural, and within proper limits, may safely be indulged. But when they combine to override the interest of the whole country, and make the public credit and the salvation of the Union utterly subordinate to their personal or local aims, they furnish a sad and very discouraging proof of the lamentable lack of that public spirit which alone can rescue the country from the perils that surround it.