many cases decided in which, combinations, by false statements and rumors to affect values, have been held to be within the reach of the criminal law. By breaking up this whole gambling system, legitimate trade would be rendered more prosperous, and the commercial morals of the country improved.

There is a third cause for the present suffering of the country to be found in the manner in which the existing banking system is conducted. When, for example, a planter in North Carolina had some money to spare, he deposited it in one of the national banks and received eight per cent. thereon. This money was lent out again by the bank at the rate of eighteen or more per cent. per annum. If banks were prevented from receiving interest ou deposits, the effect would be that any person having money to lend, instead of putting it thus in bank, would, to secure interest on it, lend it to his neighbor on mortgage, or otherwise, and while he obtained thus for himself a fair rate, the borrower would save the extra ten per cent. he now gives to the banks. By such means as this, and the other advantages they possess, the banks are making enormous profits, and contributing largely to the impoverishment of the people.

The present high rate of interest is undoubtedly due in a great part to the want of a larger volume of currency. There is a second cause which seems to be strangely overlooked. It is owing mainly to the great destruction or loss of property caused by the war. In 1860 there were as many lenders as borrowers, and hence money could be had at fair rates; that is to say, at a little more than the average earning of the country. But in the South there are at this time far fewer lenders than there were before the war. On the other hand, there are now ten borrowers for one formerly. Men there are willing to pay enormous rates to save their property from sale on account of old debts, or to endeavor to recuperate their fortunes. Things are better in the North, but I have little doubt but that even there, there has been a diminution in the number who have capital to spare. There is no other remedy for this but that which arises from the increase of wealth. In rich communities, like Holland and England, because they possess a superabundance of capital, money is cheap.

While our present distressed condition is in a great degree due to the loss of capital in the war, it has been immensely aggravated by the action of the government in withholding a proper supply of currency, and by its aiding monopolies for the benefit of the wealthy, and consequently oppressing the working classes. What can be more monstrously unjust than the present system of tariff taxes? It has been made purposely for the benefit of the manufacturers. It is as cruelly unjust as the ingenuity of sharp and selfish men could frame it, for their own advantage. Whatever human wit could devise to relieve them from all share in supporting the government, and to enable them to extort the largest sums from the poorer classes, has been done.

If all duties were reduced to thirty per cent. and made uniform on all importations, the government would realize a larger revenue than it does from the enormous rates, while the people would make many

of their purchases for fifty per cent. less than present prices. If manufacturers cannot get along with a bounty of thirty per cent., ought they to continue business?

In 1816, Mr. Clay and Mr. Calhoun, while advocating the tariff, placed their support of it on the ground that it was fair to aid our manufacturing establishments during their infancy. But these infants are now more than fifty years old, and yet they are just as clamorous for government pap as they ever were. They endeavor to delude the people by constantly crying out that American labor ought to be supported, just as if the farmers and mechanics of the country were not as much laborers as anybody else. They insist that these very persons ought to be taxed to increase their own profits. Those branches of our manufactures, which can be profitably carried on in this country are highly prosperous, and will continue so under a fair tariff. What right have other enterprises, which cannot support themselves even with thirty per cent. bounties, to insist on higher rates? Oranges might be produced under glass in Massachusetts, but it is clear that if the labor and capital necessary to effect this, were employed in gathering the ice, which nature makes, and sending it to Florida, more oranges would thus be procured than could be produced in hot houses. Mr. Boutwell, and others, complain of the large balance of trade against us, as a reason why the tariff duties should be kept so exorbitantly high. But with these present enormous rates, the balance of trade with foreigners, is much more against us now, than it was under the twenty per cent. tariff of 1860. In other words, taxing the whole community heavily, to keep up manufacturing operations, that cannot support themselves, will not enable us to pay our debts abroad. Those branches of our manufactures, such as iron, cotton fabrics, and many others that are well suited to our condition, will not only prosper of themselves, but are now, in fact, injured by a system, which by taxing heavily all things, increases the cost of living to the laboring classses.

If A is engaged in a business by reason of which he is obliged to lose money, it does not help the matter as far as the country is concerned, to authorize him to take money from his neighbor B, to make up his loss. With reference to the wants of the wealthy classes, in all countries their extravagance increases with their affluence Old Romans used, to show the immensity of their wealth, to give dinners of ostritch brains and flamingo tongues, and Cleopatra's vanity was gratified by dissolving pearls in vinegar. Since the close of the war, the finances of the country have been managed in the interests of the money classes, over-looking the poor whose condition has been made worse.

We need, in the first place, more currency. Whether Congress ought to authorize the Treasury to sell legal tenders for bonds, when they are wanted, and again give out its bonds when there is a surplus of money abroad, or whether a better plan can be devised, I will not now attempt to discuss. Where there is a will there will be found a way to accomplish the object.

Again, the present banking system ought to give way to a more liberal one. If the government furnishes the circulation, why should

not all banking be managed by individuals, as other business is done? The public mind is confused on this subject because banks which issue their notes ought to hold means to redeem them. The present banks rest on the credit of the government bonds and legal tenders. Is not the foundation as strong as the superstructure? Why, then, in lieu of the present system, not allow all banking to be managed by individuals on the metallic and paper currency provided by the gov ernment? To supply the people with dry goods, private parties establish houses for their distribution. In like manner, leave it to individuals to collect money at certain points to be lent to borrowers. Many of the largest and best managed establishments in the world are private banks. It is said, however, that the government ought to compel banks to keep securities for the benefit of depositors. But when farmers deposit cotton or grain with their agents or factors for sale, the government takes no steps to protect them from loss. And yet, from the nature of these articles, there is a greater necessity for their being deposited with others than in the case of money. Individuals may keep their own money more conveniently at home than their produce, which must be sent abroad through agents. Even as banks are now managed, more men lose money by them, than is lost through factors and other agents selected by the farmers. If the money be, therefore, supplied, like other commodities, by individual dealers, and if the government will afford an adequate amount for circulation there will be fewer panics and more uniform prosperity. Of course, capitalists will not be able to maintain such enormous rates of interest as they do under the present system.

It was said in my hearing the other day that the national banks had such power that it was useless to struggle against them. The associaciations of the mechanics, and the great grange movements in the West, look as though the people are not yet ready to succumb to monopolies, however gigantic they may be. The present panic will greatly strengthen the popular cause. Where one wealthy firm suspends, a thousand laborers are thrown out of employment. The distress of the country makes men think and act. In spite of the advantages which the monopolies possess, a combined effort on the part of the people will insure reform.

Very respectfully, yours, &c.,

T. L. CLINGMAN.

[In connection with this subject, there is presented a publication which appeared in the New York Herald, of September 27, 1875:]

Correspondent-I represent the New York Herald and would like to obtain your views on the currency question and the Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York democratic platforms, and your impressions as to the probable action of parties in the coming Presidential contest.

General Clingman-My present engagements as a member of the Convention do not allow me time to give you an elaborate statement, but I have no objection to giving, concisely, my views on these points.

The real questions involved are not fairly presented to the popular mind. The people are misled and their minds are confused by the tactics of the contractionists or hard money men, as they call themselves, whose strategy prevents the people from seeing the real issue. They know that everybody prefers specie to inconvertible paper, and are continually crying out against rag-money. Their tactics remind me of a doctor who, on being called to see a patient with a fractured leg, or one prostrate with disease, should, instead of administering restoratives, discourse eloquently on the advantages of out-door exercise, walking, running, or riding a trotting horse. Every person is ready to admit the wisdom of such prescriptions for people in health. The condition of the United States resembles that of a man gradually recovering from a serious injury, and who must suffer a relapse if prematurely put on hard labor. The great pecuniary loss which the country sustained by the late civil war is not generally taken into the account. If you consider that, including advances made by States, towns and individuals, and what the government paid out during the war, with its acknowledged debt it makes $4,000,000,000. The debt of the Confederate States was probably half as much, or $2,000,000,000. Then 1,000,000 men, perhaps, were either killed or so disabled as to become non-producers. If these men were estimated as being individually worth only as much as an able-bodied slave sold for in 1860-$1,500-there must be added a further loss to the country of $1,500,000,000. Then there was employed on both sides for four years, nearly 1,000,000 men, who received for their labor not more than one-third of what they would have earned at home. Besides this there was an immense destruction of property in the South during the war, while the North sustained heavy losses on the sea in several modes. A fair summing up of all these items will show that the country, as a whole, must have sustained a loss of not less than $8,000,000,000, and perhaps as much as $10,000,000,000.

This immense loss was not so apparent, because of the very large issues of paper credit in different forms which took the place of the property destroyed, and thus created the impression that there had been little or no loss of wealth. The country overflowed with paper representatives of money, the whole amount of circulation being not less than two thousand millions. Of course, people made contracts on this basis, and, as the volume of currency was diminished, the debtor class found themselves under a burden which was constantly growing heavier. Thus a man who, ten years ago, borrowed what was equivalent to $40 or $50 in gold, is now, in addition to the interest, compelled to pay double that amount. Of course, the debtors are the weaker class and have the stronger claims for aid; but, in fact, the action of the government was against them and tended to increase their burdens. Had the volume of the currency been kept steadily at the same amount that it was at the close of the war, this condition would have been perfectly fair to both parties, and neither debtor nor creditor could have justly complained. But in truth the government rapidly contracted the currency, and thus virtually increased the debts of the people, making it harder for them to pay off their obligations. I was surprised to see how long the country held under this rapid increase of the burdens of the people. Had the currency been reduced only one half, say to $1,000,000,000, I believe the

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country would have been able to stand up under it. But when the volume was reduced to only a third of what it had been, its back was broken, and the crash came. As an overstrain on a chain will cause its weakest link to give way, so such speculators as Jay Cooke first went under. Had the government then added $100,000,000 to the legal tenders the panic would probably have been arrested; but the strain has been kept up, and link after link has given away. The wound inflicted on the credit and business of the country is now so deep that it will not be easily healed. Even strong establishments have collected their resources and are standing still from apprehension. Money cannot be obtained now for useful business enterprises. Banks, seeing that debtor after debtor is falling under the pressure, are alarıned and stand still, not knowing at what moment the force of the storm may strike them. Business is thus rendered stagnant, and laborers cannot be profitably employed. Many are living on their past earnings, while others are sinking into poverty and want, and this condition must continue and become worse unless an efficient remedy be applied. Though the evil first fell on the interior, it has reached to centres of trade. People feel that they are too poor to buy much of the country merchant, and hence the country merchants do not purchase largely of the wholesale dealers, and the great centres of trade are suffering. Moneyed men, apprehending justly that the bottom has not yet been touched, are holding on to their funds. The man who sees that he can now buy a lot in New York for half what it would have cost him five years ago is waiting in hope that next year he may be able to buy it for only a fourth of its former value. Capitalists stand still, hoping that better opportunities will present themselves for investment, and laborers are thus kept idle and in want. Applications on the part of the people for relief are met with denunciation. A leading advocate of hard money says that the man who calls for more circulation is dishonest-that he wishes to pay a hundred dollar debt with only $80. But he insists that it is not only right to make a man who only owed $80 now pay $100, but that it is dishonest for the government not to compel him to pay the larger sum. The organs of the money interest say that debtors wish to pay their debts with rags. They forget that they, and the government acting in concert with them, scattered these rags over the country and induced the people to contract debts on a rag basis, and are now unwilling to receive them back again. If a year ago I had borrowed 100 pounds of rags, with a promise to pay 106 pounds, could my creditor rightfully insist that I should pay him gold instead? Or would it be fair for him to combine with other capitalists to destroy all the rags in the country so that he might compel me to pay him gold instead? This figure presents the real merits of the case. The people were encouraged to make debts in rags, and now they are to be required to pay them off in gold. The greediness of the money power has thus paralyzed the industry of the country.

Correspondent-Have you any further expression to make on this point-the banks for instance?

General Clingman-there is another great question to be considered; one which vitally affects the existence of our whole system of free government. General Jackson thought that the old United States Bank with its capital of $35,000,000, was a power dangerous to popular lib