Jefferson And "greenbacks."

Two weeks ago - see issue of August 9 - the Aucus gave placo to tho folio wing rosolution adopted at the Democratie Congresüional Convention held at at Adrián, August 2 : Resolved, In the lauuageot Thomas Jefler■'iii, i ii.it imiiutiul bank eireulmion ought to be suppressed and rostored to the natioual Govermneut, whore it belongs, and treasury note ïSMied in thcir stead, redeemübie in com at tho pleaaure of tbo holdar. And concecning the same remarkod : " We confesa to a little skepticiani as we icud tlie secoud resolution adopted by the recent Democratie Congressional Convention held at Acirian. Xeither the lauguaö nor the guutiinent smacks of Thomas Jeiiurson, and we shull really teel obhged to the author of tlie resolution il hu will cite us to the page of Jeffersou's works in whioh we can iiud oither tlie resolutiou or its substauce. Jeö'orson was never in favor of a Government paper mouey.'1 In response to which now comes a letter trom au esteemed correspondent at Ypsilanti, the following : "In a letter f rom Juffer sou to Mr. Eppes, dated June 24, 1813, vou will find what you don't wish to tlnd. So you muy prollt by readiug a letter to Ctallatin, dated Oct. 1G, 1815." Wo had already rcad the letter, which is ono protesting against the bank chculation of that day and advooating tho substitution of government bilis of credit or treasury notes. Wo quote a few passages we had marked : "It is a wiho rule, and ahould be famlnment:vi ín a goverument dispoaed to chennti lts credit, and at the same time to restraiu the use of lt withui the limits of lts iaculties, nevev to borrow a dollar without laying a tax in the saine instant tol paying the interest aunually, and the pnncipul withiua yiven term ; and to coiisidur that tax as uledged to tli crédito on the public íailíi.' Un snch a pledge as this, sacredly obaerved, a novernmeut may always command, on a reaionable tnterest, all the lendable tnouoy of their citizeus, while the necessity of uu equivalent tax is a salutary waruing to them and their constituenta agaiust oppressious, baukrnptcy, and revolution." The modern gieenbacker can find no warrant tot his crusade against issuing interest bearing boads in that. Asseting that this is "an agricullural nation" and that the "lendable money is cbiefly that of orphans and wards in the hands of executors and guardians, and tb at which the farmer lays by till he has enough for the parchase in view," I ferson adds : "In suoh a natiou thore is otie and uu oiily resource for loans, suflicient to ca ir y theui through the expense of a war; and that will always be sufUcieut, and iu the power of an honest goverumeut punctual in thu presorvutioo of it taith. The fund I mean, is the ,un.i of circulutmrj coiu. Everyone knows tliat, although not literally, it 18 nearly true, that every pajier dollar emitted banishes a silver one trom the circulatiou. A natiou, tberotore, making its purchases and paymuuu with bilis iitted for circulatiou, thrusts an equal suni of coin out of circulatiou. This is eqoivalttut to j borrowing that suu), and yet the vendor ceiviug paymeut iu a medium as effectual as coin for his purchusea or payniuuts, has no claim to interest. And so the natiou inay continue to issue its bilis as tar as its want re quire, and the Umita ot the ciroulntiou will admit." The bilis of credit or treasury notos Jefferson advocated wero not a legal tender or "fiat"or "absolute money," but were in the nature of a loan, either with or without interest as the eniergeucy might require, and to be redeemed and retired as soon as tho omergency - the then ponding or auy future war - was over. We quote further : ' In the war ot 17öi, our State availcd ïtself of this fund [" the maas of circulatuig coiu"] by issuitiK a paper money, bottomed on a specific tax for its rcrfcmjjtion, and to lusure lts credit, L'u.uiii au interest ot fíve per cent. Withiu a very short time uot a bilí ot this einiüsion was to be iouud in oirculatióu. Il was iockeü up in the chests ot executurs, guardiaus, w idows, tarmera. ttec. We thou ïasued bilis bottomed oi (t redeenung taz, but beariug uo ïuterest. These were rtmdily receivüd ttiid nevur deprecíate a single tur thmg." Contra8ting this pulicy with that previously pursued - by the Continental Congress, Jefforson auys : " Iu the rovolutiouury wur, the oíd Congress and the ïjtates ïaauod bnls wituout mteiest, aa without tux. They ocuupiud the chaniiels oí uiiculation very freely, till those channels w?re oveiftowed by au excusa beyond all the cali ol circulation." Tho result of thia excos3 of circulu tion, with no pledged tíixes for its redeinption, Jeffersou's tine qua non,- evary reader of history knows. Protesting alike against suoh a circulatiou and agaiust a bank circulatiou of aDy kind, Jefierson says : " If treasury bilis re emitted on a lux ap propriaíed for their redemption in üttee yeur, aiul {to insure preforonce ín tho first momenta of competition) bearing au interest of su peí cent, there 13 no one who would not take tliera in preteronce to the bank paper uow afloat, on a principie of patriotiam as woll a9 interest ; and they woulü be withdrawn frcm circulutiou iuto private boards to a considerable amount. Tueir credit once establisbed, others might be emitted, bottomed also on a tux, but not beariug interest, and if ever their credit faltered, open public loan, ou which these bilis alone should be received as specie. These, oporatini? as a sinking fund, would reduce the quantity in circulation, so as to niain tam tbat in an equilibrium with specie." AU banks being supprt _sed by the joint action of (Jongress and the Sta'.os, or in euoh States as would consent to "transfer the right of issuing circulating paper to Congress exclusively," the bank issues were to be followed by government bilis of credit "bottomed, every emission, on an adeq'uate tas, and bearing or not bearing interest, as the state of the publio pulse should indícate," coupled with a run on nou-Asaeriting banks, Jefferson says : " The national paper might thus taku pl:ico even in the non-complying States. In this way, I aiu not without a hope, that this great, thia sole resource for loans in an agricultural country, might yet be rocovered for the use of tho nation during war ; and, if obtained, in perpetuum, it would always be sufncient to carry us through any war; provided, that In any interval between war and war, all the out standing paper should be called in, coiu bo permitted to Huw in again, and to I10U tliu üeld of circulation until auother war should require its yielding place again to tho nstional medium.'' If the banks had an opponout in Jefferson as they undoubtedly did, bis utterances cannot bo, by any possibility, tortured into an indoraement of a govurnnient paper money not redeomable at an early day, not provided for by, or "bottomed on" a specifio tax, or to be issued in a time of peace. Such is the lesson we find in the lettor to Mr. Eppes to whioh our correspondent rofers us. We have alio carefully read the letter to Mr. Gal latía. Like the lottot to Mr. Eppes it takes strong grouud against banks and bank circulation, and equally stron ground - and tliis after over two years of reflection and discussion - in favor of providing fot thö necessitius of the govbrnuient in time of war : " Xot by any lovpI projaot, not by uuy charlutauric, but by ordiuary aud woll experienced moai'9 : by .hf tot-al prohibitiou of al' private paper at al' times, by rt-asouable tuxc-s m war aided by the nocpsaary eniissicnu oí public pipt-r of Ciroilutini? sizo, this bottonied on ttpecial taxos, redoemahle annually as tho ípeuial tax comes in, andJiiiuUi within a niudcrute penod." If this is a protest pjjainst the mod ern nationul bank system, as we concede it may be, it is equally a pretest against the issue of a governnient papor money in time of peaco, or in time of war without provisión for sure and spoedy redomption in specie. In a letter to Mr. Eppes, datod Sopt. 11, 1813, wo find language approximatiug that of the resolution concerning which we expressod our "skepticisin." We take especial pleasuro m quoting it in its oonnection, for the benefit of our readers : "The question will lm nsked mul ought to bo lookocl at, wint is to bu the resource it loaus ciiiinot lm olitamed ': Thftre is but on, ' Vnrthago delenda est.' Bank piper must be euppressed, aud the oiroulating medium must be restored to the natiou to whom it helongs. It 8 the only fund on which they can rely tor louiis ; it is the only resource whi;h can never taïl thbm, and it is itn abundant oue for every necessary puvpose. Treasury bllli, bottomed on taxes, beunug or not bearing mterost, as uiay be found necossary, thrown Into circulatiou will take tlio place of so much gold and silver, which last, whon crowdod, will tind an i'iHnx luto other countnes, and thus keep the quantum ot medium at its "salutary leveU Let bauks continue if they please, but let them discount for caah alone or ior treasury uotos." Also this in a letter " To ," supposed to bo President Madison, datod üct. ló, 1811 : "All we should hava to do woukl be, when the war shuuld be euded, tu leave the gradual extinctiou of these notes to the operatiou of the taxes pledged for their redemption ; not to suffer a dollar of paper to be emitted either by public or private authority, but let the metallic medium flow back into the channels of circulation, and oecupy them until another war should oblige us to recur, for its support, to the same resource, and the surae procens, on the circulatiug medium." After this let no ono venture to quote Jefferson as an advooate of logal tender greenbaoks, "fiat " or " absolute uionoy," or evon treasury note lomia in time of peaoe. The tieasury nofës of Jwfferson ware not money, not ■' cash," bufc n loan " bot torumi ou taxes," and to be paid and retired whonever peaoe succeeded war. Ir woui.l) N'T be a sin to fall down and worship the platform recently put fortb by the Tennessee Democracy, for it Í8 like nothing in heaven, on earth, or ander tho oarth. As platfouui builders our Tennessee friends oan't be boaten. KeaD Senator Thuimau's arraigament of tho Republicau party and then decide whether you will aid iu perpetuating tho Kepublican power by votiug wiih thf Greonbackers. Pioliibitum Ticket anti Platform. At a Statu Prohibition Convention held Ht Lausing on Tuesday, August 13, the folio wing candidatos for State oBicers were nominated ud platform adopted : THE TICKET. lio vernor - Watson Snyder, VprilAuti. Lieutenaut-Guvernoi '- J. W. McKoever, AdrianSectetary of State- Traverse Phillips, HastinfiS. , State Tieasurer- I). H. Stone, Holly. Auditor General - L. L. Farusworth, Detroit. Attorney General- E. G. Fuller, Coldwiiter. Comraissioner of Statu .Land Office - Wm. G. Krowu, Jackson. öuperiutendout ut iJublic Instruction - S. Dickie, Albiou. Meinher of Hoard of Elucation--Uha. Latour, Lapeer. TUE PLATFORM. 1. Tho legal prohibition in the District of Columbia, the Territories, uud iu every othor place subject to the la we of Congreas, of the importation, exportation, manufacture, and traöic of all alcohoüc bevprages as high crimes agaicst society ; an amendmeut of the the national constitution to render these prohibir ory measures universal and periijanent ; aud tbe adoption of truaty stipulaiions with foruigu powors to prevent the importatiou atid exportation of uil alcobolio beverages. 2. Ttie abolitiou of ciass legislation and of epticial privileges in the government, aud the adoption of equal suffrage aud oligibility to office without disti&Otiou of ract-, religious cseed, property. or sex. 3. Tho appropriation of tbe public lands in limited quantities to actual settiers only ; the reduction of the raten of inlaud and ooean postage ; of telegraphic communicatiou and travel to the lowest practical point by force of laws, wisely and justly tramed, with refurence not only to the interests of capital employed but to the higher claims of tht) general good. 4. Tho suppression by law of lotteries aud gambling in gold, stocks, produce, and every form of money and property, and the penal iuhibition of tbe use of the public mails for advertisiug sehetnes of gauibling and lotteries. 6. The establishment by mandatory provisions in national and State consti tutions, and by all nocossary legislation, of free public schools tor tbe universal and enforced edneation of all the youth of the laud. 0. Tho separation of the govornment iu all its departments and institutions, including the public schools and all funds for their rnaintouancp, trom the control of every religious Beet or other association, and the protection alike of all sect by equal laws, with entire freedout of religious iaith and worship. 7. The introdnetion into all treaties heroaftar nogotiated with foreign govj ernments of a provisión for the amicabla settlement of international diiliculties by arbitration. 8. Tho abolition oí all barbarous modes and instruinents of punisbment. The recognition of the laws of (iod and the claims of humanity in the discipline of j-iils and prisons, and of that higher and wiser civilization worthy of our age and nation, which regañís the reform of crimináis as a meaus for tho prevontion of crimo. 9. The abolition of executive and legislativo patrouille, aud the olection of President, Vice-President, United States Senators, and of all civil oflicers, so far far as practicable, by tho direct vote of people. 10. The practico of a frioudly and liberal policy to migrant from all nations, 'he guaranty to tbein of ampie proteotion aud of equal rights and privileges. 11. The separation of the money of govornment from all bankiug institutiouB. Tbe national goverument only should exercise the high prurogatire of issuing paper money, and that should be subject to prompt redemption on demand in gold and silver, the only equal standards of value recognized by tho civilized world. 12 The reduction of the salaries of public oöicors iu a just ratio with the decline of w.igcs aud market prices; the abolition of sineoures, unnecessary offices, and official fees and perquisities; [ the practice of strict economy in goverument expenses, and a free and thorough investigation into any and all abuses of public trust. Butler held his face in tan bark thirteiju minutes tho other duy without broathin' He i-leeps with homloek poaltioea on his hands, and there is a wart on his loft thumb that he arro gantly pnïsüs off as a callous. - N. Y. Uru'hic. Oen. Butler says he hu? lived in one commuiiity for 60 yuars. Jmt think of a comiuunity having to stuud such an tifilctiou for muie thm half a ceutury ! Well raay that com:auuity botst of hiiving sbuwu tho world " Huw sublime a thing it is TV, suffer oud bo stroug."