Terre Haute Weekly Gazette, Terre Haute, Vigo County, 5 December 1878 — Page 4

Page PDF (9.95 MB)

Back to issue view

V-8'-.

&•>

flllli

iV-i

r'A*

5.-1,3'

*"*s "i .^-e~\:*

gib

zettt-

The DAILY GAZETTE is published every afternoon except Sunday, and •old by the oarrier at SOc^per fort night, by mail. $8*00 per year $4.00 for six months, $2.00 for three months THE WEEKLY GAZETTE is issued ••ery Thursdry, and contains all th best natter cf the six daily issues. f| THE WEEKLY GAZETTE is the largest paper printed in Terre Baute, and is sold for: One copy per year, $1 .60 six months, 76c three months, 40c. All subscriptions must be paid in advance. No paper discontinaed until alTarrearages are aid, unless at the optionof the proprietor. A failure to notify a discontinuance at the end of thelyear will be considered anew en gagement.

Address all letters, WM. C. BALL & COGAZETTE. Terre Haute,

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1878.

CHICAGO is reveling in the luxury of a corneron wheat, an active manipulator *in which is James R. Keene,of San Francisco, now trying to turn an h6nest penny in the city by-the lakes. {&

THE Fiatics, among whom the GAZETTE notices its oleagenous friend /'Jeeras" Buchanan, otherwise called the *Plan, are going through the motions of ^holding meetings in Washington. The absence of these gentlemen from this section of the country, is undoubtedly the cause of the gloomy weather in Indiana just at present.

PRESIDENT HAYES' MESSAGE. The message of President Hayes, which is printed in this issue of the ^GAZETTE, contains little which had not been foreshadowed in the dispatches from Washington for several weeks past. The document is really a condensation of the more elaborate reports ot his cabinet officers.

There will be little, if any, dispute concerning any portion of the message, cxcept that relating to Southern affairs. It will be observed with very genera) regret that he indicates an inten lion to adopt the policy of interference "''"^with the local management of elections in that section. What he says on this jpoint will and should meet with very decided opposition from the Democrats, not only in Congress, but all over the country. The President in alluding the late elections there, uses a tone of legret, as if that portion of the country was bound, in return for his withdrawal of Federal troops and policy of non-intervention, to elect Republican Congressmen. He forgets that what he did was done as a matter of right, and the southern people are under no 6ort of obligations to him or to any one else for giving them what the outraged sense of justice of the .1^:whole people demanded. The Grant policy of stationing troops in State

Houses and organizing Legislatures by military force had run its bitter race and fJthe practice could not be continued. So ft also with the Returning Bourds. To remove the band which held those colossal engines of iniquity in place was doing what, had he not done it, would have beeh accomplished by force. No intimidation, no election frauds could possibly equal the iniquity of that system »tar chamber potitics which made ^elections the puppets of men like Wells, nt I Anderson, Cassanave and the lesser

irf

'l scoundrels who fostered fraud and fattened on it. The people of the South

now

have the same methods of choosing

,xt $ their rulers,that the people of the North and any attempt to revive* jthe bayonet in politics -4 will wed a solid North to a golid South. Federal interference state elections is a sham and cheat. It

unconstitutional. If President Haj es wishes to know how final and irrevocable state elections are how incapable they are of revision, investigation or correction, let him read the proceedings of the Electoral Commission, which denied to Congress the right to rectify even the errors which had been produced by wrongful Federal interference.

Saving in this one matter the message of the President will meet with very general apyroval. He reports the country as being fairly prosperous and in an improving condition. Everybody that has eyes to see knows this is so. He reports the prospects of specie resumption, easily, quietly, safely, and surely to be excellent. And thio is so, too. We are paying off our debt, and that is good. .We are at peace with all mankind, and that is good. Our naval affairs are getting into ship shape, and that is very good, considering the wretched condition into which they had been forced by Robeson, who illustrates, by his continued escape from the penitentiary, the inequality of human justice.

But, perhaps, the best way for the reader to learn what the President has to say of the condition of the country is to read his message. That w- advise our patrons to do.

w?!*zzsgmm

SHERMAN.

The Annoal Report the Secretary of the ^4 Treasury.

The ordinary revenues from all sources, for the fiscal year ending June ?o, 1878, were—

From customs...^ $130,170,680 20 From internal revenue 110,681,621 74 From sales of public lands 1,079,748 87 From tax on circulation and deposits ef national banks 6,863,053 06 From repayment of interest by

Pacificra'liway companies.... 1,868,054 86 From customs, fees, fines, penalties, &c 1,046,861 86 Fiom fees—consular, letterspatent, and land* 2,056,515 18 •From proceeds of sales of government property. 249,460 88 From preciiMiii on sales of coin. 817.102 80 From profita on coinage, Ac. .. 1,690,762 88 From miscellaneous sources 2,841,109 07

The amount due tHe sinking fund foa the year was $35,429,001 80, leaving a deficiency 011 this account of $14,629,449.90.

Compared with the previous fiscal year, the receiptt for 187S have decreased $12,984.79iS.09 in the following items: in customs revenue, $785,812.87 in internal revenue, $8,048,783.09 in semi annual tax on banks, $215,498 in sates of government property, $0,1,485.08 in profits on coinage, $1,582,470.75 and in miscellaneous items, $1,267,740.30. There was an increase of $748,088.17, as follows: in proceeds of sales of public lands, $103,489.69 in premium on sales of coin, $67,521.52 and in miscellaneous items, $577076.96—making a net decrease in the receipts, from all sources, for the year, of $11,236,707.92.

The decrease of revenue is principally due to the falling off in the receipts from internal revenue, which was probably caused by the agitation in Congress, for a long time, of the reduction of the tax on spirits and tobacco.

The expenditures show an increase of $7,781,729.08, as rollows: In the navv department,$2,405,366.01, and in the interest on the public debt, $5,376,363.07, the latter of which was due to the large balance of $7,426,619 81 unpaid interest at the commencement of the year, and to the change from semi-anual to quarterly payments of interest on six per cent, bonds converted into four per cents, which would not otherwise have been made until after the close of the year. There was a decrease of $9,577,411.21, as follows: In the ^rar department,$4,928588.05 ir\ the interior department, $1,474,460.13 and in the civil and miscellaneous, $3,074,363.03—making a net decrease in the expenditures of $1,695,683.-

RESUMPTION OF SPECIE PAYMENTS, The important duty imposed on thit^ Department by the resumption act, approved January 14, 1S75, has been steadily pursued during the past year. The plain purpose of the act is to secure to all interests and all classes the benefits of a sound currency,redeemable in coin, with the least possible disturbance of existing rights and contracts. Three of its provisions have b«»en substantially carried into execution by the gradual substitution of fractional coin for fractional currency, by the free coinage of gold, and by free banking. There remains only the completion of preparations for resumption in coin on the ist day of January, 1879, and its maintenance thereafter upon the basis of existing law.

At the day of my annual report to Congress in December, 1877, it ^was deemed necessary as a preparation for resumption to accumulate in the Treasury a coin reserve of at least forty per cent, of the amount of United States notes outstanding. At that time it was anticipated that under the provisions of the resumption act the volume of United States notes would be reduced to $300,000,0.00 by the ist day of January, 1879, or soon thereafter, and that a reserve in coin of $120,000,000 would then be sufficient. Congress, however, in view of the stron popular feeling against a contraction of the currency, by the act approved Ma) 31, 1878, for Wade the retirement of any United States notes after that date, leaving the amount in circulation $346,681,016. Upon the principle of safety upon which the Department was acting, that forty per cent, of coin was the smallest reserve upon which resumption could prudently be commenced, it became neces sary to increase the coin reserve to $n8,000,000.

At the close of the year 1877 this coin reserve, in excess of coin liabilities, amounted to $63,016,050.96, of which $15,000,000 were obtained by the sale of four and a half per cent., and $25,000,000 by the sale of four per cent bonds, the residue being surplus revenue. Subsequently, on the nth day of April, 1878, the Secretary entered into a contract with certain bankers in New York and London—the parties to the previous conitract^of June 9, *877, already} communi

IKE

The following are extracts from the annual report of the Secretary of ihe Treasury:

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, Washington, D. C. Dec. 2,187S. Sir: I have the honor to submit the following annual report:

Total ordinary recespls.. 257,763,878 70

The ordinary expenditures for the same period were— For civil expenses $ 16,651,823 16 For foreign intercourse 1.229,216 78 For Indians 4,62w,280 28 For pensions 27,137,019 08 For the military establishment, including river and harbor improvements and arsenals.. 82,154,147 85 For the naval establishment, including vessels, machinery,

and improvements at navy yard* 17,865,301 87 For miscellaneous expenditur- 4 •_ f. es, including public buildlags, light-houses, and collecting the revenue 86,897,163 63 For interest on the public debt. 102,600,874 65

Total ordinary expenditures.. 236,964,826 8)

Leaving a surplus revenue of

*20,799,651 90

Which was applied as follows: To the redemption of United States notes, &c To the redemption of fractional

$13,119,823 33

currency. 8,856,368 57 di l» fund.

To the redemption of six per cent, bonds lor the sinking

To incroase of cash balance in the treesury. 'nvv J- H" rt £'fit

73,950 00

8,760,4C8 00

20,799,551 90

TERRE HA DTE

cated to Congress—for the sale of $50,000.000 four and a half per cent, bonds for resumption purposes. The bonds were sold at a premium of one and a half per cent, and accrued interest, lets a commission of one half of one per ccnt. The contract had been fulfilled, and the net proceeds, $50,500,000, have been paid into the Treasury in gold coin. The $5,500,000 coin paid on the Halifax award have been replaced by the sale of that amount of four per cent, bonds sold for resumption purposes, making the ag gregate anr.ount of bonds sold for these purposes, $95,500,000, of which $65,000,000 were four and a half per cent, bonds, and $30,500,000 four per cent, bonds. To this has been added the surplus revenue from time 1o time. The amount of coin held in the Treasury on the 23d day of November last, in excess of coin sufficient to pay all accrued coin liabilities, was $141,888,100, and constitutes the coin reserve prepared lor resumption purposes. This sum will be diminished somewhat on the ist of January next by reason of the large amount of interest accruing on that day in excess of the coin revenue received meanwhile.

In anticipation of resumption, and in view of the fact that the redemption of United States note6 is mandatory only at the office of the assistant treasurer in the city of New York, it was deemed important to secure the co-operation of the associated banks of that city in the ready collections of drafts on those banks and in the payment of Treasury drafts held by thern. A satisfactory arrangement has been made by which all drafts on the banks held by the Treasury are to be paid at the clearinghouse, and all drafts on the Treasury held by them are to bs paid to the clear-ing-house at the office of the assistant treasurer, in United States notes and, after the ist of Ja'huary, United States notes are to be received by them as coin. This will greatly lessen the risk and labor of collections both (o the Treasury and the banks.

Every step in these preparations for resumption has been accompanied with increased business and confidence. The accumulation of coin, instead of increasing its price, as was feared by many, has steadily reduced its premium in the u.arket. The depressing and ruinous losses that followed the panic of 1873 had not diminished in 1875, when the resumption act passed but every measure taken in the execution or enforcement of this act has tended to lighten these losses and to rednce the premium on coin, so that now it is merely nominal. The present condition of our trade, industry, and commerce, heareafter more fully stated, our ample reserves, and the general confidence inspired in our financial condition seem to justify the opinion that we are prepared to commence and maintain resumption from and after the first day of January, A. D. 1S79.

The means and manner of doing this are lefl largely to the discretion of the Secretary, but, from the nature of the duty .imposed, he must restore coin and bullion, when withdrawn in the process of redemption, either by the sab of bonds, or the use of thesurp!u8 revenue, or of the notes redeemed from time to time. X.

The power to sell any of the bdnds described in the refunding act continues after as well as before resumption. Though it may not be often U3ed, it is essential to enable this department to meet emergen cies. By its exercise it is anticipated that the Treasury at any time can readily obtain coin to reinforce the reserve already, accumulated. United States notes must, however, be the chief means under existing law with which the department must restore coin and bullion when withdrawn in process of redemption. The notes, when redeemed, must necessarily accumulate in the Treasury until their superior use and convenience for circulation enables the department to exchange them at par for coin or bullion.

The act of May 31, 1878, already re ferred to, provides that when United States notes are redeemed or received in the Treasury under any law, from any source whatever, and shall belong to the United States,'they shall not be retired, cancelled, or destroyed, but shall be reissued and paid out again and kept fn circulation.

The power to reissue United States notes was conferred by section 3,579, revised statutes, and was not limited by the resumption act. As this however was questioned, Congress wisely removed the doubt.

Notes redeemed are like other notes received into the Treasury. Payments of them can be made only in consequence of appropriations made by law, or for the purchase of bullion, or for the refunding of the public debt,

The current receipts from revenue are sufficient to meet the current expenditures as well as the accruing interest on the public debt. Authority is conferred by the refunding act to redeem six per cent, bonds as they become redeemable, by the proceeds of the sale of bonds bearing a lower rate of interest. The United States notes redeemed under the resumption act are, therefore, the principal means provided for the purchase ot bullion or coin with which to maintain resumption, but should only be paid out when they can be used to replace an equal amount of coin withdrawn from the resumption fund. They may, it is true, be used for current purposes like other money, but when so used their place is filled by money received from taxes or other sources of revenue.

In daily business, no distinction need be made between moneys from whatever source received, but they may properly be applied to any of the purposes authorized by law. No doubt coin liabilities, such as interest or principal of the public debt, will be ordinarily paid and willingly received in United States notes, but, when demanded, such pavments will be made in coin and United States notes and coin will be used in the purchase of bullion. This method has already been adopted in Colorado and North Carolina, and arrangements are being made to purchase bullion in this way in all the mining regions of the United States.

By the act approved June S, 1878, the Secretary of the Treasury is authorized to constitute any superintendent of a mint or aseaver of any assay office an aksistant treasurer of the United States to receive gold coin or bullion on deposit By the legislative appropriation bill approved July 191

I®7^

the Secretary of

the Treasury authorized to issue coincertificates in payment to depositors of bullion at the several mints and assay

J. .. .» -n .J. l"s

WEEKLY GAZETTE.

offices of the United States. These provisions, intended to secure to the producers of bullion more speedy payment, will necessarily bring into the mints and Treasury the great body of the precious metals mined in the United States, and will tend greatly to the easy and steady supply of bullion for coinage. United States notes, when at par with coin, will be readily received for bullion instead.of coin certificates, and with great advantage and convenience to the producers.

Deposits of coin in the Treasury will, no doubt, eontinue to be made after the ist of January, as heretofore. Both gold and silver coin, from its weight and bulk, will naturally seek such a safe deposit, while notes redeemable in coin, from heir superior convenience, will be circuated instead. After resumption the distinction between coin and United States notes should be, as far as practicable, abandoned in the current affairs of the Government and therefore no coincertificates should be issued except where expressly required by the provisions of law, as in the case of silver certificates. The gold certificates hitherto issued by virtue of the discretion conferred upon the Secretary will not be issued after the ist of January next. The necessity for them during a suspension of specie payments is obvious, but no longer exists when by law evefy United States note is, iq effect, a coin-certificate. The only purpose that could be subserved by their issue hereafter would be to enable persons to convert their notes into coin-cer-tificates, and thus contract the currency and hoard gold in the vaults of the Treasury without the inconvenience or risk of its custody. For convenience United States notes of the same denomination as the larger coin-certificates will be issued.

By existing law customs duties and the interest of the public debt are payable in coin, and a portion of the duties was specifically pledged as a special fund for the payment of the interest, thus making one provision dependent upon the othtr. As we cannot, with due regard to the public honor, repeal the obligation to pay coin, we ought not to impair or repeal the means provided to procure coin. When, happily, our notes are eqnal to coin, they will be (accepted as coin, both by the public creditor and by the Gov ernment but this acceptance should be left to the option of the respective parties, and the legal right on both sides to demand coin should be pre served inviolate.

The Secretary is of the opinion that a change of the law is not necessary to authorize this department to receive United States notes for customs duties on and after the ist day of January, 1879, while they are redeemable and are redee'med on demand in coin. After resumption it would seem a useless inconvenience to require payment of such duties in coin rather than in United States notes. The resumption act, by clear implication, so far modifies previous laws as to permit payments in United States notes as well as in coin. The provision for coin payments was made in the midst of war when the notes were depreciated and the public necessities equired an atsured revenue in coin to support the public credit. This alone justified the refusal by the Government to take its own notes for the taxes evied by it. It has now definitely assum ed to pay these notes in coin, and this necessarily implies the receipt ot these notes in coin. To refuse them is only to invite their presentation for coin. Any other Construction would require the notes to be presented to the assistant treasurer in New York for coin, and if used in the purchase of bonds, to be returned to the same officer, or, if used for the payment of customs duties, to be carried to the collector of the customs, who must daily deposit in the Treasury all money received by him. It is not to be assumed that the law requires this indirect and inconvenient process after the notes sre redeemable in coin on demand of the holder. They are then at parity with coin, and both should be received indiscriminately.

If United States notes are received for duties at the port of New York, they should be received for the same purpose in all other ports of the United States, or an unconstitutional preference would be given to that port over other ports. If this privilege is denied to the citizens of other ports, they could make such use of these notes only by transporting them to New York and transporting the coin to their homes for payment: and all this not only without benefit to the Gove-n ment, but with a loss in returning the coin again to New York, where it is required for redemption purposes.

The provision in the law for redemption in New York was believed to be practical redemption in all parts of the United States. Actual redemption was confined to a single place from the necessity of maintaining onjy one coin reserve and where the coin could be easily accumulated and kept.

With this view of the resumption act, the Secretary will feel it to be his duty, unless Congress otherwise provides, to direct that after the ist day of January next, and while United States notes are redeemed at the Treasury, they be received the same as coin by the officers of this department in all payments in all parts of the United States.

If an further proivsion of law is deemed necessary by Congress to authorize the receipt of United States notes for customs /jdues or tor bonds, the Secretary respectfully submits that this authority should continue only while the notes are redeemed in coin. However desirable continuous resumption may be and however confident we may feel in its maintenance, yet the experience of many nations has proven that it may be impossible in periods of great emergency, in such events the public faith demands that the customs duties shall be collected in coin andpaid to the public creditors, and this pledge should never be violated or our ability to perform it endangered.

Heretofore, the Treasury, in the disbursement ot currency, has paid out bills of any denomination desired. In this way the number of bills of a less denomination than five dollars is determined bv the demands for them. Such would appear to be the true policy after the ist of January. It has been Urged that, with a view to place in circulation silver coias, no bills of less than fiye dollars should be issued. It wonld seem to be more just and expedient not to force any form of money upon a public creditor,

~4& n- *ti»

«0lN

but to give him the option of the kind and denomination. The convenience of the public, in this respect, should be consuited. The oniy way bj- which moneys of different kinds and intrinsic values can be maintained in circulation at par with each other is by the ability, when one kind is^ in excess, to readily exchange it for the o*her. This princ?ple applicable to coin as well as to papei-money. In this way tiie largest amount of monev of different kinds can be maintained at par, the different purposes for which each is issued making demand for it The refusal or neglect to maintain this species of iedemption inevitably effects the exclission from circulation of the most valuable, which, thereafter, becomes commodity, bought and sold at a premium.

When the resumption act passed, gold was the only coin which by law was a legal tender in payment for all debts. That act contemplated resumption in gold coin only. No silver ccin of full legal tender could then be lawfully issued. The only silver coin provided was fractional coin, which was a legal tender for five dollars only. The act approved February 28, 1878, made a very important change in our coinage system. The silver dollar provided" for was made a legal tender for ali debts, public and private, except where otherwise expressly stipulated in the contract. The amount of this coin issued will more properly be stated hereafter, but its effect upon the problem of resumption should be bere considered.

The law itself clearly shows that the silver dollar was not to supersede the gold dollar nor did Congress propose to adopt the single standard of silver, but only to create a bimetallic standard of silver and gold, of equal value and equal purchasing, power. Congress, therefore, limited the amount of silver dollars to be coined to not less than two millions nor more than four millions per month, but did not limit the aggregate amount nor the period of time during which this coinage should continue. The market value of the silver in the dollar, at the date of the passage of the act, was 93% cents in gold coin. Now it is about 86 cents in gold coin. If it was intended by Congress to adopt the silver instead cf the gold standard, the amount provided for is totally inadequate for the purpose. Experience, not only in this country, but in, European coun tries, has established that a certain amount of silver coin may be maintained in circulation at par with gold, though of less intrinsic bullion value. It was, no doubt, the intention of Congress to provide a coin in silver which would answer a multitude of purposes in business life, without banishing from circulation the established gold coin of the country. To accomplish this it is indispensable either that the silver coin be limited in amount, cr that lt,s bullion value be equal to that of the gold dollar. If not, its use will be limited to domestic purposes. It cannot be exported except at its commercial value as bullion. If issued in excess of demands for dcmestic purposes, it will necessarily fall in market value, and, by a wellknown principle of finance, will become the sole coin standard of value. Gold will be either hoarded or exported. When two currencies, both legal, are authorized without limit, the cheaper alone will circulate. If, however, the issue of the stiver dollars is limited to an amount demanded for circulation* there will be no depreciation, and their convenient use will keep them at ""par with gold, ns fiactional-eilver coin, issued under the pet approved February 21, 1853, was kept at par with gold.

The amount of such coin that can thus be maintained at par with gold cannot be f. irly tested until resumption is accomplished. As yet paper-n.oney has been depreciated, and silver dollars being receivable for customs due-, have naturally not entered into general circulation, but have returned to the Treasury in payment of such dues, and thus the only effect of the attempt of the Department to circulate them has been to diminish the gold revenue. After resumption these coins will circulate in considerable sums for small payments. To the extent that such demand will feive employment to silver dollars their use mill be an aid to resumption rather than a hindrance, but if issued in excess of such demand they will at once tend to displace gold and become the sole standard, and gradu ally, as they increase in number, will fall to their value as bullion. Even the fear or suspicion of such an ex* cess tends to Hanish gold, and, if well established, will cause a continuous drain of gold until imperative necessity, will compel resumption in silver alone. The serious effects of such a radical change in our standards of value cannot be exaggearated and its possibility will greatly disturb confidence in resumption, and thus make necessary larger reserves and farther sales cf bondr.

The Secretary, ^therefore, earnestly invokes the attention of Congress to this subject, with a view that either during the present or the next session the amount of silver dlolars to be issued be limited, or their ratio to gold for coining purposes be changed.

Gold and silver have varied in value from time to time in the history of nation*, and laws have been pasted to meet this changing value. In our country, by the act of April 2, 1692, the ratio between them was changed to one of gold to fifteen of silver. By the act of June 28, 1834, the ratio was changed to one of gold to sixteen of silver. For more than a century the market value of the two metals had varied between these two ratios, mainly resting at that fixed by the Latin nations, of one to fifteen and a half.

But we cannot overlook the fact that within a few years, from causes f.equently discussed in Congress, a great change has occurred in the relative value of the two metals. It would seem to be expedientfto recognize this controlling fact—one that no nation alone can change—by a careful readjustment of the legal ratio for coinage of one to bixteen, so as to conform to the relative market value of the two metals. The ratios heretofore fixed were always made with that view, and, when made, did conform as near as might be. Now, that the production and use of the twp metals have greatly changed in relative value, a corresponding change must be made in the coinage ratio.. There is no peculiar force or sanction in the present ratio that should make us hesitate to adopt another, when, in the markets of the world, it is provenfthat such ratio is

ywi

^am+^4 ^***4*

not now the true one. The addition of one-tenth or one-eighth to the thickness of the 6ilver dollar would scarcely be perceived as an inconvenience bv the holder, but Would inspire confidence, and add greatly to its circulation. As prices are now based on United States notes at par with gold, no disturbance of values would result from the change.

It appears from the recent conference at Paris. invited by us, that other nations will not join with us in fixing an international ratio, and that each country must adapt its laws to its own policy. The tendency of late among commercial nations is to the adoption of a single standard ot gold and the issue of silver for fractional coin. We mav by ignoring this tendency, give temporarily increased value to the stores of silver held in Germany and France until our market absorbs them, but by adopting a silver standard as nearly equal to gold as practicable, we make a market for our large production of silver, and furnish a full, honest dollar that will be hoarded^transported, or circulated, without disparagementor reproach.

It is respectfully submitted that the United States, already 60 largely interested in trade with all parts of the world, and becoming, by its population, wealth, commerce, and productions a leading member of the family, of nations, should not adopt a standard of less intrinsic value than other commercial nations. Alike interested in silver and gold, as the great producing country of both, it should coin them at such a ratio and en such conditions as will secure the largest use and circulation ofboth metals without displacing either. Gold must necessarily be the standard of value in great transactions, from its greater relative value, but it is not capable of the division required for small transactions while silver is indispensable for a multitude of daily wants, and is too bulky for usf in the larger transactions of business, and the cost of its transportation for long distances would greatly increase the present rates of exchange, it would, therefore, seem to be the test policy for the present to limit the aggregate issue of our silver dollars, based on the ratio of sixteen to one, to such sums as can clearly be maintained at par with gold, untiil the price of silver in the market shall assume a definate ratio with gold, when that ratio should be adopted, and our coins made to conform to it and the Secretary respectfully recommends that he be authorized to discontinue the coinage of the silver dollar when the amount outstanding shall exceed

fifty million

dollars. The Secretary deems it proper to state th%t in the meantime, in the execution of the law as it now stands, he will feel it to be his duty to redeem all United States notes presented on and after January 1, next, at the office ol the assistant treasurer of the United States in the city of New York, in sums of not less than fifty dollars, with either gold or sitver coin, as desired by the holder, but reserving the legal option of the Government and to pay out United States notes for all other demands on the Treasury, except when coin it demanded on coin liabilities.

It is his duty as an executive officer to. frankly state his opinions, so that if he is. in error Congress may prescribe such a policy as is best for the public interests.

JOHN SHERMAN,.

Secretary of the Treasury.

THE PRINCESS LOUISE. From the Cincinnati Times. Whether the Princess Louise is beautiful as well as true and good is a question that is attracting the attention of able correspondents. The judge appointed by th New York Tribune to wiegh her claim to beauty, pronounces her "plain and unattractive." I he able critic of the Herald "startled," he confesses, "'by the beauty, united to modest grace and quietude," and he speaks of her face and manner as "literally charming." The Sun says the photographer was a "villian," and this connoisseur in feminine beauty speaks of her as "decidedly pretty." The World passes to closer and more discriminating analysis, and says "in the handsome street dress of the morning, the Princess was beautiful in the richer dress of the evening, she was surpassingly beautiful."

A photograph of the Princess is published in the current number of Harper's Weekly. Only on the violent and totally unsupported assumption of the New York Sun that the photographic artist was a villain, can it be maintained that the lady is beautiful. Compare her face with any of the great models that have been handed down from the masters, compare it with Gainsborough's picture of Mrs. Siddons, and only the most servile admirers of royalty can have the hardihood to ascribe to it beauty. Her face i» that of a healthy woman, and it has an attractive expression. She looks as if she might be a sweet affectionate wife and a sensible loving mother. But the contour of the face is not that of a beauty. Her nose is large and not delicaie. Her cheek-bones are prominent. Her chin is. full and strong. Her eyes are soft and gentle, and her face, when lighted up with a smile, must be sweet and winsome. This is the utmost that can besaid.

It is one of the privileges oi Princesses,, as it is of the wives of Governor Generals,, to be discussed in this public fashion. Perhaps this discussion that is progressing just now will reconcile some of thatprivate life which is not the duty of a poblic journal to invade, and to those privileges of private life which are universally respected.

"The First Dose Gives Relief" Trial Bottles ot Dr. Sway DO'S Compound" ttyrup of Willd Cherry, 25 Cents.

The distressing coagh, which tbreitcne--serious results, ft quickly cared before devel-

er Complaints, Blood Spitting, Ac no reme eiy is so promp and effectual as Dr. BwayneV Cempound Syrup 6f Wild Cherry, "I have made use of this preparation for ma«y years, and it has proved to be very reliable and efficacious in the treatment of severe and loog standing cough*. I know of two patients, now in comfortable health,and who, bat tor its use I consider would not now' be living.

ISAAC S. Hxwbik, M. D.

Straus town, Berks County, Pa.

Price:—Trial bottles, 3S cents large size.— l,orsi*for|5. A single35 tent bottle will oftentimes cure a recent congh or cold, and thus prevent much suffering and risk of life' Prepared only by Dr. Hwayne Son, Pftiliadelphia. Sola by leading uraggiato.

Sold in Terre |Uaute Uj Buntin ft ArmWong.