TUti DAILY -EVEKING TELEGRAPH PHILADELPHIA, . FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1867.
SPIRIT OF THE TRESS.
EDITORIAL OHSIOB8 0 TH1 HADIW JOIJRJUM
rrON OURBBST TOPICS COMPIL1IO FVHBT
DAT FOB THB BVKHIHO TKLBOBAPH.
Thl Indian Treaties.
'JFVmWA; Y. Independent.
Our treaties with the Indian tribes hare
gonerally been like words written in water
made only to be broken. But on whioh side
lies the blame f Without any desire to exalt
the character of the red man unduly, we say
without hesitation that, had the border whites
and the Government agents kept tholr part of
the treaty obligations inviolate, the Indiana
would have kept theirs, and hundreds of lives
end vast sums of money would have been
saved. This fact should be kept in view when
we estimate the worth of the treaties recently
made with the Kiowas, Comanches, Chey
ennea, and other Western tribes treaties that
secure to the border whites toe frequently
the worse than savage advance-guard of civi
lization many valuable privileges and rights;
ftnd which, we venture to say, will first be
broken by the whites.
Thus far the Indian Peace Commission has
leen remarkably successful. When it wa3
gent out, several months ago, a general war of
extermination appeared to be Imminent, in
deed almost unavoidable. But the distin
guished soldier to whom was intrusted the
diffioult task of negotiating with the tribes has
performed his task so well that all danger of
bloodshed has been averted, and peace con
cluded upon terms that give promise of the
permanent settlement of our Iudian troubles,
provided that we keep faith ourselves with the
savages.
The first treaty was signed this fall, on the
24th of October, with the Apaches, a small
tribe, consisting of seventy lodges only. They
had previously been arrayed with the Cheyen
nes.againat the Government, and had suffered
great losses in consequence. Their annuities
Lad been withheld, and they 'were gradually
sinking back into their former barbarous
habits when news of the peace commission
reached them. On receipt of this intelligence,
their chief. Poor Bear, despatched messengers
to gather in his scattered brethren. Some of
these bands were along the Mexican border,
waging war on Americans and Mexicans alike,
Bubaiating by indiscriminate pillage, and ra
pidly wasting away by battle and disease.
Yet, at soon as they heard that peaoe was pos
sible, they hastened to the general meeting
plaoe, at Medicine Lodge creek, where the
assemblage of Indians amounted to more than
fire thousand souls. After a long and serious
consultation, a treaty of peaoe was signed, by
Whioh the Apaches are settled upon a reserva
tion adjoining that of the Kiowa aud Comanche
agricultural reservation.- J-xoluaive of their
Annuities, they are to receive five thousand
dollars a year. Instead of the fifteen dollars a
head formerly paid to them aud which too
Often went for whisky each male.adult is to
receive a suit of clothes, aud each woman a
dress made of woollen material. It was also
agreed that, until the Apaches remove to the
territory set apart for them by this treaty,
they shall be permitted to range at pleasure
. throughout the unsettled portions of the coun
try they originally claimed as theirs; that is,
f , throughout the whole Indian territory, from
. the southeast comer of New Mexico up to the
, Arkansas river. m
. The negotiations with the Cheyennes were
.. more difficult and complicated, on account of
. the shameful atrocities to which this tribe had
teen subjected." Many of their people were
- massacred by Chivington's band of white sav
. . ages; and, bast spring, while the tribe were at
peace with us, their village was plundered aud
set on fire, causing a loss to them of more than
a hundred thousaud dollars. Under these cir
; . cumstances, it is not to be wondered at that
' they declined at first to listen to the commis
sioners, and hesitated long before affixing their
signatures to the treaty of peaoe. It seemed
to them more like mockery than the solemn
ratification of a compact. But they were at
' length convinced that the commissioners were
aoting in good faith; and all the chiefs then
signed the treaty. By its terms the reservation
- given to this tribe drops of all lands lying
in Kansas, and extends the southern boundary
from Red creek down to the Cimmarron river,
sometimes called the Red Fork of the Arkansas.
It is bounded on the east by the Arkansas
river, on the south and west by Cimmarron,
and on the north by Kansas, and contains
eignt or nine thousand square miles. The Gov
ernment agrees to give them an agency house
and other necessary buildings for a physioian,
farmer, miller, school-teacher, blacksmith,
: etc Also it is stipulated to give them each a
a suit of good substantial woollen clothing
each year, or the necessary materials to make
it; and, in addition thereto, to expend $30,000
. annually for their benefit in such articles as
they may need.
The Cheyennes refused to yield the right of
fcuntiug north of the Arkansas river, as long
as the buffalo is found there, unless they suo-
- . ceed in making a living by agriculture ou
their own lands; but they agree to keep away
ten miles from all forts aud travelled roads,
and withdraw all opposition to white settle
ments, promising to defend them against all
enemies.
Similar treaties, differing only in unimport
'ant points, have been made with other tribes;
and the devastating war which a few mouths
ago threatened to deluge the border with blood
has been happily averted.
. . If the border whites will only keep their
part of the treaties faithfully, and refrain from
Inflicting wrong on the tribes, there need never
be another Indian war. The old chief of the
Kiowa nation, Satanta, uttered nothing but
the truth when he Baid, in his eloquent fare
well speech:
'I eorae to any that the Kiowas and. Ooman
cnes bave aaaue with you a peaoe; and they lu
tend to kep it 11 it brings prosperity to us
we of oounte will like it the bet ler. U it brlugi
rrosperlty or adversity, we will not abandon ft.
t In our oi1raot, and It shall stand. Our people
once oarrloji war Huainat Toxhh. Wo thought
.'. . the Great ukher would not be offended, for the
lexana bad gone out irom anion hl people,
- aud become his enemies. You nJV tell us that
they have made peace nd returned to the
great family. The Ktowag aud Comanches will
... now wane no bloody tra i in their uuu. They
have pledged their word, and that word Hiiall
last, unless ttiewhltea shall break their con
tract, and Invite the horrors of wr. We do mt
break tiatifs. We make but few .,,,!. .,"
and them we remember well. The whiles nuke-
j uiany mm iurj mo jiuuitj io lorget tliom
. . The white chief seems not to be able to govoru
Lis brave."
Can a white man read these words without
blushine for his race r" An Indian teaching ui
( - justice, teaching us the sanctity of treaty obli
. gatious I For sbauie, that we should have to
' acknowledge the justice of the reproach.
" ' The duty of the Government is clear. H
must protect thea tribes from the rascalities
. . i - i i i
Of its ow n sprits, troui xue green ana um
nionitv of border whites. "We want honest
trader,'" said an old chief, during the con
foreiue; and the Government should take steps
to Bend out such traders wifh us. agencies.
otherwise we may eapeot war. None is quicker
than an Indian to detect unfair dealing; noue
Is quicker to take revenge for it his only way
Jipgutlrtjc himself; Let nona it readier to Ur
at peace with his neighbors than this same In
dian if his rights are respected. We suppose
even Indians have rights whioh the Govern
ment ought to respect, and which the bor
derers should also be made to respect. Then
we shall have peace.
Cclrstlal and Terrestrial Phtnomina
llottl Kflct of Injrslcal Forcti,
JVom A iV. Y. Herald.
Vesuvius is onoe again pouring its torrent
of fire through the vineyards of Lachrymi
Christi, and threatening to engulf cities as it
did in the days when the world was first
divided between the thoughts of Julius Cscaar
and those of Jesus Chrisf. There is terror in
the valley of Mexioo also, and the people are
filled with alarm at the threatened activity of
a voloano long extinct, whose blaze was per
haps a beacon to the adventurous Cortes and
a portent to the falling empire of the Moute
zumas. News from the West Indies hints the
devastation of an earthquake in the island
memorable for its association with the name
of Columbus and as the first seat of Spanish
power in this hemisphere. From such diffe
rent points on the earth's surface come the
evidences that there is perturbation within;
that the collision of the pent-up forces has for
the time destroyed the balance. Simul
taneously with these internal disturbances
dependent upon them' by unknown
relation we have also wonderful disturb
ances on the surface storms in the air of
scarcely paralleled power, hurricanes that
have blown the sea oompletely over
great tracts of land. Beyond our atmosphere,
in open space there are stormes In the- stars,
too shoals of nebulous matter have been
lately driving across the earth's orbit, re
bounding from the elasticity of our atmos
pheric armor, or masses of this matter con
sumed by combustion resulting from the
contact, "or from the heat generated by the
friction of their flight. In all the great divi
sions of visible nature there is perturbation,
destruction of the common order, perhaps
derangement of natural and planetary laws.
Yet it was long since wisely suggested that
our so-called discord might be "harmony not
understood," and this is a subject on which it
is hardly safe to say that what seems to us
derangement is not order. In whatever phrase
science may state the relation between these
several wonders of the universe for it seems
difficult to believe that they are not related
one with another it is doubtful whether the
phrases can do more than disguise ignorance.
When Moses said of somewhat similar wonders
that "the spirit of God moved upon the face
of the waters," he perhaps expressed the first
oause quite as satisfactorily as soienoe can do
it even now.
Human observation has noted in every age
that there is an agreement between the great
perturbations in the physical world and those
revolutions, changes, upheavals of society,
those disturbances of political and moral rela
tions that are in a common view regarded as
due either to human pride, passion, and ambi
tion, or to the direct interposition of a super
intending "providence." Falling dynasties
are associated in the oldest of human remem
brances with the portent of some blazing oomet;
and so following there is hardly an ill worthy
the dignity of history but has had its attend
ing or preceding signal in the heavens. Men
readily associated these things in the ages
when faith was a governing principle when it
was assumed that they saw God in all that
they could not otherwise explain, and when
the ph ysh al wonder that came in the same
period was naturally taken as a warning of
some more strictly human event. But this is
an inquiring rather than a believing age; yet
we must still associate great stellar
atmoFpheric or terrestrial perturbation with
periods remarkable for human changes. We
associate them inevitably because they come
together as a matter of fact; and then follows
the inquiry, Is the relation merely one of coin
cidence, or did the thinkers who groped and
guessed in the early dawn of intellectual light
'reason better than they knew f" Doubtless
this inquiry is to be answered fully only when
further discovery shall exactly develop the
nature, power, and modes of actipn of that yet
comparatively unknown principle eleotrieity.
It is a remarkable characteristic of this prin
ciple that it is at once a cause and a result of
the greatest operations in nature while no
more definite account ean be given of varying
states of humanity, whether in respect to
health in the common. sense or in respect to
intellectual status, than consists in the alle
gation of varying electrioal conditions. Is the
ri.s nervosa upon wnicn our uauy ueauu, opi
nions, acts depend, electrioity f Many im
poitant experiments seem to indioate that it is
nothing else, and that if it differs in certain
respects it diners only as us natural medium
of action does from those things that are the
usual media of electricity. Well, this power,
that so effectually determines for bettor or
worse our daily acts, is also the spirit of the
storm, and is generated and set free in perhaps
illimitable quantities by those great chemical
actions of nature of which the volcanoes, the
eoinets; the atmospheric storms are only signs
and symptoms. At the very time, men, that
the volcano and the comet are blazing in their
several ways, Infinite Tower is setting free'an
agent, impalpable save iu results, that, acting
through human brain and nerve, makes our
pestilences as well as our wars, and originates,
the grand revolutions and changes that illumi
nate human history.
In the present condition of the political and
moral world, we may see that the agreement is
still sustained between physical and. human
phenomena. With volcanoes active in either
hemisphere, with earthquakes tumbling down
the towers of ancient cities, with the very
eaith plunging through a stream of starry
ruin, we find human society "undergoing in
nearly every climate greater changes thau an
of which the records have been kept from
other ages. Europe is closing a great phase
in its history. Men are looking upon the last
days of that religious empire (the Pupal
Church) which, seizing the falling soeptre of
the Cifsars, established a more extensive, if
less material power, presided over the birth
of the modern civilization of law aud litera
ture, aud fostered and secured the growth and
development of that system which now pushes
it from its pride of place. Asia, slumbering
so long under the fallen ruins of former
polry, is awaking at the touch of Europe, with
liubia striding towards her across the steppes,
aud inside Rebellion aiding the outside barba
rians coming by the sea to break down an I
throw open the only remaining one of the
empires that were old iu the time of Darius.
On this, continent changes of the most momen
tous character tseemed but lately to be drawing
to their close, as we saw the eud of the war iu
Mexico, the languishing progress of that in
South America, and the termination of the
bloody struggle that had devastated ten of our
own Btatfb; but there are indications that even
yet we may have popular troubles almost
without parallel-eruptions that, breaking
through-the wust of eociul order, may simu
late in terror and desolation some of those
ereat natural events to which thev hh alii.l.
Jt seems that there may well be a new heaven
Mid. ft perr ewiu iu vir iwdn, new ti)
g!on and a new olvilir.atlon before the timt
comes again that all "shall stand still and be
at rest."
. gkirmo nd tliq Indian Qutttlou.
Fromtht N. Y. Tribun.
The fiery letter of our Montana correspon
dent upon the Indian question isatruepio
ture, net so much of the atrocities of the In
dians as of the sentiment of the people of our
Territories in favor of exterminating the red
race. "They must leave the Plains or die,"
says our correspondent. "They have but the
thief's title to any land whatever." "There
are no friendly Indians on the Plains." "Send
General Sherman to the Holy Land" and, in
substance let loose the volunteers of the bor
ders, and let us make all Indians lawful game
till all are killed. Our correspondent is a geu
t'eman of character and influence; and, though
his letter bears internal evidence that he has
ventured to narrate many things against the
Indians on second and third-hand hearsay tes
timony, and with far more tendency to exagge
ration than is consistent with impartiality, yet
as a setting forth of the sentiment of the peo
ple of Montana and our other border territories
iu favor of extermination, it is admirably
graphic and true. We publish it to show how
impossible it is to preserve peace with the In
dians' so long as the whites are imbued with
the faith in extermination and massacre of
which our correspondent's letter is so faithful
en illustration.
There are two difficulties in the way of the
extermination policy, viz : it is impossible,
and disgustingly unjust, as all our army
officers who have been called on to carry it
out soon learn. Impossible, as it would be,
by a fire of artillery to exterminate the mus
quito3 in a swamp. Unjust, because investi
gation shows that at least half the Indian
difficulties arise from violation of our treaties,
or by starvation and suffering in cousequenoe
of the advances of the white race Westward.
The treatment of the Indian question by
General Sherman, as by all our regular army
officers, has been characterized by that sense
of justice and humanity which are the highest
ingredients in statesmanship. Ever since Wil
liam Penn reared a feeble colony into a popu
lous province in the immediate presende of the
red race, without firing a gun or losing a life
by violence, humanity and justice have been
the best coin with which to buy peace with the
Indians, and they have been least current.
The war code which prevails among the whites
is, that for an offense committed by any on9
Indian, all other Indians are liable to be shot;
and that if no offense at all has been commit
ted, nevertheless, an Indian, like a black
snake, deserves death on genefal principles,
simply because he is an Indian. These senti
ments may be read in any border newspaper,
heard in any border cabin, and are frequently
repeated not only in their bar-rooms but in
their pulpits. In order to appreciate the
essential barbarism of this code, we have only
to reverie it and put it into the mouth of some
gigantic savage like Red Cloud. Our correspon
dent attributes to him a sentiment towards
whi le men no more horrible; and accepts it as
evidence of the inveterate fiendishness of the
Indian race.
Most of the fighting of the Indians with each
other and with the whites arises from the fact
that, by depriving them of their hunting
grounds, we are constantly reducing them to
poverty aud starvation. The wealthy tribes
those which have llocks and herds give us no
trouble. Their very property makes them
peaceful, lint starving tribes, like men suf
fering from cold and hunger, must steal.
How, then, may Indians be induced to accu
mulate property ? One mistake made In this
respect by our Governmeut and missionaries
has been the effort to turn them from a nomad
savage life at one bound into a full-fledged
civilized life, as farmers and villagers, without
passing them through the intermediate
stages. The Indian can very readily be di
verted from hunting wild cattle to herding
and pasturing tame cattle from a barbarous
to a pastoral life. But he cannot be suddenly
hoisted into civilization, changed from a
vagrant of the wilds into a supporter of
churches and sohools, from a hunter aud trap
per into a ploughman and merchant. The
aim of the Government should be, therefore,
to lead the Indian, by easy gradations, out
of the savage life into the still, nomadio,
indolent, and free life of the shepherds
and herdsmen. For this they show ready
adapted ness and a natural inclination. Through
out Sonth America and Mexico the Indians
meet the whites on this intermediate plane,
and are their equals. From thence they gra
dually pass into civilization. A notable illus
tration of this we see in President Juarez of
Mexico, whose father and grandfather were
herdsmen, and whose ancestors were savages.
This syBtem of making treaties with the In
dians as independent nations should be gra
dually abandoned, and instead thereof they
should all be placed under a military govern
ment under the charge of the War Department.
Tiiey need and as our settlements increase,
Tvill need still more the strong arm of mili
tary government to protect them against
neighboring tribes, against the vagabonds and
criminals of their own tribes, and against
spontaneous guerilla warfare from the whites.
To this end, -military posts permanently esta
blished at points accessible to all our Indian
country, aud in charge of Regular Army
officers, and an Indian Bureau, corres
ponding in organization to our Freed
men's Bureau, . would greatly contribute.
Through these means the Indian races
might be assisted in their efforts to grow herds
of cattle, and horses, and swine, and flocks of
sheep and goats, and become a valuable addi
tion to our national industry. The "magma
cent distances" of the great West leave them
still time and room to emerge by natural steps
from savagery to civilization before their lauds
will be taken up for farms and towns. But to
accomplish this great and . humane end the
whole Indian question needs to be acted upon
as one question with uuity of design aud a
permanent policy. In accordance, we believe,
with the views of nearly all the officers of our
Regular Army who have had experience in
Iudian affairs, this could not be better done
than by creating an Indian Bureau within the
War Department, having absolute charge of
an luuiuu anairs, under the control of some
experienced, humane, and sagacious soldier
like General Sherman. One leading object of
sucu a imreau would be to maice the Indians
immediately peaceful and nrolitable bv en
couracing and protecting them in enterinir
upou the occupation of shepherds and herds
men, for which they have already showmvery
required capacity, and in which many of the
tribes, aimost unassisted, have made com
mendable progress.
Centralisation Not Ksaentlal to Nation
allly.
From the N. Y. Timet.
The speculative republicaus of Eugland, a
letter-writer has recently told us, consider a
President an obstacle o perfect democratic
government.' They would have .the Legisla
ture directly representing the people, the
role ccn.tr pf patlou&l ponr. The oklel
administrator should, in their opinion, be the
nominee of Congress, tUe agent for carrying
out its will, and having no title to office In
dependent of its pleasure. A President, wield
ing me powers eonierrea by the Oonstitution
of the United States, is, in their estimation,
little less than an elective monarch; and iu
their hatred of kingcraft they would destroy
all semblance of royal authority. Their plan
is to 'decentralize as much as possible, and
though on this particular point they push
their view absurdly far, their general idea of
national authority is a vast improvement upon
the theoretical republicanism of France, where
the vices of centralization have been the most
formidable to the success of government by
the people.
In this country speculative statesmanship
runs in exactly the opposite direction.. Our
I'Ktrinniret are anxious to engraft upon the
Government the centralizing crochets of the
! ronch dreamers of the last century. We are
called upon to advance by going backwards.
We are asked to perfeot republicanism by
adopting a principle which leads logically to
monarchy. It is proposed to interpret the
purposes of the founders of the republic in the
light of the partisan aims of to-day to assume
that they did not fulfil their own intentions,
but on the contrary framed a system at
variance with their convictions and to sacri
fice the strongest feature of our system to give
effect to the caprices of a philosophy at once
sentimental and unsound.
These opposite tendencies in the minds of
theorists who profess an equal devotion to
republican principle have their origin in the
passions and prejudices of current political
discussion. The English workingmen, who
manifest their hatred of Presidents by dispen
sing with them in their organizations, are
actuated by a desire to avenge the quarrel
of Congress with Mr. Johnson. They have
a notion that Mr. Johnson has aped regal
pretensions, and that there Bhould be no
hindranoe to the will of the law-makers. Mr.
Sumner, on the other hand, is affiioted by a
sense of the difficulties that block the path to
absolute political equality. In his eagerness
to reconstruct the Union in the interest of
the negro, he is prepared to disregard the
Constitution, deprive the States of powers
expressly vested in them, and remodel every
thing according to his philanthropio inclina
tions. Mr. Sumner, in fact, has in his own
mind discovered that thi3 country cannot be
truly called a nation until its people make
him their Uamanei, and give prompt eiiect to
his commands. We fear that the irreverent
multitude deem silly the sophomorio utter
ances which he evidently intends to be
sublime.
Beoause the Southern doctrine of State
sovereighty which lay at the root of secession
is an exaggeration and abuse of the doctrine
of State rights, Mr. Sumner would legislate
the latter out of existence. To constitute this
Union of States a nation, he would make the
Federal Goverment supreme absolute in all
matters. Its decrees should .define the func
tions of States and extirpate the idea of rights
by reducing States to the grade of municipali
ties, having - no privileges save those whioh
Congress may concede. By a simple enact
ment he suggests that the States shall be de
prived of control over the franchise, all nrovi
sions of the Constitution to the contrary not
withstanding. Indeed, the question he affects
to expound is treated strictly as a question of
the Oongressional will. The (Jonstitution is
nothing. The rights and powers of the States
are nothing. All must give way in order that
Jir. fcumner may convert this into a brand
new nation a nation that shall be a nation,
and no mistake.
But State rights, properly understood, are
not to be snuiled out of existence by a couple
of hours' oratory. Something more than Mr.
Sumner's worship of centralization is needed
to convince the American people that it is ex
pedient to abandon the distinctive principle of
their republic, and tafee, refuge in the flimsy
products of French philosophy. The glory of
tne revolutionary lathers was that they were
practical in their patriotism. They compre
hended the value of looal government as the
source and safeguard of Saxon liberty. They
understood that centralization pushed to an
extreme is a foe to freedom, and is the foun
dation of monarohy. Therefore they defined
the powers of the General Government, and
threw around the States guarantees as clear
and strong as those by which Congress itself
is ioruned. Mainly as a consequence of this
application of the Federal nrinoinle. our conn-
try has grown almost in a lifetime from in
fancy to a giant's estate. Its system of decen
tralization has made the best parts of the con
tinent ours, and has facilitated that marvellous
adaptation of government to remote looal pe
culiarities and requirements which has elioited
the admiration of the world. What Mr. Sum
ner arraigns as a cardinal blunder has, then,
been proved to be the Beoret of success. The
country derives its magnitude and power from
the growth of the States, and these again have
prospered because organized with well-defined
and fundamental rights.
Undoubtedly the war led to some new ren
derings of the constitutional provisions touch
ing the relative powers' of the general Govern
ment and the States, and to an enlargement in
some directions of the powers exercised by the
former. It has decided dogmatically aud for
ever that the State rights principle, so called,
affords no warrant for the heresy of State
sovereignty that the States individually are
not justified in nullifying, and will not be per
mitted to nullify, the authority of the Union
in matters pertaining to its exidteuce. The
war has probably served, moreover, to recon
cile the country to a stronger central Govern
ment than was previously considered neces
sary. But here the change has ended. And
we think that persuasives more potent than
Mr. Sumner's oratory will be required to
induce changes of the sweeping character
which he proposes. For, despite his romanc
ing, the war developed a sentiment of nation
ality strong eHough for all purposes. The
people needed no theorizing and no poetry to
enlist their energies in behalf of the imperilled
Union. They neither misapprehended the re
lations of the States to the Governmeut, nor
paused in the assertion of that national life
which grew aud prospered before Mr. Sumner
embraced the theory of absolute, tyrauuical
centralization.
It may be desirable, as Mr. Sumner says, ti
secure equality of political rights throughout
the Union. A national franchise standard
may be a proper corollary of the national
a.-seition of civil rights. It does not follow,
however, that to attain objects in themselves
desirable we should resort to means that are
unlawful. Great men, geniuses, born states
men, philosophers, and orators, may find their
self-sufficiency snubbed by the plain letter of
the Constitution forbidding what they pro
pose. But the people are not prepared to
trample that instrument under foot, even to
gratify Mr. Sumner, or to establish universal
negro suffrage iu evry State. They may err
in their preference for a nationality formed by
a union of States to French philosophy aud a
consolidated despotism; but the preference
exists in a form too decided to be misunder
stood. There is less reason for regretting the
fact, since the Constitution provides a method
by which the question may be settled unl
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Their Stock of Rye WhisWes, in Bond, comprises all the favorite brands extant, and runs
through the various months of 18G5, 'UG, and of
Liberal contracts made for lots to arrive at Pennsylvania Railroad Depot, Ericsson Lin
Wharf, or at Bonded Warehouse, as parties may elect.
therefore, would talk to some purpose, we
rrtommend him to drop the impracticable
scheme of legislating negro suffrage into the
Northern States, and to adopt in its stead the
more sensible plan of agitating for a constitu
tional amendment. lie must work with and
through the States, or the rights of the States
will prove too much for his rhetoric.
Opinions.
From the JV. Y. Tribune.
The Attorney-General is one curious in
stance (as Mr. Johnson is another) of the
importance which mankind attach to the views
of those who are much talked about. If Mr.
Stanbery were only a private manufacturer of
writs, or a dispenser of advice in chambers
upon moderate terms, nobody would think of
making a long journey for the purpose of pur
chasing his opinion; if anybody should give
constitutional arguments over the signature of
"X. Y. Z." in a Washington newspaper, the
serenity of the land would not ' be in the least
disturbed. Alas for the destiny of nations 1
This great republic, with alL its performance
and with all its promise, with its immense
population and its remarkable commerce, and
its extraordinary wealth and its conceded in
telligence, and its brilliant hopes and its
swarming newspapers, and its widely-diffused
education this noble specimen of po
litical progress, is agitated by the fact
that somebody with the initials "II. S."
sends a legal opinion to the newspapers,
and the opinion being entirely wrong, it
is universally attributed to Mr. Stanbery I
And being supposed to be his, it is thought
to be of some importance t and it is further
thought that perhaps the Bkies may fall, aud
that the river is in danger of combustion! The
legal opinions of Mr. Johnson and Mr. Stan
bery 1 Why, Mr. Sampson Brass and Miss
Sally, his sister, were certainly a more en
couraging brace. Supposethat this opinion
had really turned out to be that of Mr. Stan
bery what then f What is there so fright
fully mysterious about the Constitution ? If it
were in five hundred volumes, and written in
a dead language, and edited by a transcendental
philosopher, aud calculated by its oocult pro
visions to drive investigators mad; if it were
something which it required a long life and a
longer head to comprehend, we might throw
ourselves upon the mercy of a pundit like
Stanbery, or trust with child-like confidence
in the expositions of the President. If it be
so unsatisfactorily dubious in ' its language
that Congress cannot tell when to meot, how
mnch less can Congress decide what laws it
has authority to enact 1 If the two mys
terious initials, "II. S.," so fright us that
we forget that there may be another Henry in
the world besides Henry, the friend of Andrew,
we might just as well be the subjects of Stan
bery, governed by his decisions and guided by
his opinions, and politely hail him as our
mentor and master. But having made up our
minds first, that there is nothing to be
frightened about in "II. S.," whether it mean
Henry Stanbery, "or Horatio Seymour, or Hor
aoe Smith; and, secondly, that Congress does
not meet by permission of Mr. Stanbery at all
having determined that Congress has also a
right to adjourn without Mr. Stanbery's per
mission, we are, then, in no danger of any
fatal shock to our nerves. Fix for once, iu
your mind, dear reader, the precise value of
Mr. Stanbery's legal opinion, and you will
be able to smile, and even to sinir. whatever
communications signed " H. S." may be
printed. As there is no limit to the inge
nuity of the legal mind, suppose "H. S"
should put" out an opinion that Congress
has no right to meet at all without written
permission from the President f Do the
wheels of the Government go by his permis
sion? and is the motive power of all our law
making and law-enforcing mysteriously hidden
either in his brains or his books ? As it is im
possible to give an affirmative answer to these
questions, we would warn the excitable people
of this country against panics which, after all,
may be occasioned by the fact that there is
another "H. S." who gives opinions, aud who
writes for the newspapers. It may be reas
suring to reflect that there is a power behind
the Attorney-General greater than the Attorney-General
himself that the representatives
of the people will probably prove equal to any
emergency whioh may arise, and that Con
gres can and will meet whenever and wherever
time and place may seem to it to be legal.
Meanwhile let every man study the Constitu
tion for himself, t It is an easy document to
comprehend, if it be approached without any
feeling 'of awe, and with the faculties of an
ordinary understanding in full play. With a
plenty of popular knowledge of what Congress
can rightfully do, we have no fear of the
future.
Substituting Greenbacks for National
Rank Notes.""
tVom the Sundusky (Ohio) Register, 2 Mh.
It is morally certain that several bills will
be introduced in Congress at its coming ses
sion, designed to effect reforms iu our cur
rency, and particularly intended to cut down
what many regard as the too great profits of
the national banks. The favorite scheme with
demagogues and financial quacks is the sub
stitution of greenbacks for national bank
notes. We have not the slightest fear that
this will be accomplished by this or any
future Congress, for the simple reason that
such a measure would bring our "whole
financial structure in ruin about the heads of
its authors. It may seem to Mr. Stevens, Mr.
Thurman, and some others, a very simple and
easy thing to withdraw the notes of the na
tional banks, substitute a like amount of
greenbacks, then cancel the $300,000,01)0 of
bonds deposited by the banks, aud thus save
eighteen miliions of aunual interest. But
a glance at the practical workings of this plau
should convince stutesmen, at least, that it
must be abandoned.
Suppose Congress, in January next, enact a
law embodying the views of the substitution
ists. The aot would ha'vs to provide for the
exchange of currency in one of three ways:
Fiibt, 1 vU.llliug Uw Lwiks ta galker 9
this year, up to present date.
and surrender their own notes; second, by
notifying all holders of national bauk notes
that they must be presented at certain places
to be exchanged for greenbacks, before a given
time, on pain of depreciation, '. , of partial
forfeiture; or, third, by declaring, the bank
notes legal-tender, relieving the banks of all
responsibility for their redemption, and leaving
them in ciiculation as so many Governmeut
notes.
The plan first named could not be carried
out, because the banks have no control over
their circulation. Their notes are held by the
people, who would not go to the trouble of
returning them to the banks to be turned into
greenbacks on a simple request to do so. The
banks would not pay a premium oa their own
notes, as an inducement for their return, nor
could Government lorce them to pay such pre
mium. But even supposing that a published
request from the banks would bring baok to
them every dollar of their circulating notes
the result would be nniversal bankruptcy; for
it would signify the sudden withdrawal from
the business of the country of three hundred
millions of currency. If the monthly retire
ment of four millions bow causes stringency
and dull times, what would a contraction to
the extent of half the volume of our ourrency
not cause f
Plan number two, for effecting the substitu
tion of greenbacks for bank notes, would suc
ceed little better. The Government could in
duce the holders of national bank notes, scat
tered as they are among thirty million people,
to send them for exchange to Washington or
New York only by threatening their partial
forfeiture in case of refusal or failure so to
send them. But the Governmeut is already
pledged to the redemption ot the bank notes
at par, and a threat - of partial or total for
feiture would be a threat of partial or total re
pudiation of an honest debt nothing more
nor less. The Government has no more right)
nor power, to repudiate a national bank note
than it has to repudiate one of its Five-twenty
bonds. A threat to forfeit or repudiate na
tional bank notes whioh were not returned to
a Government office for exchange by a given
time, would be a blow at all credit, and would
depreciate every Government bond, green
back, and national bank note to an extent
little thought of by the wise theorists who
treat this matter with such ready flippanoy.
Hence, if this substitution were to be made
at all, and Government wished to make it
without smutting its own honor and bringing
loss to the people, the proper and only way
would be to adopt the third plan suggested
aVove, viz.: declare all national bank notes in
circulation to be a legal-tender, and relieve
the banks from all obligations to redeem them
in a word, transmute the national bank notes
into greenbacks by act of Congress, and then
let the actual exchange take place in the
natural course of . business the depository
banks being authorized to retire national bank
currency as fast as it came into their hands,
substituting newly-printed 'greenbacks, fur
nished for the purpose by the Treasury De
partment. So far as the simple exchange of national
bank notes for greenbacks is concerned, the
plan we have sketched above would accom
plish it without any serious jar to business
and credit, but this is the smallest part of the
process whereby the Substitutionals propose
to save eighteen millions of annual interest.
The change in the charaoter ot the ourrency
would not of itself save the Government any
interest. The $340,000,000 of bonds now
ptodged by the banks with the Government to
secure their circulatien would still remain the
property of the banks, while the latter would
owe the Government 300,000,000 for redeem
ing their circulating notes. How is the Gov
ernment to get possession of those pledged
bonds so as to cancel them and thus save the
much-talked-of annual interest ? Here oomes '
the rub, and here the plan of substitution
would utterly break down, or it would accom
plish its end at the cost of universal bank
ruptcy and stagnation. The Government
could not force the-banks to sell their de
posited bonds, but it could force them to
pay their indebtedness of $300,000,000 to
the national treasury. . In order to do thia
the banks Would probably be obliged to dispose
of their bonds; but where would they sell
them t In the open market, of course, where
they would get the highest prioe. It is sug
gested that the Government could offer to buy
the deposited bonds. Of this the New York
Nation, itself hostile to the banks, says: "If
the Government declares its willingness to buy
the bonds of the banks at the market price,
who is to fix that price, and white market
price is to be taken thit of the day when the
law is passed, or that of the day when the
bank surrenders its cmrrency, or that ef any
other day f And if the Government buys
these bonds at market price, paying the
heavy premium on them- (what injustice to
other bondholders !), why should the
bonds of the banks alone be redeemed ? Or if
the banks are compelled or allowed to sell
their bonds in the open market, what dis
astrous fluctuations would result from the
sudden or even gradual sale of- such an im
mense additional amount of securities t what
loss would result to the banks and to a'thou
sand other innocent holders 1" But tht-re is
a still graver objection to this proposition,
which the nation has overlooked. A majority
of those who urge the substitution of green
backs for national bank notes, also hold that
the Government bonds are payable in green
backs, hence the Substitutionists themselves
would never permit the Government to estab
lish a fatal precedent by rayiug the banks
more than par for their deposited bonds.
That would be a rurrender of the whole ques
tion. The banks being thus forced to Sell their
8340,000, COO of bonds in the .open market,
they must first get temporary possassion of
the bonds. To do this, they umt gather
up and present at the Treasury $300,000,000
in currency, as the Treasury would not per
mit the deposited bonds to go out of its pos
session until the debt which they secured was
paid. How would the hanks get this amount
of currency ? They would certainly do it by
calling in all their loans, and ceasing to dis
count, for iu no other way could thfiy gt
their capital bauk into their hands, and mk
)t available in ovufoiWn to ih.t tkAuged.