170 
Annual Report of the 
nue over to the treaty-making power, when it constitutionally be¬ 
longs to Congress. 
But the most serious and puzzling development of questionable 
statesmanship, that for years has been enacted by our servants at 
Washington, is the one previously alluded to, of forcing the re¬ 
sumption of specie payment. It is serious , because, either viewed 
in the light of analogous record, or that of the existing facts controll¬ 
ing the subject, it must affect seriously all the interest of produc¬ 
tion in this country. Ib is puzzling on account of involving the 
contradictory tendencies of both contraction and expansion with 
nothing clear as to which will preponderate. If the ultimate pre¬ 
ponderance should be expansion, it would augment the amount of 
specie to be provided for resumption, and to that extent increase 
the burden of indebtedness. If, however, it should ultimate in con¬ 
traction, it would carry with it still greater diminished production, 
stagnation in business, and hopelessly doom the earnings of the 
many to the mercy of the few. Two things in it, however, are 
certain. It fixes a day for resumption, thereby advising financiers 
when to look out for their chances, and it contracts greenback 
currency which costs the people nothing, and expands bank note 
currency which costs the people from 15 to 30 per cent, per annum. 
Owing as we do, according to the New York Shipping Gazette, 
within a fraction of ten billions of dollars, which is about $248 per 
capita for our entire population, and having not more than one 
hundred and fifty millions, or three dollars and seventy-five cents 
per capita in specie, it must be seen that the difference between our 
liabilities and solid specie basis, aside from the amount of commer¬ 
cial exchanges, is too great to be floated safely by any or all 
the forms of credit. 
As the currency is contracted, credits expand, even in adjusting 
diminished values, but can these credits or their expansion be relied 
on to cover the difference between three dollars and seventy-five 
cents and $248? Then gold must be borrowed and the interest and 
principle added to our indebtedness. 
And how will you find the gold market after setting a day for 
resumption, when less than a dozen millionaires in New York can 
control all the gold in this country, while the Rothschilds can cor¬ 
ner it in Europe? Allow all you can for deferred maturity of these 
credits, or their negotiable or convertible forms and you will find a 
