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Page 77
'Why, I can't stand that. The dearest pews in Dr. Chellis's church were
not over six hundred. You are joking.'
'You are an idiot,' retorted Mr. Bennett, half pettishly, half
playfully. 'Have you not placed yourself in my hands? Shall I not manage
your interests as I please? I say I want sixteen hundred and fifty
dollars. I know you can draw the money without the least inconvenience.
If I thought you could not, I would advance it myself. Are you content?'
Hiram nodded a doubtful assent.
How fortunate,' continued Mr. Bennett, that the Winslows are going to
Europe, and how lucky I got there the minute I did! Young Bishop came in
just as I closed the purchase. I know what _he_ wanted it for, and I
know what _I_ wanted it for. Hiram, a word in your ear--your pew is
immediately in front of our heiress! Bravo, old fellow! Now, will you
pay up?'
Hiram nodded this time with satisfaction.
The second Sunday thereafter one might observe that the Winslows' pew
had been newly cushioned and carpeted, and otherwise put in order.
Several prayer books and a Bible, elegantly bound, and lettered 'H.
Meeker,' were placed in it. This could not escape the notice of the very
elegant and fashionably dressed young lady in the next slip. Strange to
say, the pew contained no occupant. But just before the service was
about to commence, Hiram, purposely a little late, walked quietly in,
and took possession of his property. His _pose_ was capital. His ease
and _nonchalance_ were perfectly unexceptionable, evidencing _haut ton_.
He had been practising for weeks.
'Who can he be?' asked the elegant and fashionably dressed young lady of
herself. She was left to wonder. When he walked homeward, Hiram was
informed by Mr. Bennett that the elegant and fashionably dressed young
lady was Miss Arabella Thorne, without father, without mother, of age,
and possessed of a clear sum of two hundred thousand dollars in her own
right!
AMERICAN FINANCES AND RESOURCES.
LETTER NO. I, FROM HON. ROBERT J. WALKER.
LONDON, 10 Half Moon Street, Piccadilly, _August 5, 1863_.
The question has been often asked me, here and on the continent, _how
has your Secretary of the Treasury (Mr. Chase) so marvellously sustained
American credit during this rebellion, and when will your finances
collapse?_ This question I have frequently answered in conversations
with European statesmen and bankers, and the discussion has closed
generally in decided approval of Mr. Chase's financial policy, and great
confidence in the wonderful resources of the United States.
Thus encouraged, I have concluded to discuss the question in a series of
letters, explaining Mr. Chase's system and stating the reasons of its
remarkable success. The interest in such a topic is not confined to the
United States, nor to the present period, but extends to all times and
nations. Indeed, finance, as a science, belongs to the world. It is a
principal branch of the doctrine of 'the wealth of nations,' discussed,
during the last century, with so much ability by Adam Smith. Although
many great principles were then settled, yet political economy is
emphatically progressive, especially the important branches of credit,
currency, taxation, and revenue.
Mr. Chase's success has been complete under the most appalling
difficulties. The preceding administration, by their treasonable course,
and anti-coercion heresies, had almost paralyzed the Government. They
had increased the rate of interest of Federal loans from six to nearly
twelve per cent. per annum. Their Vice-president (Mr. Breckenridge),
their Finance Minister (Mr. Cobb), their Secretary of War (Mr. Floyd),
their Secretary of the Interior (Mr. Thompson), are now in the traitor
army. Even the President (Mr. Buchanan), with an evident purpose of
aiding the South to dissolve the Union, had announced in his messages
the absurd political paradox, that _a State has no right to secede, but
that the Government has no right to prevent its secession_. It was a
conspiracy of traitors, at the head of which stood the President,
secretly pledged, at Ostend and Cininnati, to the South (as the price of
their support), to aid them to control or destroy the republic. Thus was
it that, in time of profound peace, when our United States six per
cents. commanded a few weeks before a large premium, and our debt was
less than $65,000,000, that Mr. Buchanan's Secretary of the Treasury
(Mr. Cobb) was borrowing money at an interest of nearly twelve per cent.
per annum. Most fortunately that accursed administration was drawing to
a close, or the temporary overthrow of the Government would have been
effected. Never did any minister of finance undertake a task apparently
so hopeless as that so fully accomplished by Mr. Chase in reviving the
public credit. A single fact will illustrate the extraordinary result.
At the close of the fiscal year ending 1st July, 1860, our public debt
was only $64,769,703, and Secretary Cobb was borrowing money at twelve
per cent. per annum. On the first of July 1863, in the midst of a
stupendous rebellion, our debt was $1,097,274,000, and Mr. Chase had
reduced the average rate of interest to 3.89 per cent. per annum, whilst
the highest rate was 7.30 for a comparatively small sum to be paid off
next year. This is a financial achievement without a parallel in the
history of the world. If I speak on this subject with some enthusiasm,
it is in no egotistical spirit, for Mr. Chase's system differs in many
respects widely from that adopted by me as Minister of Finance during
the Mexican war, and which raised United States _five per cents._ to a
premium. But my system was based on specie, or its real and convertible
equivalent, and would not have answered the present emergency, which, by
our enormous expenditure, necessarily forced a partial and temporary
suspension of specie payments upon our banks and Government. Mr. Chase's
system is exclusively his own, and, in many of its aspects, is without a
precedent in history. When first proposed by him it had very few
friends, and was forced upon a reluctant Congress by the great
emergency, presenting the alternative of its adoption or financial ruin.
Indeed, upon a test vote in Congress in February last, it had failed,
when the premium on gold rose immediately over twenty per cent. This
caused a reconsideration, when the bills were passed and the premium on
gold was immediately reduced more than the previous rise, exhibiting the
extraordinary difference in a few days of twenty-three per cent., in the
absence of any intermediate Federal victories in the field.
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