MORALS OF THE CURRENCY.

BY NATHAN

APPLETON.

SUSPENSION of specie payments, is the gentle name applied to the failure or refusal to perform the promise contained on the face of a bank note; generally accompanied with a declaration of the perfect ability to pay, and the intention to do so at some future time. Properly viewed, this refusal deprives the bank note of the only quality which gave it circulation, the power to command the metallic money which it purports to represent. It becomes simply a broken promise, and, like other broken promises, of no other value than the chance that legal coercion may compel eventual performance; or that the refusal may relax into a willingness to pay at some future time. It will be seen that its character has become totally changed; that instead of possessing the original principle which gave it currency, it becomes in the hand of each possessor subject to all the fluctuations which belong to doubtful and uncertain contingencies. It is true, that a single bank taking this ground I will not be sustained it is a failure - the bank cannot choose but break. But let a part of the banks of one of our commercial cities proclaim this intention, all the others follow, and the public submit, not only without a murmur, but give it their commendation. The State Legislatures give it their sanction, almost as a matter of course. The example is considered so good, that it is followed by acclamation, and sustained by the general voice. Like every thing else in this free country, it is public opinion which establishes and continues this state of things, first without

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or against law afterward the law is made to bend to this opinion. It is true, all affect to consider a condition of broken promises, and a depreciated currency, as an evil, but it is acquiesced in at once, as a sort of dispensation of Providence. The real evil is in a depraved public opinion, which tolerates this state of things at all. The remedy is simple, but perhaps not very easy-the correction of this public opinion.

Money or currency is an instrument of the first necessity to a nation. No trade or commerce can be carried on without it. A nation using a currency wholly metallic may feel a scarcity of money, but cannot be drained of it, any more than a mechanic can be made to part with the tools necessary to carry on his daily business. Over-trade may take place in such a community. and excessive importation of foreign commodities may cause an exportation of the precious metals, to a degree of inconvenience. The scarcity of money resulting from such exportation reduces prices, the effect of which is to check importation, and promote the exportation of all commodities, and thus the evil soon cures itself, by the return of the coin necessary to its trade. No other considerable importation will take place until it has in this way recovered what is of all things most important to it, its tools of trade.

Precisely the same thing takes place under a well regulated bank currency. It seems to be the opinion of the best writers on the subject, that the most perfect bank circulation would be one which should be precisely equal in amount to what the circulation of the same country would be in the precious metals, were no other circulation permitted.

An expansion of the currency tends to an advance of prices excites commercial enterprise, and finally speculation and over-trade. High prices encourage importation and discourage exportation, a rise in the foreign exchanges follows, which causes an export of specie, which acts as a proper corrective by compelling the banks to call in a por

tion of their issues. This is done by lessening or suspending their usual discounts. Here is action and reaction, very beautiful, and all very agreeable to the public, except the last part of the process. A contraction of the currency causes a pressure on the money market, reduces prices-paralyzes trade- brings out failures. This is all very disagreeable. It makes what is called hard times. But in fact it is always the return from a false position to a true one. It is never necessary to diminish a currency which has not been redundant. The violence of the pressure is in proportion to the extent of the over-trade; and generally the more violent the pressure the shorter the period.

A suspension of payment by the banks, is the alternative presented in order to avoid the pressure attending the contraction of the currency, to the degree necessary to stop the efflux of coin. But this pressure is working the cure of the body politic laboring under disease the disease is an excess of bank circulation, producing over-trade, inflated and unnatural prices. The cure is contraction, producing a distress for money, a reduction of prices, perhaps failures. Suspension is no cure; it is merely postponement. It may be considered an opiate, which if justifiable at all, can only be justifiable where the paroxysms are so violent as to endanger life. There can be no wholesome action, until the purity of the circulation is restored. There is no escape from this necessity. It is after all a question of time. Is it better to be a long time ill with a lingering disease, or to submit to a painful remedy for immediate relief? Here lies the essential error in the case the idea that suspension may be considered a remedy, a real reliefwhereas it is almost sure to complicate the mischief. A continued suspension is sure to end in violent convulsion.

THE DEATH OF MURRAY.

BY MRS. L. J. B. CASE.

"DURING the last day of his life, his right hand was constantly in motion, and when any one approached, whatever might be the question, the answer was ready: To Him shall the gathering of the People be, and his rest shall be glorious, GLORIOUS, GLORIOUS!"

COME to this room! See, Death is here! With calm and solemn mien, He stands beside the sufferer's bed, by him alone unseen;

Nay, fear him not, he has no frown, but dreaming beauty lies

In the deep quiet of his brow, and in his hazy eyes.

He is no spectre fierce and grim, with stern, unpitying dart,
But softly lays a gentle hand upon the beating heart;
And the pulses slowly wane away, the purple life-tides cease,
Till o'er each faintly quivering nerve there falls serenest peace.
He touches the dim eye, and lo! the light of earth is past,
But from the future, glorious scenes are thronging thick and fast,
Visions that toned the prophet's lyre to such triumphant strains
Their deathless echoes hallow yet Judea's arid plains.

He breathes upon the lip, and hark! that voice so faint and low,
Is full and strong with holy hope and exultation now,
And rushing floods of faith sublime, burst from that feeble tongue,
On which, for long and weary years, the chains of clay have hung..

Thou weepest; thou should'st freely weep, for earth is suffering loss,
A noble soul is passing now, -a soldier of the cross,

Who, with his conscience-armor on, the path of duty trod,

And when the war-cry wildly rose, heard but the voice of God.

Ay, weep! for virtue, genius, truth are passing from thee now,

And fervid eloquence, whose power the strong, fierce will could bow, Could tame the vulture-heart of sin to purity and love,

And lift the dim, grief-blinded eye, to happier worlds above.

But look once more.. -Thy tears are done! — Thou seest the grave's pale king

But breaks the spirit's prison-bars, unbinds the fettered wing,
And gives the slumbering intellect, that long in shadows lay,
The glorious freedom of the skies, heaven's bright, perpetual day.

And thou hast put new courage on to meet earth's coming strife,
And thou wilt walk in holy calm the stormy land of life,
And meekly lift the thankful heart to him who holds thy breath,
That in his own appointed time He sends his angel, Death.

THE DEATH OF HAMILTON.

BY PHILANDER CHASE,

[Bishop of Illinois.]

THIS great man, whose death we now deplore, was distinguished for his talents and magnanimity in the early stages of his life. In more advanced periods, he shone as a soldier, a statesman, and orator. The walls of Yorktown can bear testimony to his military skill, intrepidity and valor, when engaged in defending his country's cause. He enjoyed the full confidence of our great Washington, the man whose deeds shall be had in everlasting remembrance. He fought by his side in the field, and assisted him by his counsel in the camp. When the din of war was over, he exchanged the coat of mail for the garb of peace and the gown of state. Our constitution was framed and carried into execution by the assistance of his discerning mind and powerful arm. Under his auspices, public credit was established and commerce poured in her treasures upon us.

As an orator in the cause of truth and private right, he shone with distinguished lustre. The friend of man, he defended the cause of the oppressed, and made the heart of the orphan and widow to sing for joy. He disdained duplicity, and was above the arts of fraud and deception. Malice and revenge dwelt not in his bosom, while his heart, with his hand, was given to his friend. In short, he was revered and beloved by all who knew his worth; he was feared by his rivals, and hated only by the wicked, the malicious and irreclaimable. On him had a grateful country already fixed her eyes, as on one in whom she could most implicitly rely in the day of trouble and extremity.