Continental Monthly, Vol. I., No. IV., April, 1862 by Various

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In seeking aid of the money power, we go beyond the line where
patriotism gives us all we need, promptly and liberally, into the cold
region of selfishness, whose people are too much absorbed in adding to
and counting up their gains to be able to spare much time or thought on
country or freedom. No voluntary sacrifices to be expected here. What we
want we must buy, and pay for; it is only to see that we do not pay too
much for it. Selfish, timid, grasping, these people are a skittish set
to deal with. Nobody understands better the game of 'the spider and the
fly,' and they are as ready to play it with the state as with smaller
opponents, if the state will but let them. From his first visit to this
region, to the present time, our able Secretary of the Treasury was, and
continues to be, '_master of the position_.'

When the Secretary held his first sociable with the representatives of
the money power, neither he nor they had a very keen perception of what
they wanted of each other; the rebellion was not then developed in the
gigantic proportions it has since assumed; and it was hoped and
expected, with some show of reason, that two or three hundred millions
would be enough to put it down. This amount the power could and would
willingly furnish for a 'consideration,' the half presently, on
condition that it should be allowed the refusal of the other half when
it should be wanted; and so a bargain was quickly struck, to the mutual
content of both parties. But, as the thunder grew louder and the storm
fiercer, it became evident that our wants would soon be doubled, at
least. The money power hung back; the 7-3/10 remained in the banks. The
representatives said they were only agents, the agents stopped payment,
and the whole circulation of gold fell to the ground at once, not only
putting a sudden check upon all business operations, but leaving the
Treasury without any sort of currency to pay out: a sad state of things
enough. The money power drew in its head, pretending not to see
anything, waiting for propositions, expecting to reap a rich harvest out
of the state's necessities, by making its own terms. How could it be
otherwise? must not the state have several hundred millions? must not
the astute Secretary sell the state's promises to pay, _secured by a
first mortgage on all Uncle Sam's vast possessions_, on their own terms?

It was not a pleasant predicament for a nervous or a faint-hearted man
to be placed in. But then Mr. Chase is neither nervous nor
faint-hearted, and when Congress came together he not only told his
wants frankly, but proposed a neat little plan for supplying them
without selling notes at fifty per cent. discount. Taking into view the
want of a sound currency for business purposes, and the want of some
currency to pay out from the Treasury instead of the gold which had
disappeared and left a vacuum, he proposed to borrow $150,000,000, by
issuing Treasury Notes, payable on demand, without interest, and making
them a _legal tender for the payment of all debts_, with a proviso that
any parties who should at any time have more on hand than they wanted
should be allowed to invest them in bonds bearing six per cent interest.
It was a very simple proposition--almost sublime for its simplicity;
there was no mystery about it; and yet it was the very turning point of
the ways and means of crushing the rebellion, without being ourselves
crushed under an unbearable burden of debt. The money power stood
aghast, and hardly recovered breath in time to oppose its passage
through Congress; but the common sense of the people hailed Mr. Chase as
a deliverer, and Congress endorsed common sense. Seriously, this
splendid invention of the Secretary has given a new face to our
financial affairs by placing the money power where it always should
be,--in subservience to the people,--instead of allowing it to become a
grinding task-master. The importance of this measure can hardly be
appreciated yet. A member of Congress, himself a merchant, and an able
financier, says:

'My theory in regard to it is, that as the currency is increased by the
addition of these notes to its volume, prices generally will rise,
including the price of U.S. bonds, until they reach par; at that point,
these notes, being convertible into bonds, the rise in the price of
bonds will stop, because further additions to the currency, whether of
these notes, bank notes, or coin, will only stimulate the conversion of
notes into bonds; and that conversion will check the increase of
currency. The _excess_ of notes will then be gradually withdrawn from
circulation for conversion,--leaving only such an amount in circulation
as a healthy and natural condition of the currency will require.'

A theory in which we fully concur. We see growing out of it a
restoration of business: government creditors paid in a currency equal
to gold; low prices for all government contracts; a consequent
diminished expenditure for supplies, and an annual payment for interest
on the debt we shall owe, which can be easily met without heavy
taxation. However it may turn out in the conduct of the war,--and we
have full faith in that also,--it is very certain that in the conduct of
the finances we have found the man for the times. The whole country
feels this, and breathes easier for it. The arch rebel, in a recent
address to his satellites, admits that he altogether underestimated the
patriotism and loyalty of the men of the North, but takes fresh courage
from the certainty that we shall shortly back down under our load of
debt. A little further on and he will find that he has just as much
mistaken our power in that respect,--that as his own worthless promises,
based upon nothing, fall to nothing, the notes of the Union will stand
as firm and as fair in the money market as her banner will on the
battle-field.

Men and money are the sinews of war. In our first trial, patriotism has
furnished the men, and the presiding genius of the Treasury has clearly
pointed out the means for obtaining the money. _Laus Deo_!

* * * * *

Note.--For the benefit of those of our readers who do not understand
currency facts and theories, we make the following explanation. The
relation of currency, or circulation medium, to the industry and
business of the state, is similar to that of steam in an engine: a
certain amount is required to keep up a regular and natural movement; an
excessive amount causes too rapid motion, and a deficiency the reverse.
Currency is made up of several things. Bank deposits, circulating by
checks, bank notes, and coin, are the most important and best
understood. The aggregate amount of these three items before the
suspension of specie payments was above $450,000,000; and this sum is
required to give a healthy movement to business affairs. Take away any
portion of it, and prices fall and labor languishes, because the motion
from it is too small for the work required; add considerably to it, and
prices rise, because the motive power, being superabundant, is too
freely used. When specie payment was suspended this motive power was
reduced; the circulating medium fell from four hundred and fifty to
three hundred and fifty millions, perhaps less; and unless this loss is
replaced it is quite clear that prices must fall and the employment of
labor be curtailed. The issue of treasury notes will fill the gap,
making the business motive power of the same strength and ability as
before. Thus it will be seen that the emission of treasury notes plays
an important part upon the industry and business of the state, which,
under existing circumstances, can hardly be over-valued, as well as in
the national finances.

* * * * *

The Darwin-development theory has of late attracted no little attention.
One of our contributors favors us with _his_ views in the following
'wild-verse,' which is itself rather of the transition order:--

MODERN ANSWERS TO ANCIENT RIDDLES.

'Whar did ye come from? Who d'ye belong to!'--_Ethiops_.

Philosophers say, deny it who may,
That the man who stands upright so bravely to-day,
Once crawled as a reptile with nose to the sod,
His grandfather Monad a bit of a clod.

To be sure, man's descent is not made out quite plain,
But one or two _guesses_ might piece out the chain;
If the chain is quite long a few links won't be missed;
Or, if you must join it, _just give it a twist_.

A bold Boston doctor, by stride superhuman,
Makes only a step from a snake to a woman;
Or, inspect your best friends by Granville's good glass,
And the difference's as small 'twixt a man and an ass.

'From the company he keeps we may learn a man's nature;'
If he will play with monkey, dog, cat, or such creature,
The schoolmen will say, as a matter of course,
'Cum hoc ergo propter hoc.' Notice its force!

If with doubts you're still puzzled, and wonder who can
Answer all your objections, why Darwin's your man.
He can bridge o'er a chasm both broad and profound;
The last thing he needs for a theory is _ground_.

Bring your queries and facts, no matter how tough;
Development doctrine makes light of such stuff.
One example of these will perhaps be enough:--
'These crawlers,' for instance, 'should they be still here,'
'Not yet become bipeds?' The answer is clear:

In our strangely unequal organic advance,
He is the most forward who has the best chance.
By braving the weather and struggling with brother,
The one who survives it all gains upon t'other.

The old Bible 'myth,' now, of Jacob and Esau,
Is the struggle 'twixt species, the monkey and man law;
One hairy, one handsome, one favored, one cursed;
And sometimes the last one turns out to be first.

Still, through cycles enough let the laggard persist,
Let the weak be suppressed since he can not resist,
And, proceeding by logic which none may dispute,
Can't we safely infer there's an end to the brute?

You may, if you please, supersede Revelation,
By wholly new methods of ratiocination;
Though, since head and heart _need be_ in contradiction,
Why should reason hold faith under any restriction?
Shut your eyes, and guess down heaven's good pious fiction.[P]

Noah's ark was superfluous. Where were his brains,
For those beasts and those sons to provide with such pains,
When they might to a deluge cry Fiddle di dee,
And sprout fins and scales, if they took to the sea?

Well, perhaps in those days they had not yet known
That _by need of new functions new organs are grown_.
Those drowned chaps were sure a 'degenerate' crew,
Or else, on their plunge into element new,
Some 'law of selection' had rescued a few.
And, 'if wishes were fishes' I think one or two
Would have _wished_, and swam out of their scrape, do not you?
Can it be that those 'Fish Tales' of mermen are true?

No wonder that racing was always in fashion,--
All orders of beings were born with the passion--
But it seems that at length Genus Man will be winner.
You cry 'Lucky dog!' But what now about dinner?

No oysters, no turtle, fresh salmon, fried sole,
No canvas duck nor fowl casserole.
All these he has seen disappear from the stage,
A sacrifice vast growing age after age.

Their successive growth upward he's watched with dismay;
They have come to be men, having all had their day!
Though he took, while its lord, quite a taste of the creature,
By rule Epicurean 'dum vivim.,' etcetera.

In Paradise, Adam and Eve, to be sure,
Since they didn't have flesh, ate their onion sauce pure,
But, as our old friend John P. Robinson he
Said, 'they didn't know everything down in Judee.'

Now the better taught modern he very well knows
What to beef and to mutton society owes.
What are homes without hearths? What's a hearth without roasts?
Or a grand public dinner with _nothing_ but toasts?

Yet, what government measure, or scheme philanthropic,
Or learned convention in hall philosophic,
But is mainly sustained upon leasts and collations?
At least, it is so in all civilized nations.

Here's a fix! Yet indeed, soon or late, the whole race
Must the problem decide on, with good or ill grace.
We cannot go hungry; what are we to do?
Shall we pulse it, like Daniel, that knowing young Jew?
Letting Grahamite doctors our diet appoint,
Eat our very plain pudding without any joint?

Or, shall we the bloody alternative take,
And cannibal meals of our relatives make,
Put aside ancient scruples (for what's in a name?)
And shake hands with the dainty New Zealander dame,
Who thought that she really might relish a bit
Of broiled missionary brought fresh from the spit?

'Twere surely most cruel in Nature our nurse,
Man's march of improvement so quick to reverse.
Will she offer a choice which we may not refuse,
When we're sure to turn savage however we choose?

We may slowly creep up to a lofty position,
Then go back at one leap to the lower condition.
Even so, my good friend, in a circle he goes,
Who would follow such theories on to their close.
If you've started with Darwin, as sure as you're born,
You're in a dilemma; pray take either horn.

T.

* * * * *

Who has not belonged in his time to a debating society? What youth
ambitious of becoming 'a perfect _Hercules_ behind the bar?'--as a well
meaning but unfortunate Philadelphian once said in a funeral eulogy over
a deceased legal friend--has not 'debated' in a club 'formed for
purposes of mutual _and_ literary improvement of the mind?' All who have
will read with pleasure the following letter from one who has most
certainly been there:--

DEAR CONTINENTAL:

I am a man that rides around over the 'kedn'try.' In the little
village where I am now tarrying, the school-house bell is
ringing to call together the members of that ancient institution
peculiar to villages, the debating society. A friend informs me
that the time-honored questions--Should capital punishment be
abolished?--Did Columbus deserve more praise than
Washington?--Is art more pleasing to the eye than nature?--have
each had their turn in their regular rotation, and that the
question for to-night is--as you might suppose--Has the Indian
suffered greater wrongs at the hands of the White man than the
Negro? As I have a distinct recollection of having thoroughly
investigated and zealously declaimed on each of the above topics
in days lang syne, I shall excuse myself from attendance this
evening, on the ground that I am already extensively informed on
the subject in hand, and my mind is fully made up. But I hereby
acknowledge my indebtedness to the good fellow who told me the
object of the ringing of the bell--for he has unconsciously
started up some of the most amusing recollections of my life.
Sitting here alone in my room, I have just taken a hearty laugh
over a circumstance that had well-nigh given me the slip. The
question was the same Negro-Indian-White-man affair. One of the
orators, having, a long time previously, seen a picture in an
old 'jography' of some Indians making a hubbub on board certain
vessels, and reading under it, _Destruction of Tea in Boston
Harbor_, brought up the circumstance, and insisting with great
earnestness that the white man had received burning wrongs at
the hands of the Indian, and that the latter had _no reason at
all to complain_, dwelt with great emphasis on the ruthless
destruction of the white man's tea in Boston Harbor by the
latter, in proof of his 'point.'

I remember also a debating society in the little village of
R----, which numbered some really very worthy and intelligent
members, but of course included some that were otherwise, among
whom was a silly young fellow, who had mistaken his proper
calling--(he should have been a wood-chopper), and was suffering
under an attack _at_ medicine. The question for debate on one
occasion was--Is conscience an infallible guide? Being expected
to take part in the discussion, he was bent on thorough
preparation, and ransacked his preceptor's professional
library--(almost as poor a place as a lawyer's) for a work on
_conscience_. He found abundance of matter, however, for a
lengthy chapter on the subject, as he supposed, occurring in
several of the dusty octavos, and he thumbed the leaves with
most patient assiduity. He had misspelled the word however, and
was reading all the while on _consciousness_--a subject which
would very naturally occur in some departments of medicine. But
it was all one to him, he didn't see the difference, and the
ridiculous display he made to us of his 'cramming' on
consciousness can be better imagined than described.

Years after found me inside college walls--but colleges in the
West, be it remembered, sometimes include preparatory
departments, into which, by the courtesy of the teachers, many
young men are admitted who would hardly make a respectable
figure in the poorest country school, but who by dint of honest
toil finally do themselves great credit.

I 'happened in' on a number of such, one evening, whose
affinities had drawn them together with a view to forming a
debating society, to be made exclusively of their own kind. I
listened with much interest and pleasure to the preliminaries of
organization, and smiled, when they were about to 'choose a
question,' to see them bring out the same old coaches mentioned
in the beginning of this article; when one of their number
arose, evidently dissatisfied with the old beaten track, and
seemed bent on opening a new vein. He was a good, honest,
patient fellow, but his weakness in expressing himself was,
that, although his delivery was very slow, he didn't know how he
was going to end his sentences when he began them. 'Mr.
President,' said he, 'how would this do? Suppose a punkin seed
sprouts in one man's garden, and the vine grows through the
fence, and bears a punkin on another man's ground--now--(a long
pause)--the question is--whose punkin--_does it belong to?_' The
poor fellow subsided, as might be supposed, amid a roar of
voices and a crash of boots.

There is a legal axiom which would settle the pumpkin-vine query--that
of _cujus est solum ejus est usque ad coelum_--'ownership in the soil
confers possession of everything even as high as heaven.' Our friends in
Dixie seem determined to prove that they have also fee simple in their
soil downwards as far as the other place, and by the last advices were
digging their own graves to an extent which will soon bring them to the
utmost limit of their property!

* * * * *

Does the reader remember Poor Pillicoddy, and the mariner who was ever
expected to turn up again? Not less eccentric, as it seems to us, is the
re-apparition chronicled in the following story by a friend:--

TURNING UP AGAIN!

'You were all through that Mexican war, and out with Walker in
Niggerawger.--Well, what do you think 'bout Niggerawger? Kind of
a cuss'd 'skeeter hole, ain't it?'

'Tain't so much 'skeeters as 'tis snaiks, scorpiums and the
like,' answered the gray-moustached corporal. 'It's hot in them
countries as a Dutch oven on a big bake; and going through them
parts, man's got to move purty d----d lively to git ahead of the
yaller fever; it's right onto his tracks the hull time.'

'Did you git that gash over your nose out there?'

'Yes, I got that in a small scrimmage under old GRAY EYES. 'Twas
next day _after a fight_ though, cum to think on it. We'd been
up there and took a small odobe hole called Santa Sumthin', and
had spasificated the poperlashun, when I went to git a gold
cross off an old woman, and she up frying-pan of _frijoles_ and
hit me, so!' Here the corporal aimed a blow with his pipe at the
face of the high private he was talking with;--the latter dodged
it.

'That was a big thing, that fight at Santa Sumthin'; the way we
went over them mud walls, and wiped out the Greasers, was a
cortion. I rac'lect when we was drawed up company front, afore
we made the charge, there was a feller next me in the ranks--I
didn't know him from an old shoe, 'cause he'd ben drafted that
morning into us from another company. Says he,--

'We're going into hair and cats' claws 'fore long, and as I'm
unbeknownst amongst you fellers, I'd like to make a bargain with
you.'

'Go it,' says I; 'I'm on hand for ennything.'

'Well,' says he, 'witchever one of us gits knocked over, the
tother feller 'll look out for him, and if he ain't a goner 'll
haul him out, so the doctor can work onto him.'

'Good,' says I, 'you may count me in there; mind you look after
ME!'

The fight began, and when we charged, the fust thing I knowed
the feller next me, wot made the bargain, he went head over
heels backwards; and to tell the honest trooth, I was just that
powerful egsited I never minded him a smite, but went right
ahead after plunder and the Greasers, over mud walls and along
alleys, till I got, bang in, where I found something worth
fighting about it. 'Bout dusk, when we was all purty full of
_agwadenty_, they sent us out to bury our fellers as was killed
in the scrimmage; and as we hadn't much time to spare, we didn't
dig a hole more'n a foot or two deep, and put all our fellers
in, in a hurry. Next morning airly, as I was just coming out of
a church where I'd ben surveyin' some candle-stix with a
jack-knife to see ef they were silver, [witch they were
not,--hang em!]--as I was coming out of the church I felt a
feller punch me in the back--so I turned round to hit him back,
when I see the feller, as had stood by me in the ranks the day
before, all covered over with dirt, and mad as a ringtail
hornet.

'Hello!' said I.

'Hello! yourself,' said he. 'I want ter know what yer went and
berried me for, afore I was killed for?'

I never was so put to for a answer afore in all my life, 'cause
I wanted to spasificate the feller, so I kind of hemmed, and
says I--'Hm! the fact was, this dirty little hole of a town was
_rayther_ crowded last night, and I--just to please you, yer
know--I lodged you out there; but I swear I was this minute
going out there to dig you up for breakfuss!'

'If that's so,' said he, 'we won't say no more 'bout it; but the
next time you do it, don't put a feller in so deep; for I had a
oncommon hard scratch turning up again!'

H.P.L.

We are indebted to the same writer for the following Oriental
market-picture--we might say scene in a proverb:

PROVERBIALLY WISE.

ACHMET sat in the bazaar, calmly smoking: he had said to himself
in the early morning,--'When I shall have made a hundred
piastres I will shut up shop for the day, and go home and take
it easy, _al'hamdu lillah_!' Now a hundred piastres in the land
of the faithful, where the sand is and the palms grow, is equal
to a dollar in the land of Jonathan: and the expression he
concluded his sentence with is equivalent to--Praise be to
Allah!

Along came a blind fakir begging; then ACHMET gave him five
paras, although his charity was unseen; neither did he want it
to be seen, for he said to himself,--

'Do good and throw it into the sea--if the fishes don't know it,
God will.'

And as he handed the poor blind fakir the small coin, he said to
him, in a soothing voice,--

'_Fa'keer_' (which in the Arabic means poor fellow), 'the nest
of a blind bird is made by Allah.'

Then along came SULIMAN BEY, who was high in office in the land
of Egypt, and was wealthy, and powerful, and very much hated and
feared. And ACHMET bowed down before him, and performed
obeisance in the manner of the Turks, touching his own hand to
his lips, his breast, his head:--and the SULIMAN BEY went
proudly on. Then ACHMET smiled, and YUSEF, who had a stall in
the bazaar opposite to him, winked to ACHMET, saying, in a low
voice,--

'Kiss ardently the hands which you can not cut off:'--

and they smiled grimly one unto the other.

'Did you hear the music in the Esbekieh garden yesterday?' asked
YUSEF of ACHMET. 'I think it was horrible.'

'It cost nothing to hear it,' quoth ACHMET: 'there was no charge
made.'

'_Aio_! true,' answered YUSEF; 'but there were too many drums; I
wouldn't have one if I were Pacha.'

'Welcome even pitch, if it is gratis.'

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