No. 1. THE CURRENCY QUESTION. To the Editor of the Evening Post: THE management of the finances of a nation in war has always been the most perplexing question which statesmen have had to solve. The difficulties of the subject arise from the prejudices of nations towards each other; an unwillingness to make loans to belligerents; the disturbance to domestic production which war occasions; the uncertainty attending its duration, and the tendency of capital to seek those countries which continue their peaceful pursuits. There were other dif ficulties which peculiarly affected the United States. The opulent powers of the world, instead of standing aloof from the rebellion, had exhibited strong sympathies with the cottonproducing South, whose loan, founded on the pledge of cotton, was taken by moneyed men in England and on the Continent, with the avowed purpose of dividing a country whose growth and future power were regarded with anxiety. The prejudice which dictated this policy was influential to discredit the financial power of the United States, so that the necessity of relying wholly on our own unaided resources was early foreseen. In deciding on the course to adopt, there was still another embarrassment peculiar to our situation. From the very origin of the government there had been opposing systems in operation. The duty which the Constitution enjoined upon Congress to provide for coining money and regulating |