Boston, December 11, 1864
Meanwhile you will soon have the message and documents. What do you think of them? They strike me as excellent business documents, and the tone of the message in relation to slavery and conciliation I very much like. We are all tired of that eternal olive branch of conciliation. The rebels play brag and they outrage all nature. Now in public we must outbrag them, whatever chances of conciliation are kept open in private. And by the way, I am very curious to see the Diplomatic Correspondence of this year. Will the curious Scott Russell diplomatic fiasco see the light? I think it ought, if only to prove that we have ever been ready and almost eager to discuss schemes of pacification brought forward with even a shadow of authority.
One report, that of the Treasury, disappoints me mightily, and for reasons which I have already given you. It seems to be an able balance sheet. It proves that we are at the end of our tether and can borrow no more, and it stops there. We can’t go on as we are, he clearly shows, and he has only to propose a continuation of the old measures. He does not state a single principle of sound finance, but he makes a stately onslaught upon “speculators in gold.” Why not also on those in flour and pork? It is, to my mind, very ominous. The people are so weary of an inflated currency that they are far ahead of Mr. Fessenden, and yet he is Secretary, and we must wait to have him ruin his reputation at the expense of our credit. I now very much fear that repudiation of some sort and to a certain extent is well nigh inevitable. We must have taxation and neither systems of finance or gold bills will supply its place. We certainly could retrench immensely —bounties could be cut off for one thing. We could raise more money by a somewhat lower tariff and then the income tax is all our own. For myself I would not grumble at giving one-third of my income for the rest of the war, and, instead of preventing imports by excessive duties, I would stop the consumption of luxuries by a war-tax of thirty-three per cent on all incomes above $5000 a year. You see I have gone crazy on the subject of taxes. I am tired of paying one-tenth of my income for revenue and one-half of it for currency. However, Mr. Fessenden thinks differently and he speaks from the high places. Of our other two national lights, Mr. Sherman is said to entertain the views which I express and your old friend, Thad. Stevens, as soon as he has fixed our currency, is going to regulate by law the rising of the sun, so that the days shall be of equal length all the year round. . . .
