s in the fact that it is
intended to supersede that irregular and unsatisfactory system of
banking which is based on a similar pledge of the credit of the several
States. It is said to be hostile to the existing banks; but it is only
so in so far as it requires a change of the basis of their credit from
State to National securities. The measure was not conceived in any
unfriendly spirit toward those institutions. It was necessary for the
National Government to assert its own superiority, and thus to
strengthen itself, at the same time that it sought to protect the people
by securing them a uniform currency and equable exchanges.

Some murmurs of opposition have been heard from a quarter well
understood; but the good sense of the people, and, we hope, of the
holders of State bonds themselves, seems to have quickly suppressed
these complaints. A war of the State banks on the Government, at this
time and on this ground, might well be deplored; but the issue would not
be doubtful. Mr. Chase occupies the vantage ground, and he would be
victorious over these, as the country is destined to be over all other
enemies.

At no other time could so fundamental a change in our system of currency
have been proposed with the slightest chance of success; and, upon the
whole, it was a grand and happy conception, in the midst of this
tremendous war, to make its gigantic fiscal necessities contribute to
the permanent uniformity of the currency and of the domestic exchanges.
For this great measure is no temporary expedient. Its success is bound
up with the stability of the Government; and if this endures, the good
effects of the new system will be felt and appreciated in future years,
long after the unhappy convulsion which gave it birth shall have passed
away. It will serve to smooth the path from horrid war to peace, and to
hasten the return of national prosperity; and when experience shall have
fully perfected its organization, it may well be expected, by the
generality of its operation and its great momentum, to act as the great
natural regulator of enterprise and business in our country.

If these grand achievements in finance have had so important an
influence in sustaining the war for the Union, it is not likely they
will fail to constitute a large element in controlling the political
events of the immediate future. Their author is well known to entertain
the soundest views in reference to the thoroughness of the measures
necessar