independent as possible. As you state in your letter, you are a young man, and I have no doubt that in the course of your life you will find this good advice.
CURRENCY AND NATIONAL BANKS[1]
Mr. President:—It will be observed from the statement of the question as it has come from the Chair that the demand made at present by those who desire an expansion of the currency falls far short of what it originally was. It may fairly be assumed that, if we adopt the present proposition, it will serve merely as an entering wedge to prepare the way for greater exaction.
I should not undertake to address the Senate at length on the bill before us but for the last votes on the instructions to be given to the committee, which we took on Friday. I had hoped that from the confused jumble of propositions and counter-propositions, with which this bill had been incumbered nothing would issue that might be seriously detrimental to the best interests of the country. That hope has been turned into something like apprehension, and I feel it my duty now to submit some observations to the Senate.
The Senate has been during these weeks of debate presenting a most extraordinary spectacle. In the second half of the nineteenth century, with the uniform experience of ages before us, in a period of profound peace, with no public dangers pressing upon us the necessity of exceptional measures, with ample resources to defray the expenses of the Government and to develop the resources of the country, the highest legislative body of this Republic,
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Speech in the U. S. Senate, Feb. 2
74, 1874. The Senate had under consideration the bill (S. No. 432) to amend the act entitled “An act to provide for the redemption of the 3 per cent. temporary-loan certificates, and for an increase of national-bank notes,” approved July 12, 1870.
