The Act constantly speaks of these two as equivalent expressions, thus seeming to show that “bills of credit,” in their true meaning, were what is familiarly called “paper money,” with the incidents of such money.

But the Act proceeds to limit these incidents by declaring expressly that “no paper currency, or bills of credit,” issued under it, shall be a tender in payment of any private debts or contracts whatsoever, with a proviso that nothing…

That Parliament should deem it necessary, by special enactment, to take from bills of credit the character of a tender, attests the customary association between these two ideas.

The conclusion from this silence, under all the circumstances, is strong, if not irresistible.

If the Constitution failed to speak, Congress has not failed; and the exercise of this power cannot now be questioned, without unsettling our whole financial system.

And now, if this historical review is properly apprehended, if it is not entirely out of place, it must conduct to the conclusion, that, whatever may be the present question of policy, the power to make Treasury notes a tender has…

It is true that you may exercise one power and decline the other; but if you assume the power to issue bills of credit, I am at a loss to understand how you can deny the power to make them a tender.

You may refuse to exercise one or both; but you cannot insist upon one, under the Constitution, and reject the other.

It is not too much to say that this question concerns the national character, as well as the national welfare, while intelligent and patriotic men differ earnestly with regard to it.

Seeking the truth only, and jealous of that good name which is to a Government one of its best possessions, I shall consider the question frankly; nor shall I disguise any of the difficulties which it presents, whether from principle or…

This is not the time for concealment, and I insist, that, if the power is exercised, its true character shall be understood.

I invoke, also, the examples of history, to make us pause; but it will be my duty to show that there are other examples calculated to sustain the Government in the policy it now so urgently recommends.

If the Treasury notes of the United States were at this moment convertible into coin, there would be no occasion to declare them a tender; for they would be everywhere, at least in our own country, as good as coin.

But the suspension of the banks was followed by suspension of the Treasury, and its notes are now inconvertible paper, which it is proposed to sustain artificially by declaring them a tender.

Looking at the history of paper money, especially in our own country, we find no encouragement.

I have heard it said that old soldiers in Denmark lighted their pipes with paper money, which had become to them only the record of a broken promise.

Power of all kinds is liable to abuse, and experience shows that the power to issue inconvertible paper is no exception to this prevailing law.

The issue may be moderate at first, and sustained by plausible reasons, but it breaks soon into excess.

Of course, actual value, or its equivalent, is the life of money, giving to it a circulating quality; and when money begins to be suspected, it loses its circulating quality.

But inconvertible paper, even when made a tender, has no actual value, and circulates only because Government commands its circulation.

It has no present worth beyond the engraving; therefore all ordinary checks to undue issue of money are wanting.

Nothing exists to prevent excess and consequent depreciation; and this danger is verified by history.

But it is to be borne in mind that both these metals have positive value in the market equivalent to that of coin; so that coin is value itself.

But convertible paper is not value itself; it is only the representative of value; while it is doubtful if inconvertible paper can be called the representative of anything in particular.

Let us at all hazards prevent the extension of Slavery and the increase of the Slave Power.