But if you sincerely desire the national system to prevail, then must you so endow and protect it that it will be commended to the public, and that investments will naturally seek it.

Therefore every privilege you confer, every immunity you give, every exemption you establish in its favor, must naturally contribute to its strength, and make it more effective for its transcendent purposes.

But there is one other sacrifice now required: it is the sacrifice of the State banks as agents of currency; and this sacrifice requires that the local taxation should be suspended with regard to the national currency, and that all the…

You must do for the national currency precisely what you do for the national securities.

We have more than once been warned not to slay the goose that lays the golden egg,--meaning by this goose the State banks.

But all who use this illustration forget that there is another bird, which lays such eggs as no State banks can hatch,--eggs not merely of gold, but of victory.

It is the national credit, which Senators seem willing to abandon, if not to slay; and it is the national credit which I now insist shall be preserved at all hazards.

It only remains that you should go forward, not sluggishly, heavily, reluctantly, but bravely, confidently.

If the system is to be maintained, if it is not to be utterly abandoned, it must be placed under the most favorable auspices, so at least that it may not fail from any want of care on our part.

It should be made strong in itself, and then it should be surrounded with an atmosphere congenial and friendly.

For this reason I shall vote to keep it free from all State hostility and even State rivalry, that it may become in reality, as in name, wholly national.

But the people are too intelligent not to see what is demanded by the best interests of the national currency; and unless I greatly err, they will insist that what we do shall be so done as to make our work most effective and most…

I speak for a national currency which shall be to the whole country like the horn of abundance; and I plead for it now, as essential not only to the general welfare, but also to the common defence.

What confidence can anybody have in anything founded on such premises, which experience, if not reason, shows to be false?

I never heard that this multiplicity tended toward “national disintegration.” France still continues one and indivisible; and I doubt if there would be any difference in this respect, even if there were a mint in every one of her…

It is the importance of a correct and finished coinage, which it seems natural to suppose best promoted by a single mint.

I allude thus minutely to this testimony, because I would not keep anything out of the discussion calculated to shed light, and because it seems to me that the long-continued practice of France, in spite of such testimony, must not be…

I need not say that they do not commend themselves to my judgment, especially when it is considered that in all probability the coinage at these mints, besides being expensive, was also of an inferior quality.

Where gold so abounded, the currency of the country was naturally in this metal, which thus performed its double function of merchandise and money.

The answer of reason, convenience, and commerce was clearly against such enforced transportation.

Even assuming that the coinage could be executed with more economy and perfection at Philadelphia, it is evident that the local interests of California were too important to be neglected.

The region is fruitful in gold, if not to the same extent as California, yet so much so as to require similar facilities for coinage.

But the interests of business on the Pacific coast must not be sacrificed even to these considerations.

It is impossible to legislate for such immense spaces as you would legislate for a European kingdom, where every part is within easy distance of the metropolis.

The whole question is obscured by considering gold, when coined, as exclusively currency, whereas it is also merchandise.