Charles Sumner

President, the payment of the national debt is an American idea, and I would say nothing to weaken it among the people.

I cannot imagine any advantage from this new system sufficient to induce us to encounter the possible embarrassments or entanglements which it may cause.

This is one of the desires of my heart, as it is one of the necessities of civilization; but I fail to see how this aspiration will be promoted by the system proposed,--which must be judged on its own merits, without any such…

Thus, while refunding the national debt, we shall open the way to improvements of all kinds.

Without any adverse intention, the National Government is a victorious competitor, and the defeated parties are those very enterprises whose success is so important to the country.

Government bonds enjoy preëminence as an investment,--and if the interest is high, they attract the disposable money of the country.

Do Senators consider to what extent the Government determines the rates of interest in the money centres of the country?

The Treasury of the United States, like the British Treasury, would always be without a surplus, and the national debt would be recognized as a burden to be endured forever.

Without the requirement of law, I doubt if the debt would be paid.

I would not only avoid the idea that our debt is permanent, but I would adhere to the form of positive payment at some fixed period, and keep this idea always present in the minds of the people.

It means a debt never to be paid, or at least it is an inscribed debt carrying no promise of payment.

That which is most favorable to the nation is most favorable to the market value of the bond; and that which is unfavorable to the nation is unfavorable also to the market value of the bond, rendering its negotiation and sale more…

While the prolongation of time enlarges the option of the nation, it increases the value of the bond in the market.

The experiment can do no good, while it may do harm.

I am clear that it is not prudent to make the experiment, when it is easy to offer another loan with positive advantages sufficient to turn the scale.

It is like the credit or good-will of an established mercantile house, which stands often instead of capital; and then the fact that the proceeds are to be absorbed in the redemption of the first Five-Twenties, so often assailed, will most…

The greater latitude of payment leaves the nation master of the situation, to pay or not to pay, as is most for the national advantage.

There is no benefit within the bounds of imagination, so far at least as I can discern, which will not redound to the nation from Ten-Forties as much as from Ten-Twenties.

I know no way, short of universal specie payments, by which the national credit can be so effectually advanced.

But there is a reason, which to my mind is of peculiar force, why this first loan should be paid in coin at the earliest possible day.

This change, as we now see, gave positive advantages to the nation.

Now, by the immutable laws of credit, which all legislative enactments are impotent to counteract or expunge, the nation must suffer when it enters the market as a borrower.

With regard to this branch of the national debt there is an open confession of insolvency, and each day renews the confession.

The rules of business are the same for the nation as for an individual; nor can a nation, when it becomes a borrower, hope to escape the scrutiny which is applied to an individual under similar circumstances.

But, on the other hand, the condition of the currency bears directly upon all efforts for increased loans; and this is of practical importance on the present occasion.