The choice of gold as the standard was not due to hostility to silver or to the silver mining interests, but to the well grounded opinion that gold was a universal currency, while in some countries, as in England and Germany, silver coins were not a debt-paying currency.
Boutwell discusses the rationale behind choosing gold as the standard currency over silver.
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General Grant was not indisposed to see the territories of the Republic extended, but his love of justice and fair dealing was such that he would have used only honorable means in his intercourse with other nations.
I cannot imagine that in a hundred years this anniversary, in its organization and conduct, will be thought worthy of imitation.
He was so great that it was not a humiliation to acknowledge a change in opinion, or to admit an error in policy or purpose.
If others depart from this rule in their dealings with us, we may be compelled to follow their precedent.
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