You cannot make men lend you; you cannot make men sell you anything --either bread, or meat, or wool, or iron, or anything that is or that can be created--except for that which they choose to take.

You may depreciate the money which you offer, but it will only take more of it to buy what you want.

It is true that the creditor may, by your laws, be compelled to take your money however much you depreciate it, but he cannot buy back that which he sold, or its equivalent in other necessaries of life, and thus he is cheated of part of…

Productive labor, honest toil, whether of the farmer or the artisan, is deeply interested in credit.

It is credit that gives life and competition to trade; and credit is destroyed by every scheme that impairs, delays, or even clouds an obligation.

Again, sir, an irredeemable and fluctuating currency always raises the rate of interest on money, while a stable currency or an improving currency always reduces the rate of interest.

If a man lends his money he wants it back again with its increase; but if the money, when it is to be paid back, is like to be worth less than when he thinks of loaning it, he will not loan it except at such rates as will cover the risk of…

If money is at the gold standard, or is advancing toward that standard, he will loan it readily at a moderate interest, for he knows he will receive back money of at least equal value to that he loaned.

Again, sir, with a depreciated currency great domestic productions are cut off from the foreign market; for it is impossible that with such a currency we can compete on equal terms with rival nations, whose industry rests upon a specie…

Let us rest our industries on that standard, and soon we could compete in the markets of the world in all the articles produced from iron, wood, leather, and cotton, the raw basis of which are our national productions.

A country that does not rest her industry upon specie is necessarily excluded from the great manufacturing industries of modern civilization, and is self-condemned to produce only the raw basis for advanced industry.

Again, sir, a depreciated and fluctuating currency is a premium and bounty to the broker and money changer.

Under his manipulation our paper standard of value goes up and down, and he gambles and speculates, with all the advantages in his favor.

Good people look on and think that it is gold that is going up and down; that their money is a dollar still, and trade and traffic in that belief.

But the shrewd speculator calculates daily the depreciation of our note, the shortening of the yard stick, the shrinkage of the acre, the lessening of the ton, and thus it is that he daily adds to his gains from the indifference or…

Of all contrivances for cheating the laboring classes of mankind, none has been more effectual than that which deluded them with paper money.

Of the multitude of schemes that have been presented to me by intelligent men trying to solve this problem, many could have been selected that in my opinion would be practicable; but of all of them not one ever has or is likely to secure…

One difficulty we have encountered is that the Democratic party, though in the minority, has never presented in any form, through any leading member, a plan for resumption, but with widely differing opinions has joined in opposing any and…

And, sir, there is a strong force in the fact that in every example we have of the successful resumption of specie payments, in this and other countries, a fixed day has been named by legislative authority, and the details and power of…

This concurrence in the mode of resumption by so many governments was the strongest possible instruction to Congress when fixing a plan of resumption for the United States, and should satisfy reasonable men of its wisdom.

If the measures only were presented and no time fixed it would be a matter of speculation, and the discretionary powers of the Secretary of the Treasury could be exercised with a view to hasten or postpone the time to the injury of…

It allows ample time to arrange all the relations of debtor and creditor, and to enable Congress to provide any additional measure in aid of redemption, or, if events make it expedient, to postpone the time.

I took a much more hopeful view of the situation, and in the many speeches I made in that Congress, I stated my confidence, not only in the process of resumption and refunding, but in the rapid improvement of all branches of industry as we…

A century ago we were three million people; now forty million; then we had a little border on the Atlantic; we are now extended to the Pacific.

I worked hard that winter, for hard work, I thought, was the way to fortune.