There are times when such money is unavoidable, as during war or great public calamity, but it has always been the anxious care of statesmen to return again to the solid standard of coin.

Therefore it is that specie payments, or a specie standard, is pressed by the great body of intelligent men who study these questions, as an indispensable prerequisite for steady business and good times.

I regard this as a mild form of lunacy, and have no disposition to debate with men who indulge in such delusions, which have prevailed to some extent, at different times, in all countries, but whose life has been brief, and which have ever…

Congress will never entertain such a proposition, and, if it should, we know that the scheme would not stand a moment before the Supreme Court.

Now, the question is as to the time and mode by which this may be brought about, and on this subject no man should be dogmatic, or stand, without yielding, upon a plan of his own, but should be willing to give and take, securing the best…

If resolutions and promises would bring about specie payments, we would have been there long ago; but the diversity of opinion as to the mode now-- twelve years after the close of the war--still leaves our paper money at a discount of five…

Until this is removed, there will be no new enterprises involving great sums, no active industries, but money will lie idle, and watch and wait the changes that may be made before we reach the specie standard.

There are two modes of resumption; one is to diminish the amount of notes to be redeemed, which mode is commonly called a contraction of the currency; the other is to accumulate coin in the treasury, to enable the secretary to maintain the…

Objection had been made that under the first mode resumption would be a process of converting a non-interest bearing note into an interest bearing note, and that was true, but what right had we, as a nation, or had any bank, or individual…

Why ought not anyone who issued a promise to pay on demand be made to pay it when demanded, or pay interest thereafter?

What right had he, in law or justice, to insist upon maintaining in circulation his note, which he refused to pay according to his promise, and which he refused to receive in payment of a note bearing interest?

Beyond this the issue of paper money, either by the government or by banks, was a dangerous exercise of power, injurious to all citizens, and should not continue a single day beyond the necessities that gave it birth.

The process of selling for United States notes need not go far before the mere fact that they are receivable for bonds would bring them up to par in coin, and that is specie payments.

But the reason of the refusal of Congress to grant this authority, often asked of it, was that it would contract the currency, and this fear of contraction has thus far prevented Congress from granting the easiest, plainest, and surest…

The actual experiment only proves the folly of the cry we had for more money, more money.

I said: "The power can be, ought to be, and will be, executed if not repealed.

The most beneficial financial act of the administration is the reduction of the interest on the public debt.

We make discrimination against the greenbacks by refusing to take them in payment of bonds.

If I had the power to sell bonds for greenbacks I could make greenbacks equal to coin with scarcely a perceptible change.

He ought to be so no longer, and the moment that a bond could be bought with currency at par in gold, all discrimination in favor of the bondholder would disappear.

The difference in the Democratic party about interconvertible currency is vital, and Ewing's doctrine overthrows the whole Democratic theory of finance before the war.

The right conferred upon banks to issue circulation is not conferred for their profit, but for the public convenience, and all Republicans can agree that that right should never be permitted to exist except when it is for the public…

You can very easily show the effect upon the reviving industry of the country of the withdrawal of these loans and disturbing all this business.

Upon the question of resumption I believe we are all agreed that it must come, and that the only standard of value is gold or silver coin.

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