The United States notes, commonly called greenbacks, were the creature of necessity, but proved a great blessing, and only needed one attribute to make them the best substitute for coin money that has ever been devised.

The immediate effect of resumption of specie payments was to advance the public credit, which made it possible to rapidly fund all the bonds of the United States then redeemable into bonds bearing four per cent. interest.

I am hopeful and sanguine of improving business, not that greenbacks will be so abundant, but that employment will be ready for everyone willing to work.

Irredeemable money is always the result of war, pestilence, or some great misfortune.

A nation would not, except in dire necessity, issue its promises to pay money when it is unable to redeem those promises.

Most of those who voted for it justified their vote upon the ground that the very existence of the country depended upon its ability to coin into money its promises to pay.

We then provided for the issue of legal tender United States notes, as an extreme remedy in the nation's peril.

It has always seemed strange that so large and respectable a body of our fellow- citizens should regard the continuance of irredeemable money as the permanent policy of a nation so strong and rich as ours, able to pay every dollar of its…

To wish otherwise is to hope for war, danger, and national peril, calamities to which our nation, like others, may be subject, but against which the earnest aspiration of every patriot will be uttered.

This provision was a part of the contract between the government and the bondholder, and could only be changed by the consent of both parties.

I can say for all the officers of the treasury that not one of them was interested in transactions growing out of resumption or refunding, or did or could derive any benefit therefrom.

The primary purpose of these certificates is to enable persons of limited means to husband small savings as they accrue, and place them where they will draw interest and become the nest egg for future accumulation.

It combines, in the cheapest form, all the benefits of any system of savings banks that has been devised.

Their possible use as currency is certainly no objection to them; for, though I adhere as strictly as anyone to a specie standard of value, I think that, it being constantly maintained by ample reserves and prompt redemption, current money…

These certificates will always be redeemable in the bonds stipulated for, and can, with profit, be issued, while the money received for them can be used in redeeming bonds bearing a higher rate of interest.

I have confidence that it will be beneficial to the holder, in begetting habits of saving, and to the treasury, in aiding refunding; but its great benefit will be that the people themselves will in this way have a direct interest in…

It is the speculators and not the investors, as a rule, who deal in stocks when they are cheap.

I hoped you would consent, because I think it quite important, for many reasons, that we should dispose of bonds on this side of the water.

They take the place of actual gold in settling exchanges, and thereby prevent the disturbances in the money market which always result from the moving of bullion.

I have no doubt but that the use of these bonds in this manner has stimulated purchases of grain and produce from us which would never have left our shores if payment for the same could only have been made in bullion.

The effect of this has been to send the price of the bonds up by three-fourths per cent., and to create a demand for them.

From the date of these transactions the bonds of the United States rapidly advanced in value.

It was my good fortune to be selected, by my colleagues in the Senate, to present the resumption act, which was framed with their aid and in their councils, and to hold my present office at the time when, by its terms, the law was to be…

The only merit I can claim is the honest and earnest effort, with others, to secure the adoption of the policy of resumption, and to have executed the law according to its letter and spirit.

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