xiety but of peril. Never in the history of national
progress through trials and crises, were wise statesmanship and
financial sagacity more imperatively demanded. The Rebels might
fight without money, for they had no national credit to protect;
but to the Union, bankruptcy meant final and hopeless ruin.

LEGAL-TENDER CURRENCY PROPOSED.

The first thing to be secured was a currency. That was demanded
to pay the debt of honor due to the soldiers; to remove stagnation
in business; to put the people in heart and hope. It had been
demonstrated that Treasury notes, without punctual and regular
redemption, would not circulate. When A paid them to B in satisfaction
of a debt, B had no assurance that he might in turn cancel an
obligation by paying them to C. It would perhaps occur to C, that
for a lawful debt he had the right to demand gold or silver; for
the law told him in explicit terms that nothing else constituted
a legal-tender. It was obviously impossible to conduct the business
of the country and to carry on the war, in coin payments, with the
small amount of coin at command. Few would insist upon coin, but
as the power to insist upon it was a legal right, it was a continuing
menace to the confidence of trade.

In the opinion of the majority, the one imperative duty was that
the government should take control of the currency, issue its own
paper as a circulating medium, and make it equal and alike to all,
by declaring it to be a legal-tender in the payment of debts. It
was the most momentous financial step ever taken by Congress,--as
it is the one concerning which the most pronounced and even
exasperating difference of opinion was manifested at the time, has
since continued, and will probably never entirely subside so long
as the government keeps one legal-tender note in circulation. It
was admitted to be a doubtful if not dangerous exercise of power;
but the law of necessity overrides all other laws, and asserts its
right to govern. All doubts were decided in favor of the nation,
in the belief that dangers which were remote and contingent could
be more easily dealt with than those which were certain and
imminent.

Relief came promptly. On the 22d of January, 1862, Mr. E. G.
Spaulding of New York reported the legal-tender bill to the House.
It had been maturely considered by the Committee of Ways and Means,
--a committee made up of very able men. Mr. Spauldin