final overthrow in the fact that the moment the
paper ceased to be convertible into specie or otherwise promptly
redeemed it would become worthless, and would in the end dishonor the
Government, involve the people in ruin and such political party in
hopeless disgrace. At the same time, such a view involves the utter
impossibility of furnishing any currency other than that of the precious
metals; for if the Government itself can not forego the temptation of
excessive paper issues what reliance can be placed in corporations upon
whom the temptations of individual aggrandizement would most strongly
operate? The people would have to blame none but themselves for any
injury that might arise from a course so reckless, since their agents
would be the wrongdoers and they the passive spectators.

There can be but three kinds of public currency--first, gold and silver;
second, the paper of State institutions; or, third, a representative of
the precious metals provided by the General Government or under its
authority. The subtreasury system rejected the last in any form, and as
it was believed that no reliance could be placed on the issues of local
institutions for the purposes of general circulation it necessarily and
unavoidably adopted specie as the exclusive currency for its own use;
and this must ever be the case unless one of the other kinds be used.
The choice in the present state of public sentiment lies between an
exclusive specie currency on the one hand and Government issues of some
kind on the other. That these issues can not be made by a chartered
institution is supposed to be conclusively settled. They must be made,
then, directly by Government agents. For several years past they have
been thus made in the form of Treasury notes, and have answered a
valuable purpose. Their usefulness has been limited by their being
transient and temporary; their ceasing to bear interest at given periods
necessarily causes their speedy return and thus restricts their range of
circulation, and being used only in the disbursements of Government they
can not reach those points where they are most required. By rendering
their use permanent, to the moderate extent already mentioned, by
offering no inducement for their return and by exchanging them for coin
and other values, they will constitute to a certain extent the general
currency so much needed to maintain the internal trade of the country.
And this is the exchequer plan so far as it