is, men who accept the fact as they see it,
without bothering their brains as to the reason for it. The business man
who sends an order through the telegraph or telephone does not stop to
consider what strange agency he is using. If he did, he would not only
have his mind taken from his avocation, but lose the chance of a deal in
the market. The mind given to and capable of study is one given to
dreaming, not acting.

The vast debt owing the people by the government in the shape of
currency presented to Secretary McCulloch his first problem that had to
be solved before credit could be restored and business again put on a
sound, healthy basis. He had the advantage of knowing clearly and
precisely the work before him. It was the error of the day, as it is the
error now, to confound currency with money. By money is meant the great
measure of value in gold and silver coin determined on by trade and
accepted the world over since trade first began. Currency, on the
contrary, is that form of credit used in paper to facilitate exchange.
Now, trade calls for a certain amount of this, not so large as is
popularly supposed, but fluctuating in quantity as trade makes its
demand. Gold and silver cannot be relied on for this purpose, for their
intrinsic value, which makes them a measure of value, forbids. This
measure of value, like that of the yard as to length, and the pound as
to weight, becomes an abstract idea. When one seeks to purchase a pair
of shoes, and the shoemaker says that their, price is five dollars, one
may pay for them five bushels of wheat; so that on both sides a value is
got at that facilitates the exchange. If currency is used, it, too, has
the same nature--with this fact added: the intrinsic value of the paper
promise to pay coin lies in the credit of the man, corporation, or
government issuing the promise.

"If a man fall down a steep place," said the Hon. Tom Benton, "and get
killed with a gold dollar in his pocket, and his bones be found a
hundred years after, they will be worth the dollar. If, however, he has
a promise to pay a dollar, he has that which depends for value on a
board of directors sitting around a mahogany table. It may be worth a
dollar and it may be worthless."

This disposes of the fiat money. We cannot create something out of
nothing by act of Congress. When the government issues its paper, it
coins its credit into currency. Its value, if it has any, lies in that.

Now, when Secretary