er coin a legal tender in payment of debts.
'However this may be, it is too clear to be reasonably disputed
that Congress, under its constitutional powers to lay taxes, to
regulate commerce, and to regulate the value of coin, possesses
ample authority to control the credit circulation which enters so
largely into the transactions of commerce and affects in so many
ways the value of coin.

'In the judgment of the Secretary the time has arrived when
Congress should exercise this authority. The value of the existing
bank note circulation depends on the laws of thirty-four States and
the character of some sixteen hundred private corporations. It is
usually furnished in greatest proportions by institutions of least
actual capital. Circulation, commonly, is in the inverse ratio of
solvency. Well-founded institutions, of large and solid capital,
have, in general, comparatively little circulation; while weak
corporations almost invariably seek to sustain themselves by
obtaining from the people the largest possible credit in this form.
Under such a system, or rather lack of system, great fluctuations,
and heavy losses in discounts and exchanges, are inevitable; and
not unfrequently, through failures of the issuing institutions,
considerable portions of the circulation become suddenly worthless
in the hands of the people. The recent experience of several States
in the valley of the Mississippi painfully illustrates the justice
of these observations; and enforces by the most cogent practical
arguments the duty of protecting commerce and industry against the
recurrence of such disorders.

'The Secretary thinks it possible to combine with this protection a
provision for circulation, safe to the community and convenient for
the Government.

'Two plans for effecting this object are suggested. The first
contemplates the gradual withdrawal from circulation of the notes
of private corporations and for the issue, in their stead of United
States notes, payable in coin on demand, in amounts sufficient for
the useful ends of a representative currency. The second
contemplates the preparation and delivery, to institutions and
associations, of notes prepared for circulation under national
direction, and to be secured as to prompt convertibility into coin
by th