bank currency based on
government bonds. This, however, would not have been because of any
objection to the currency itself, but because the scheme would insure
the continuance of a national debt. He was too practical, also, not to
see that the ultimate security is the faith of the government, and that
no filtering of that responsibility through private banks could do
otherwise than injure it. Further, it is reasonably safe to say that he
would favor the withdrawal both of national bank notes and of United
States notes, the greenbacks so-called; and that he would consent to the
use of paper only in the form of certificates directly representing the
precious metals, gold and silver; also that he would limit the use of
silver to its actual handling by the people in daily transactions. He
would feel safe to disregard the fluctuations of the intrinsic value of
silver, when used in this limited way as a subordinate currency, on the
ground that the stamp of the United States was sufficient for conferring
the needed value, when the obligation was only to maintain the parity,
not of the silver, but of the coin, with gold. He understood that, in
the case of a currency which is merely subordinate, parity arises from
the guaranty of the government, and not from the quality of the coin;
and that only such excess of any subordinate currency as is not needed
for use in daily affairs can be presented for redemption. This
principle, well understood by him, is recognized in European systems,
wherein the minimum of circulation is recognized as a maximum limit of
uncovered issues of paper. The circulation of silver, or of
certificates based upon it, comes within the same rule.

At the time of the publication of this volume objection was taken to the
author's statement that, until the publication of Gallatin's writings,
his fame as a statesman and political leader was a mere tradition. Yet
in point of fact, not only is his name hardly mentioned by the early
biographers of Jefferson, Madison, and J. Q. Adams, but even by the
later writers in this very Series, his work, varied and important as it
was, has been given but scant notice. The historians of the United
States, and those who have made a specialty of the study of political
parties, have been alike indifferent or derelict in their investigations
to such a degree that it required months of original research in the
annals of Congress to ascertain Gallatin's actual relations towards the