t must be taken as a whole; and therefore the effect of amending
this proposition will be simply to destroy it. If an amendment in
the direction of expansion is inserted, it will drive away some
who would be willing to support it as is. If an amendment in the
way of contraction is proposed and carried by a majority of the
Senate, it will drive away those who might be willing to take this
measure as a compromise. The only question before the Senate now
is, whether this is a fair compromise between the ideas that have
divided the people of this country and the Members of the Senate;
whether it will surely improve our currency while giving the relief
that is hoped for by a moderate increase of the currency. Now I
ask the secretary to read the first section of the bill."

The chief clerk read section 1, as follows:

"_Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled_, That the maximum
limit of United States notes is hereby fixed at $382,000,000, at
which amount it shall remain until reduced as hereinafter provided."

I then continued:

"It is manifest to every Senator that the initial step in this
controversy is to fix the aggregate limit of United States notes.
The United States notes, although they are very popular, and justly
so, in this country, are at this moment inconvertible; they are
irredeemable, and they are depreciated. These are facts admitted
on all hands. In making that statement I do not intend at all to
deny that the United States notes have served a great and useful
purpose; and though I was here at the birth of them and advocated
them in all stages of their history, yet I am compelled to say at
this moment, twelve years after their issue, that they are
inconvertible; they are irredeemable; and they are depreciated this
day at the rate of twelve per cent. They have been legally
inconvertible since July 1, 1863, and practically inconvertible
since the close of the war; that is, the government refuses to
receive them, either in payment of customs or in payment at par of
any bond of the United States offered by it. They are irredeemable
on their very face. They have depreciated almost from the date of
their issue, at one time being worth only forty cents in gold, and
to-day only worth ninety cents. That is the condition of the United
States notes.

"Now, there is another thing admitted by all Senators. I do not
trespass on any disp