met there by the sacred pledge of
the United States; we are met there by the fact that customs duties
are, by the law of 1862, agreed to be collected in coin."

Mr. Bayard inquired:

"Does not the law provide that the customs duties shall be paid in
coin or in notes of the United States? Is not the alternative
given by the law?"

I replied:

"O, no. If the Senator will look at section 5 of the act of February
25, 1862--my friend from Vermont can turn to it in a moment--he
will find that there is an express stipulation that the customs
duties shall be collected in coin, and that this coin shall be set
aside as a pledge--legal language is used--and shall only be applied,
first, to the payment of the interest on the public debt, and,
secondly, to the establishment of a sinking fund of one per cent.
That was the basis of the obligation of the United States to pay
in coin, and but for the fact that we collected our customs duties
in coin during the war we could not have paid the interest on our
public debt in coin, and therefore our bonds would have sunk out
of sight. That pledge we cannot now violate; and I never have yet
been able to bring my mind to the consideration of any proposition
whatever which would ever shock or excite the fear of the public
creditors in that respect. The safety of the public creditors
consists in having a specific fund for the payment of their interest;
the principal will take care of itself; and that fund has always
been maintained in the darkest hours of the war. Except the
propositions that have been made here and there to impair that fund
by allowing a portion of the customs duties to be paid in currency,
it has never been either invaded or threatened; but all such
propositions have been voted down. I, therefore, while I see the
policy and the expedience of allowing these notes to be used in
payment of customs duties, simply say we are precluded from that
remedy because we have mortgaged that fund, and we have no power
to take them for any purpose except that which the mortgage
stipulates.

* * * * *

"We then come to the redemption in bonds. There is the moral
obligation, on the part of the United States, which has issued its
notes payable in coin, but for reasons of public policy does not
pay in coin, to give to its creditors its notes bearing interest
in place of coin. The United States cannot plead inability to pay
interest on its notes if it will not or cannot pay the