or its three hundred and seventy millions
of promises to pay, or that you have not courage enough to stand
by your promise to do it.

"Nor are we to decide whether our paper money shall be issued
directly by the government or by banks created by the government;
nor whether at a future time the legal tender quality of United
States notes shall continue. I am one of those who believe that
a United States note issued directly by the government, and
convertible on demand into gold coin, or a government bond equal
in value to gold, is the best currency we can adopt; that it is to
be the currency of the future, not only in the United States, but
in Great Britain as well; and that such a currency might properly
continue to be a legal tender, except when coin is specifically
stipulated for it.

"But these are not the questions we are to deal with. It is whether
the promise of the law shall be fulfilled, that the United States
shall pay such of its notes as are presented on and after the 1st
day of January, 1879, in coin; and whether the national banks will,
at the same time, redeem their notes either in coin or United States
notes made equal to coin; or whether the United States shall revoke
its promise and continue, for an indefinite period, to still longer
force upon the people a depreciated currency, always below the
legal standard of gold, and fluctuating daily in its depreciation
as Congress may threaten or promise, or speculators may hoard, or
corner, or throw out your broken promises. It is the turning point
in our financial history, which will greatly affect the life of
individuals and the fate of parties, but, more than all, the honor
and good faith of our country.

"At the beginning of our national existence, our ancestors boldly
and hopefully assumed the burden of a great national debt, formed
of the debts of the old confederation and of the states that composed
it; and, with a scattered population and feeble resources, honestly
met and paid, in good solid coin, every obligation. After the War
of 1812, which exhausted our resources, destroyed our commerce,
and greatly increased our debt, a Republican administration boldly
funded our debt, placed its currency upon the coin basis, promptly
paid its interest, and reduced the principal; and within twenty
years after that war was over, under the first Democratic President,
paid in coin the last dollar, both principal and interest, of the
debt. And now, eleven ye