as not in the power of human law to prevent the
variation. This inherent difficulty had compelled all nations to
adopt one or the other as the sole standard of value, or to authorize
an alternative standard of the cheaper coin, or to coin both metals
at an arbitrary standard, and to maintain one a par with the other
by limiting the amount and legal tender quality of the cheaper
coin, and receiving or redeeming it at par with the other.

It had been the careful study of statesmen for many years to secure
a bimetallic currency not subject to the changes of market value,
and so adjusted that both kinds could be kept in circulation
together, not alternating with each other. The growing tendency
had been to adopt, for coins, the principle of "redeemability"
applied to different forms of paper money. By limiting tokens,
silver, and paper money, to the amount needed for business, and
promptly receiving or redeeming all that might at any time be in
excess, all these forms of money could be kept in circulation, in
large amounts, at par with gold. In this way, tokens of inferior
intrinsic value were readily circulated, and did not depreciate
below the paper money into which they were convertible. The
fractional coin then in circulation, though the silver of which it
was composed was of less market value than the paper money, passed
readily among all classes of people and answered all the purposes
for which it was designed. And so the silver dollar, if restored
to our coinage, would greatly add to the convenience of the people.
But this coin should be subject to the same rule, as to issue and
convertibility, as other forms of money. If the market value of
the silver in it was less than that of gold coin of the same
denomination, and it was issued in unlimited qualities, and made
a legal tender for all debts, it would demonetize gold and depreciate
our paper money.

The importance of gold as the standard of value was conceded by
all. Since 1834, it had been practically the sole coin standard
of the United States, and, since 1815, been the sole standard of
Great Britain. Germany had recently adopted the same standard.
France, and other Latin nations, had suspended the coinage of
silver, and, it was supposed, would gradually either adopt the sole
standard of gold, or provide for the convertibility of silver coin,
on the demand of the holder, into gold coin.

In the United States, several experiments had been made with th