re of prices, how can
you prevent great and disastrous fluctuations in our 'convertible
money' and coin, arising out of the great demands for gold and
silver that may, at any time, be made upon us from the commercial
relations of this country with Europe over which the government
can have no direct control? With great respect I remain,

"Your obedient servant,
"Peter Cooper."

I made the following reply:

"Dear Sir:--Your letter of the 18th inst. is received. The questions
you ask me have been, in the main, answered to the committees of
the two Houses, and I might, perhaps, best reply to your letter by
sending these documents, printed by the order of the respective
Houses; but my sincere respect for you, and desire to allay any
doubts you may entertain of the success of the present plan of
resumption, induce me to answer your letter as fully as my time
will allow.

"As to your first question:

'Can you resume in the presence of $645,000,000 of legal tender
and bank notes, with what gold and silver you may have at your
command, without an actual shrinkage of this currency, either on
the part of the government or of the banks?'

"You must bear in mind that the aggregate amount of legal tender
notes and bank notes stated by you, may be gradually diminished,
so far as the legal tenders are concerned, to $300,000,000, and by
the banks to such sum as they find can be maintained at par with
United States notes. But, assuming that the aggregate should be
about the present amount, and remembering always that the bank
notes can be redeemed in legal tender notes, and are not required
to be redeemed in coin, I do express the opinion that resumption
in a country like ours can be maintained in the presence of the
existing volume of circulation; but if this should prove to be too
great, the reduction will be gradually of the bank notes, or, if
Congress so direct, of the legal tender notes.

"As to your second question:

'Can resumption be maintained after the law has placed a premium
on coin and virtually demonetized the paper, by rendering its
_convertibility compulsory?_ In other words, can the par value of
paper and coin be taken as an index that after the law has thrown
its whole weight in favor of coin, by making paper convertible,
the present equilibrium between the two can still be maintained?'

"I respectfully deny that the law places a premium on coin. One-
half of this circulation is not redeemable in