m the beginning until now no one has lost a
dollar on the circulating notes of national banks. The system may
have to give way because we are paying off our bonds, but no sensible
man will ever propose in this country to go back to the old system
of state banks, and if some security to take the place of United
States bonds can be devised for national bank notes, the system
will be and ought to be perpetuated.

"The third 'conspiracy' referred to is contraction of the currency.
It has been demonstrated by official documents that from the
beginning of the war to this time the volume of our currency has
been increasing, year by year, more rapidly than our population.
In 1860 the total amount of all the money in circulation was
$435,000,000, when our population was 31,000,000, and half of this
was money of variable and changing value. Now we have in circulation
$1,500,000,000, with a population of 64,000,000, and every dollar
of this money is good as gold, all kinds equal to each other,
passing from hand to hand and paid out as good money, not only in
the United States but among all the commercial countries of the
world. Our money has increased nearly fourfold, while our population
has only doubled.

"The statements made by Mrs. Emery about the contraction of our
currency are not only misleading but they are absolutely false.
She states that in 1868 $473,000,000 of our money was destroyed,
and in 1869 $500,000,000 of our money passed into a cremation
furnace, and in 1870 $67,000,000 was destroyed. Now these statements
are absolutely false. What she calls money in these paragraphs
was the most burdensome form of interest-bearing securities, treasury
notes bearing seven and three-tenths per cent. interest, and compound
interest notes. These were the chief and most burdensome items of
the public debt. They were paid off in the years named and were
never at any time for more than a single day money in circulation.
When issued they were received as money, but, as interest accrued
they became investments and were not at all in circulation.

"These statements of Mrs. Emery are palpable falsehoods, which if
stated by a man would justify a stronger word. It is true that in
1866 Mr. McCulloch, Secretary of the Treasury under the administration
of Andrew Johnson, wished to bring about resumption by contraction,
and a bill was passed providing for a gradual reduction of the
greenbacks to $300,000,000, but this was very soon