a large demand
for government securities, of increased facilities for obtaining
the loans required for the war, a reduction of interest, and a
participation by the government in the profit of circulation without
risking the perils of a great money monopoly. It will be noticed
that the secretary nowhere suggested the suspension of coin payments,
or making the notes a legal tender in payment of public and private
debts, or the redemption in coin of the bank notes to be issued.

These recommendations were referred to the committee of ways and
means of the House, and by it to a sub-committee, of which Elbridge
G. Spaulding, of New York, was chairman. Undoubtedly we owe to
him, more than to any other individual Member, the important and
radical changes made in our currency system by the act reported by
him to the House and amended in the Senate. Mr. Spaulding perceived
the objection to the recommendations of Secretary Chase that they
did not provide for any payments but in coin, or call for a suitable
provision that the notes when issued should be a legal tender for
public and private debts, or for their reissue in case of payment,
nor did they provide for the absorption of the demand notes
outstanding, which were, on their face, payable on demand, an
obligation that could not be ignored without severely impairing
the public credit. It was also apparent that the system of national
banks proposed by the secretary could not be organized and put in
effective force for a year or more, and that in the meantime the
state banks would be in a condition of suspension, without coin or
the possibility of obtaining it, and, with no effective money which
the people were bound to receive, or which the government could
receive, it would have been difficult to carry on the operations
of the war.

The first bill introduced by Mr. Spaulding, on the 30th of December,
met some of these difficulties. It provided for the issue of
$50,000,000 treasury notes, payable on demand, the notes to be
receivable for all debts and demands due to or by the United States,
to be a legal tender in payment of all debts, public or private,
within the United States, and exchangeable at their face value,
the same as coin, at the treasury of the United States, and the
offices of the assistant treasurers in New York, Boston, Philadelphia,
St. Louis and Cincinnati, for any of the coupon or registered bonds
which the secretary was authorized to issue. It also