me adopted. I became
satisfied that if a strong effort was not made the bill would either
be defeated or postponed. I then, without preparation, made a
long, and as I think, a comprehensive, speech covering the general
subject and its principal details. It was the only speech of
considerable length that was made in favor of the bill in the
Senate. There seemed to be a hesitancy in passing a measure so
radical in its character and so destructive to the existing system
of state banks.

I said the importance of the subject under consideration demanded
a fuller statement than had as yet been made of the principle and
object of the bill. It was the misfortune of war that we were
compelled to act upon matters of grave importance without that
mature deliberation that would be secured in peaceful times. The
measure affected the property of every citizen of the United States,
and yet our action for good or evil must be concluded within a few
days or weeks of that session. We were to choose between a permanent
system designed to establish a uniform national currency based on
the public credit, limited in amount, and guarded by all the
restraints which the experience of men had proved necessary, and
a system of paper money without limit as to amount, except for the
growing necessities of war.

I narrated the history of the bill, of its introduction in December,
1861, its urgent recommendation by the Secretary of the Treasury
in two annual reports, and the conditions that then demanded
immediate action upon it. I stated the then financial condition
of the country. Gold was at a premium of between fifty and sixty
per cent. and was substantially banished from circulation. We were
in the midst of war, when the necessities of the government required
us to have large sums of money. We could not choose as to the mode
in which we should get that money. If we pursued the ordinary
course, the course that had been sufficient in times of peace to
raise money, of putting our bonds into the market and selling them
for what they would bring, it would be at a great sacrifice. We
knew this from the history of other nations and from our own
experience. We therefore must look for some system of finance that
would give us all the aid possible, either in the form of paper
money or by the agencies of associated banks. We knew very well
that after the war was over the government would still be largely
in need of money.

I then revie