te necessity for these vast powers.
The question then naturally occurs, why grant them? I have carefully
considered this question, and I do not think there is now any
immediate necessity for granting these powers. No debt is maturing
that is likely to give the government any trouble; and yet we are
now about to confer upon the Secretary of the Treasury, powers that
we cannot, in the nature of things, recall. It is true we may
repeal this law next year, but we know very well that when these
large powers are granted they are very seldom recalled; they are
made the precedents of further grants of powers and are very rarely
recalled. It seems to me that the whole object of the passage of
this bill is to place it within the power of the Secretary of the
Treasury to contract the currency of the country, and thus, as I
think, to produce an unnecessary strain upon the people. This
power I do not think ought to be given to him. The House of
Representatives did not intend to give him this power. They debated
the bill a long time, and it was defeated on the ground that they
would not confer on the secretary this power to reduce the currency,
and finally it was only passed with a proviso contained in the bill
which I will now read:

'_Provided_, That of United States notes not more than $10,000,000
may be retired and canceled within six months from the passage of
this act, and thereafter not more than $4,000,000 in any one month.'

"The purpose of the House of Representatives was, while giving the
secretary power to fund the debt as it matured or even before
maturity, giving him the most ample power over the debt of the
United States, to limit his power over the currency, lest he might
carry to an extreme the view presented by him in his annual report.
If this proviso would accomplish the purpose designed by the House
of Representatives, I would cease all opposition to this bill; but
I know it will not, and for the very obvious reason, that there is
no restraint upon the power of the Secretary of the Treasury to
accumulate legal tender notes in the treasury. He may retire
$200,000,000 of legal tender notes by retaining them in his possession
without cancellation, and thus accomplish the very purpose the
House of Representatives did not intend to allow him to accomplish.
He may sell the bonds of the United States, at any rate he chooses,
for legal tenders, and he may hold those legal tenders in his
vaults, thus retiring t