trate the
policy so highly cherished of infusing into our circulation a larger
proportion of the precious metals--a policy the wisdom of which none can
doubt, though there may be different opinions as to the extent to which
it should be carried. Its results have been already too auspicious and
its success is too closely interwoven with the future prosperity of
the country to permit us for a moment to contemplate its abandonment.
We have seen under its influence our specie augmented beyond eighty
millions, our coinage increased so as to make that of gold amount,
between August, 1834, and December, 1836, to $10,000,000, exceeding
the whole coinage at the Mint during the thirty-one previous years.

The prospect of further improvement continued without abatement until
the moment of the suspension of specie payments. This policy has now,
indeed, been suddenly checked, but is still far from being overthrown.
Amidst all conflicting theories, one position is undeniable--the
precious metals will invariably disappear when there ceases to be
a necessity for their use as a circulating medium. It was in strict
accordance with this truth that whilst in the month of May last they
were everywhere seen and were current for all ordinary purposes they
disappeared from circulation the moment the payment of specie was
refused by the banks and the community tacitly agreed to dispense with
its employment. Their place was supplied by a currency exclusively of
paper, and in many cases of the worst description. Already are the bank
notes now in circulation greatly depreciated, and they fluctuate in
value between one place and another, thus diminishing and making
uncertain the worth of property and the price of labor, and failing to
subserve, except at a heavy loss, the purposes of business. With each
succeeding day the metallic currency decreases; by some it is hoarded
in the natural fear that once parted with it can not be replaced, while
by others it is diverted from its more legitimate uses for the sake
of gain. Should Congress sanction this condition of things by making
irredeemable paper money receivable in payment of public dues, a
temporary check to a wise and salutary policy will in all probability
be converted into its absolute destruction.

It is true that bank notes actually convertible into specie may be
received in payment of the revenue without being liable to all these
objections, and that such a course may to some extent promote