the currency holders, well knowing that
the Government holds in its hands the wherewithal to redeem the greater
portion of the circulation of every bank in the land in the event of the
closing of its doors, the only 'runs' will be upon the deposits, and
this only in cases of the grossest and most patent fraud and
mismanagement on the part of the banks themselves. Hence, in times of
financial peril we shall see the people combining to sustain the banks
of their own locality, rather than, as is the case to-day, hastening to
accelerate the ruin of perfectly solvent institutions which, but for
their ill-timed fright, might weather the storm. Again I say, there
could be no greater element of union and strength than this, which has
grown out of our necessities and tribulations. In spite of all the
confusion and ruin and bloodshed, in spite of all the mourning, and
suffering, and sundering of ties, and upheaving of the very foundations
and apparent total disruption of American society, no greater blessing
could have befallen us than this same war, which has roused us to a new
life, to the consciousness of defects and determination of reform,
thereby planting us firmly on the true road to prosperity and happiness
and power.

The wonderful display of our power and resources has given a
reputation--call it notoriety, if you will--among the middle and lower
classes of the old world, which in long years of peace we could not have
attained. And our success in withstanding the terrible tempest which has
assailed us, in maintaining the integrity of our political system, will
spread that reputation far and wide, and give us a prestige whose effect
will be seen in the increased tide of immigration that will flow in upon
us upon the reestablishment of peace. The teeming soil and salubrious
climate of the far West, together with the prospect it affords, not only
of wealth, but of social advancement, both of which are forever denied
them in their own country, and extremely difficult of attainment even in
our own Eastern States, where the population is dense and every branch
of industry crowded to repletion, will allure the hardy laborers of
Europe by thousands and tens of thousands to the prairie land. In the
immense unsettled tracts west of the Mississippi there is room for the
action of men inured to toil, and promise of quick and abundant returns
for their labor. There they will be free from the disastrous competition
of their superiors