and, not being
redeemable on demand, would share the fate of all non specie-paying
notes not a legal-tender." Mr. Stevens believed that the government
was reduced to a narrow choice. It must either throw bonds at six
or seven per cent. on the market within a few months in amount
sufficient to raise at least $600,000,000 in money,--$557,000,000
being already appropriated,--or it must issue United-States notes,
not redeemable in coin, but fundable in specie-paying bonds at
twenty years; such notes either to be made a legal-tender, or to
take their chance of circulation by the voluntary act of the people.
The sturdy chairman of Ways and Means maintained that "the highest
rate at which we could sell our bonds would be seventy-five per
cent., payable in currency, itself at a discount, entailing a loss
which no nation or individual doing a large business could stand
for a single year." He contended that "such issue, without being
made legal-tender, must immediately depreciate, and would go on
from bad to worse. If made a legal-tender, and not issued in excess
of the legitimate demand, the notes will remain at par, and pass
in all transactions, great and small, at the full value of their
face; we shall have one currency for all sections of the country,
and for every class of people, the poor as well as the rich."

MR. LOVEJOY AND MR. CONKLING.

Mr. Owen Lovejoy of Illinois on the other hand marked out a very
different plan. He advocated as the first step, "adequate taxation,
if need be to the extent of $200,000,000." In the next place, he
would so legislate as to "compel all banking institutions to do
business on a specie basis. Every piece of paper that claimed to
be money but was not, he would chase back to the man or corporation
that forged it, and visit upon the criminal the penalties of the
law. He would not allow a bank note to circulate that was not
constantly, conveniently, and certainly convertible into specie."
In the third place, he would issue interest-paying bonds of the
United States, and "go into the market and borrow money and pay
the obligations of the government. This would be honest, business-
like, and in the end economical. This could be done. Other channels
of investment are blocked up, and capital would seek the bonds as
an investment." As contrasted with the measure proposed by the
Ways and Means Committee, Mr. Lovejoy intimated that his repres