every man's hand and were of all degrees of value. They were
sometimes issued for purposes of fraud. Silver had become lost to
view, and business houses resorted to the use of their own notes
as a convenience. The government stamps were not well adapted to
circulate as currency, and they soon gave way to notes of handsome
design which came into universal use as the "small change" of the
country.

The proper order of the leading measures of finance has always been
a subject of contention. Grave differences of opinion exist, even
to this day, concerning the necessity and expediency of the legal-
tender provision. The judgment of many whose financial sagacity
is entitled to respect is, that if the internal tax had been first
levied, and the policy adopted of drawing directly upon the banks
from the Treasury for the amounts of any loans in their hands, the
resort by the government to irredeemable paper might at least have
been postponed and possibly prevented. The premium on gold became
the measure of the depreciation of the government credit, and
practically such premiums were the charge made for every loan
negotiated. In his report of December, 1862, Secretary Chase
justified the legal-tender policy. He explained that by the
suspension of specie payments the banks had rendered their currency
undesirable for government operations, and consequently no course
other than that adopted was open. Mr. Chase declared that the
measures of general legislation had worked well. "For the fiscal
year ending with June," he said, "every audited and settled claim
on the government and every quartermaster's check for supplies
furnished, which had reached the Treasury, had been met." For the
subsequent months, the secretary "was enabled to provide, if not
fully, yet almost fully, for the constantly increasing disbursements."

The political effects of the legal-tender bill were of large
consequence to the Administration and to the successful conduct of
the war. If it had been practicable to adhere rigidly to the specie
standard, the national expenditure might have been materially
reduced; but the exactions of the war would have been all the time
grating on the nerves of the people and oppressing them with
remorseless taxation. Added to the discouragement caused by our
military reverses, a heavy financial burden might have proved
disastrous. The Administration narrowly escaped a damaging defeat
in 1862, and but for the relief