ce, then, of a design to return to
a currency which shall be all specie, we are likely to have a currency
in which there shall be no specie at all. We are in danger of being
overwhelmed with irredeemable paper, mere paper, representing not gold
nor silver; no, Sir, representing nothing but broken promises, bad
faith, bankrupt corporations, cheated creditors, and a ruined people.
This, I fear, Sir, may be the consequence, already alarmingly near, of
this attempt, unwise if it be real, and grossly fraudulent if it be only
pretended, of establishing an exclusively hard-money currency.

But, Sir, if this shock could be avoided, and if we could reach the
object of an exclusive metallic circulation, we should find in that very
success serious and insurmountable inconveniences. We require neither
irredeemable paper, nor yet exclusively hard money. We require a mixed
system. We require specie, and we require, too, good bank paper, founded
on specie, representing specie, and convertible into specie on demand.
We require, in short, just such a currency as we have long enjoyed, and
the advantages of which we seem now, with unaccountable rashness, about
to throw away.

I avow myself, therefore, decidedly against the object of a return to an
exclusive specie currency. I find great difficulty, I confess, in
believing any man serious in avowing such an object. It seems to me
rather a subject for ridicule, at this age of the world, than for sober
argument. But if it be true that any are serious for the return of the
gold and silver age, I am seriously against it.

Let us, Sir, anticipate, in imagination, the accomplishment of this
grand experiment. Let us suppose that, at this moment, all bank paper
were out of existence, and the country full of specie. Where, Sir,
should we put it, and what should we do with it? Should we ship it, by
cargoes, every day, from New York to New Orleans, and from New Orleans
back to New York? Should we encumber the turnpikes, the railroads, and
the steamboats with it, whenever purchases and sales were to be made in
one place of articles to be transported to another? The carriage of the
money would, in some cases, cost half as much as the carriage of the
goods. Sir, the very first day, under such a state of things, we should
set ourselves about the creation of banks. This would immediately become
necessary and unavoidable. We may assure ourselves, therefore, without
danger of mistake, that the idea of an