d with me on constitutional questions. Sir, the honorable member
read a quotation or two from a speech of mine in 1816, on the currency
or bank question. With what intent, or to what end? What inconsistency
does he show? Speaking of the _legal_ currency of the country, that is,
the coin, I then said it was in a good state. Was not that true? I was
speaking of the legal currency; of that which the law made a tender. And
how is that inconsistent with any thing said by me now, or ever said by
me? I declared then, he says, that the framers of this government were
hard-money men. Certainly they were. But are not the friends of a
convertible paper _hard-money men_, in every practical and sensible
meaning of the term? Did I, in that speech, or any other, insist on
excluding all convertible paper from the uses of society? Most assuredly
I did not. I never quite so far lost my wits, I think. There is but a
single sentence in that speech which I should qualify if I were to
deliver it again, and that the honorable member has not noticed. It is a
paragraph respecting the power of Congress over the circulation of State
banks, which might perhaps need explanation or correction. Understanding
it as applicable to the case then before Congress, all the rest is
perfectly accordant with my present opinions. It is well known that I
never doubted the power of Congress to create a bank; that I was always
in favor of a bank, constituted on proper principles; that I voted for
the bank bill of 1815; and that I opposed that of 1816 only on account
of one or two of its provisions, which I and others hoped to be able to
strike out. I am a hard-money man, and always have been, and always
shall be. But I know the great use of such bank paper as is convertible
into hard money on demand; which may be called specie paper, and which
is equivalent to specie in value, and much more convenient and useful
for common purposes. On the other hand, I abhor all irredeemable paper;
all old-fashioned paper money; all deceptive promises; every thing,
indeed, in the shape of paper issued for circulation, whether by
government or individuals, which cannot be turned into gold and silver
at the will of the holder.

But, Sir, I have insisted that government is bound to protect and
regulate the means of commerce, to see that there is a sound currency
for the use of the people. The honorable gentleman asks, What then is
the limit? Must Congress also furnish all means of co