et us remember that
the first measure for that end is to secure it in its earnings; to
assure it that it shall receive its own. Before we invent new modes of
raising prices, let us take care that existing prices are not rendered
wholly unavailable, by making them capable of being paid in depreciated
paper. I regard, Sir, this issue of irredeemable paper as the most
prominent and deplorable cause of whatever pressure still exists in the
country; and, further, I would put the question to the members of this
committee, whether it is not from that part of the people who have tried
this paper system, and tried it to their cost, that this bill receives
the most earnest support? And I cannot forbear to ask, further, whether
this support does not proceed rather from a general feeling of
uneasiness under the present condition of things, than from the clear
perception of any benefit which the measure itself can confer? Is not
all expectation of advantage centred in a sort of vague hope, that
change may produce relief? Debt certainly presses hardest where prices
have been longest kept up by artificial means. They find the shock
lightest who take it soonest; and I fully believe that, if those parts
of the country which now suffer most had not augmented the force of the
blow by deferring it, they would have now been in a much better
condition than they are. We may assure ourselves, once for all, Sir,
that there can be no such thing as payment of debts by legislation. We
may abolish debts indeed; we may transfer property by visionary and
violent laws. But we deceive both ourselves and our constituents, if we
flatter either ourselves or them with the hope that there is any relief
against whatever pressure exists, but in economy and industry. The
depression of prices and the stagnation of business have been in truth
the necessary result of circumstances. No government could prevent them,
and no government can altogether relieve the people from their effect.
We have enjoyed a day of extraordinary prosperity; we had been neutral
while the world was at war, and had found a great demand for our
products, our navigation, and our labor. We had no right to expect that
that state of things would continue always. With the return of peace,
foreign nations would struggle for themselves, and enter into
competition with us in the great objects of pursuit.

Now, Sir, what is the remedy for existing evils? What is the course of
policy suited to our a