ue to the fact that the difference
between value and wealth is not always distinctly recognized. Moreover,
it is not the function of a currency to be replaced, but to be a means
of payment. This the proposed currency will be by right of use,--a right
inherent in a national currency, and respected as long as the government
respects itself, that is, as long as the people govern wisely.

A dollar, value-currency, will always buy a dollar's worth of gold, but
it may not always buy the quantity of gold contained in the gold dollar.
How much it will buy depends on the quantitative relation of the
currency to the population,--a relation which, though entirely optional,
should never be changed, because, with whatever change, provided the
proper relation of the parts to the whole be preserved, with little
there will be no lack, and with much, there will be nothing over,--and
because any change of that relation is injurious to commerce, inasmuch
as it produces a corresponding change in the value of credits. And
assuming a change to have been made, a return to the former rate,
instead of being a mitigation, will be a repetition of the injury,
except in regard to credits so extended that they embrace both changes.
If, however, a reduction be insisted on, a suitable mode may be
proposed. Twenty dollars per head gives six hundred millions. Assuming
this quantity to be superabundant, if it be adhered to until the
population reaches forty millions, the rate will be fifteen dollars per
head, which may be assumed to be abundant. If it be adhered to until the
population reaches sixty millions, which it will probably do in one
generation, the rate will be ten dollars per head, which may be assumed
to be convenient; and any attained rate may be continued, or made
constant, by increasing the currency proportionately with the increase
of the population. This mode of reduction, however, is possible with a
national value-currency only. A specie-currency is incapable of
regulation. The same may be said of any currency based on specie.
Indeed, a credit-currency will necessarily collapse under a
superabundant issue, unless its promises be ignored, or unless it be
sustained at the expense of the nation,--an expense which the nation
itself cannot sustain permanently.

The rate of the currency governs the value of wealth. It is important,
therefore, that government have time to pay its debts before any great
decrease of currency takes place; otherwi