THE SURPLUS REVENUE. 149 



obligations of the Government which are due and payable. The 

 purpose is to bring out the fact that there is a debt of the United 

 States now due which can be paid; that the country is rich 

 enough to pay it ; that no financial disturbance would of neces- 

 sity ensue ; that the vast deposits of gold coin now held in Eu-. 

 rope and our own annual product would sufi&ce to meet our 

 checks for $200,000,000, without serious embarrassment, to be 

 used in the next two or three years, in liquidation of the balance 

 due us for cotton, for corn, and for other commodities which 

 the world must have and can not spare. 



It therefore follows that if any temporary financial stringency 

 should occur because of the withdrawal of the legal-tender notes 

 from the bank reserves and from their use as money in this coun- 

 try, the burden or strain of that condition need not and would 

 not be carried by the banks or bankers of this country, but would 

 be transferred to our debtors who owe us, and will continue to 

 owe us annually, on our merchandise account, more than we re- 

 quire to put ourselves on the most solid financial foundation of 

 any nation in the world, viz., on a basis of a paper currency 

 based upon actual bullion held in reserve, dollar for dollar. If 

 it be said that such a demand for coin on the bank reserves of 

 Europe would be met by a return of our securities, may it not 

 be held that these securities are mostly held for investment, and 

 that the more apparent the danger of war and of financial dis- 

 turbance in Europe becomes, the larger will be the transfer of 

 capital to this country for investment ? 



May it not be held that the very excess of revenue paid into 

 the treasury over and above the necessities of the Government, 

 is in itself a witness to the enormous financial power now held 

 by the United States because of the very accumulation of capi- 

 tal which has occurred during the last few years ? May we not 

 be misled by a mere delusion in assuming that the legal-tender 

 notes or greenbacks have any further useful function in this 

 country if they ever had any ? 



When the fact is baldly stated which can not be denied, 

 that the reissue of these notes from the treasury of the United 

 States is not the continuance of a former loan, but is the actual 

 borrowing of new money under a forced loan and in time of 

 peace, can anything be more absurd than to assume that such a 

 course is necessary ? If the burden of taxation demands relief, 

 that is altogether another matter. If, on the other hand, the 

 burden of taxation is not serious, to what better purpose can 

 the revenue be put than to the payment of any or all debts of the 

 United States, to the end that, before the century is completed, 

 the United States may be absolutely free from the debt which 

 it incurred in order to maintain the integrity of the nation ? 



