FINANCES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



261 



The fluctuations in the preceding table are 

 such as always appear during the existence of 

 a paper currency, issuable by a large number 

 of private institutions. The question of a re- 

 sumption of specie payments is discussed in a 

 very practical manner by a correspondent 

 (George Walker) of the Commissioner of In- 

 ternal Revenue, of which the following is an 

 extract : 



If I am right in believing that the truest economy 

 would consist in using only the precious, metals (with 

 some form of circulating paper, like gold notes, for 

 convenience of handling and transmission), the time 

 for making so considerable a change in the habits of 

 the country is not yet come. Any such change must 

 be gradual, and it must be made with due regard to 

 rooted opinions, as well as vested interests. We 

 have a good way yet to travel before we get back to 

 specie payments; and still another stage to arrive 

 at the more solid ground occupied by European na- 

 tions. When we have reached that point, we can 



take counsel together, and see if the time has not 

 come for trading at nome as we always trade with 

 other nations, on the basis of real money. 



To get back to specie payments is the first object, 

 and I Know no other way of doing it than by the 

 way once attempted and afterward suspended, name- 

 ly, by the painful process of contraction. It is use- 

 less to talk of growing up to the dimensions of the 

 present circulation. Taking bank-notes, legal ten- 

 ders, and fractional currency together, the outstand- 

 ing amount in the hands of. the people is in the 

 neighborhood of $585,000,000. In the face of all 

 past experience of this and other countries, what 

 possible justification can there be for such an increase 

 of paper money over the figures of 1860 ? If left to 

 the operations of natural laws, would the circulation 

 have attained any such limits? Most certainly it 

 would not ; and the moment the touchstone of specie 

 redemptions is applied to it, the volume of paper 

 money will shrink to its natural proportions. To 

 wait till we need so much circulating money would 

 be to wait for years an indefinite period; on the 

 other hand, to force a resumption of specie payments, 

 with so much paper afloat, would cause such a Bud- 



