CURRENCY AND FARMING. 21 



has been talked. Some prominent papers have said that the 

 only way to resume is to resume. Only let Congress pass a 

 law and resume. Resumption ! How are you going to 

 resume? How are } T ou going to pay specie for those notes, 

 if you have not got the specie to pay with? It is a very 

 simple problem. How much specie have you got? Perhaps 

 one hundred and fifty millions, all told. But we have got 

 seven hundred and fifty millions of currency. Add to that six 

 hundred millions of deposits, and there are thirteen hundred 

 millions, and you have got one hundred and fifty-six millions 

 to pay it. It is very nice for our newspapers to say resume, 

 but what have you got to resume with ? The only way we 

 can get the money is to make a vacuum, and the money comes. 

 The poor currency always must drive out the strong currency, 

 and there is no way to get the strong currency back till you 

 have abridged the quantity of weak currency which has driven 

 it out. Now, we cannot get the specie, except we contract 

 our currency; and so this is what, as wise men, as honest 

 men, as freemen, we ought to demand of the government ; 

 and the government ought to do it without any demanding, 

 and ought to have done it, I had almost said, before it began 

 to do otherwise. 



