GRANT, HAYES, AND GARFIELD- 1871-1881 185 



each bank in its turn to show the examiners a temporary 

 basis in hard money for its output of paper. 



Such was the state of things which the national banks 

 remedied, and the system had the additional advantage of 

 being elastic, so that any little community which needed 

 currency had only to combine its surplus capital and es- 

 tablish a bank of issue. 



But throughout the country there were, as there will 

 doubtless always be, a considerable number of men who,not 

 being able to succeed themselves, distrusted and disliked 

 the successful. There was also a plentiful supply of dema- 

 gogues skilful in appealing to the prejudices of the igno- 

 rant, envious, or perverse, and as a result came a cry 

 against the national banks. 



In Mr. Conkling's Ithaca speech (1878), he argued the 

 question with great ability and force. He had a sledge- 

 hammer way which broke down all opposition, and he ex- 

 ulted in it. One of his favorite tactics, which greatly 

 amused his auditors, was to lead some prominent gainsayer 

 in his audience to interrupt him, whereupon, in the bland- 

 est way possible, he would invite him to come forward, urge 

 him to present his views, even help him to do so, and then, 

 having gradually entangled him in his own sophistries and 

 made him ridiculous, the senator would come down upon 

 him with arguments cogent, pithy, sarcastic much like 

 the fist of a giant upon a mosquito. 



In whatever town Mr. Conkling argued the question of 

 the national banks, that subject ceased to be a factor in 

 politics: it was settled; his attacks upon the anti-bank 

 demagogues annihilated their arguments among thinking 

 men, and his sarcasm made them ridiculous among un- 

 thinking men. This was the sort of thing which he did 

 best. While utterly deficient in constructive power, his de- )/ 

 structive force was great indeed, and in this campaign it 

 was applied, as it was not always applied, for the advan- 

 tage of the country. 



The other great speaker in the campaign was General 

 James A. Garfield, then a member of the House of Repre- 



