CHAPTER II. 



RESUMPTION OF SPECIE PAYMENTS. 



NEVER since the days when the doctrine that ( ' kings 

 ruled by divine right" prevailed, has there been a 

 more stupendous fraud practiced upon an unwary people 

 than the system of specie payments. To the end that 

 specie payments might be resumed, the contraction act of 

 1866 was passed. In another chapter we have called the 

 attention of the reader to some of the evils that followed. 

 To say that specie resumption is right, is but to say that 

 contraction, with all the evils that follow in its train, is 

 right. To say that gold and silver is the only material fit 

 for money is to propagate a stupendous lie; is to say that 

 there is gold and silver enough in the country to furnish 

 an adequate amount of circulating medium. The strong- 

 est advocates of the system will not for a moment claim 

 this. They hold that it can and should be used as a basis, 

 and that experience has demonstrated that one dollar in 

 coin is a sufficient basis for three dollars in paper; that the 

 foundation can be much smaller than the structure with- 

 out danger of toppling over. This very confession shows 

 the utter fallacy of the whole system. There is to-day in 

 the United States Treasury one hundred million dollars in 

 coin as a basis for the three hundred and forty-six million 

 dollars of greenbacks in circulation. 



This was an assumption on the part of the specie 

 basis advocates, that the fools which might exist in this 

 country were in the proportion of the amount of green- 



