10 



have issued still more, and were only hindered from flooding the 

 country by the steadfastness of President Grant. 



Now I would like to know what sort of a standard would you 

 call that sort of a yard or bushel which could be stretched out at 

 this rate, and ^ou obliged — ,mind you — to use this stretched meas- 

 ure for the same as the old one ? Some one says, " Isn't it a me- 

 dium of exchange ? Cannot we buy things with greebacks ?" Of 

 course, we can to a certain extent, but every one knows we cannot 

 buy as much with these paper promises as we could with the dol- 

 lar which they are falsely sujDposed to represent. Moreover, we 

 cannot take them abroad. A bank of England note will buy all 

 over the world because there is gold behind it and the whole world 

 knows it, but a United States promise to pay doesn't buy goods 

 outside of the United States, except to a very limited extent in 

 Canada, and this for the reason that it is a dishonored promise — 

 it is the promise of a government that is dishonored every tim5 it 

 issues them. The government doesn't pay what it promises, can- 

 not pay what it promises, mates no attempt to pay what it prom- 

 ises ; therefore I say it is dishonest. But no, says Mr. Boutwell — 

 ]i[r. George S. Boutwell, a senator of Massachusetts, and a late 

 secretary of the treasury. No, he says, this is not a dishonest 

 promise. Look at it — the government doesn't promise to pay at 

 any definite time, therefore the government isn't dishonest, says 

 Mr. Boutwell — says it from his seat in the Senate — because there 

 is no specified time of payment. No specified time of payment ! 

 What sort of an operation is that ? Suppose a man should come 

 to borrow money of you but without setting any time of payment, 

 and supposing he could wheedle you into lending money on such 

 terms, and when you come to him for its return, he refuses be- 

 cause he had set no time for its payment — what sort of a rascal 

 would you call him who thus took advantage of your folly ? Now, 

 gentlemen, these are dishonored promises to pay, and thus pro- 

 duce mischief, and are not worth anything outside of the country 

 that forces their acceptance. 



Coming back to the main question, being money as a medium of 

 exchange, I say they do not exchange for what gold and silver 

 would, and they are forced upon us to our incalculable injury. I 

 think any one who looks at the matter honestly is obliged to say 



