Wisconsin State Agricultural Society. 
263 
faith. And if you have faith in it it is as good as anything, if it is 
even a chip with u one dollar" written on it. Faith is the neplus 
ultra of all things. 
Mr. Clark, of Green county. There are some points not yet 
touched. I understood the Professor to be in favor of the substitu¬ 
tion of a metallic currency and no legal interest at all, no restric¬ 
tion on interest. The Professor is trying to get us into an experi¬ 
ment here that has never been tried to any extent in any country. 
Last night he was rather against going into wild experiments, If 
he goes back upon our bank currency one must admit that he 
has a weak foundation. It would be like the Frenchman’s debt, 
who went to the merchant that owed him $500, and said he must 
have it, and when the merchant paid it he looked at it and said, I 
wish you would take it back. Why? said the merchant. Well, 
said the Frenchman, you have it and me don’t^want it, but you not 
have it, me want it bad. 
When the panic came in New York, the banks had to suspend 
or every one forfeit their charter. But their bills were just as good 
in the streets the next day, because the Government and the State 
guaranteed the payment of those bills. It was not because there 
was gold behind it, but because the faith of the State and the Uni¬ 
ted States was behind it. In 1857, it was the hoarding of the gold. 
Last year it was the hoarding of the greenbacks and the bank bills. 
We had faith in those bills because the Government of the United 
States guaranteed the payment of those bills. W r e have a cur¬ 
rency got up not by the people and/or the people, but by the bond 
holders and banks for the benefit of themselves. 
Now, let us have currency not redeemable in gold or United 
States bonds, with a low rate of interest; then every body could 
have just what they wanted in currency, just what the business of 
the country demanded. The bank of Venice for a long series of 
years, kept its currency superior to gold and there was no redemp¬ 
tion about it. The effect of adopting President Bascom’s theory of 
a metallic currency must be to reduce our currency down nearly 
three times and make the debtor pay the creditor three times the 
amount that he had agreed to pay, because you have increased the 
value of the dollar, so as to make it cost just as much to get one dol¬ 
lar then, as now to get three. 
If a man is sick there is always some expense in getting well, but 
