State Convention—Finance. 125 
Venice, brought in their £_old, and their silver, and whatever else 
of value the Republic of Venice needed; and for each amount 
brought in, each individual was credited upon the ledgers of the 
nation with the amount so brought in. He received credit in the 
books of the nation, as you receive credit when you deposit cur¬ 
rency with your bank; and Venice did not say when it would re¬ 
pay, but said by law: we will pay four per cent, interest upon this 
balance; we will pay four per cent, interest upon the debt which 
the nation has incurred to each of you individually; and what was 
the result? A owing B, A having a balance to his credit in the 
loan-department of Venice inscribed in the books of the nation, 
would say to B, 11 step down to the loan-department, which was 
soon called the bank, the first bank of which we have any record; 
and A would transfer to B, the amount he was owing B, taking it 
from A’s account and placing it to the credit of B; and Venice en¬ 
acted that the tender of a transfer of such national debt should be 
a legal tender, and a payment thus made should be a legal pay¬ 
ment, and this national debt currency went to a premium of thirty 
per cent, over gold and for centuries Venice had no suspensions or 
commercial crises. 
There was another country that only fourteen years ago was 
sorely pressed by active enemies at home, and by threatening from 
abroad. It was threatened with disruption, and many were the 
grave doubts entertained of its being able to pass successfully 
through that great crisis. It needed not money. It needed those 
things of which money is the servant; of which money is as much 
the means of transfer as are these iron tracks that center in your 
city r . They wanted horses for their cavalry; blankets for their sol¬ 
diers; iron for their shot, and their guns; lead for bullets; leather 
for accoutrements, for harness, and saddle, and they called upon the 
people for those things; and what did they give for those things? 
They gave them bonds. They gave them non-interest bearing 
bonds of small denominations, convenient for circulation, com¬ 
monly called greenbacks. None of these bonds have been author¬ 
ized since the close of the war. Of the greenbacks, or small bonds 
which were issued by the Government of the United States, in evi¬ 
dence of the indebtedness which they had contracted and received 
by the people for forage and munitions of war, and for services, 
there are none in circulation to-day that were not issued for those 
