State Convention - —Agricultural Rag-Baby. 189 
premium; for instance, the bank-account at the Bank of Venice, 
the Bank-of-England note, and the first issue of greenbacks, until 
their interconvertible power was repealed by Congress, they, and 
the currency 5-20 bond, into which they were convertible at the 
option of the holder, being at 102 in less than five months after 
their issue. 
That we may better see the radical difference existing in the 
“ old 11 and “new 71 monetary system, we will briefly enunciate cer¬ 
tain vital principles in finance and a sound circulating medium, or 
a sound monetary system. 
First principle. —The coinage of money and emission of bills of 
credit or currency to circulate as money, is an act of sovereignty, 
and may not be divided or delegated without mischief and loss to 
the people. Says the Hon. Amasa Walker, in the International 
Review, 1874, pp. 225, 226, “no single error in regard to moneta^ 
affairs is more potent for evil than that which confounds banking 
with the manufacture and issue of a paper circulation. In popular 
estimation these are commonly regarded as identical, or at least as 
properly and necessarily united in the same institution. In truth, 
however, such a connection is neither necessary or proper. Bank¬ 
ing, in its legitimate and proper uses, is the business of establishing 
a fund for loan, receiving deposits, negotiating bills of exchange, 
making collections, paying checks, etc.; and as these operations in¬ 
volve much hazard, the policy of uniting with them the issues of 
promises to pay money, which are themselves to be used for cur¬ 
rency of the country, is in the highest degree objectionable.” 
~ Second principle. —The amount of the circulating medium should 
not be fixed by arbitrary legislation, but by the laws of trade; or 
in other terms, the convenience of the people. Our present cur¬ 
rency, in amount, is wholly an arbitrary one. Its quantity is fixed 
by the government or limited by law. 
Third principle. —Its value should be inherent; it should have no 
“ basis ” other than itself; this quality will leave it subject, like 
other commodities, to the laws of trade, which will give and secure 
the only and true value, and give it— 
Fourth principle. —Elasticity; and we then have money which 
answereth all things, or a perfect “ circulating medium.” 
Fifth principle. —The value of money consists in its power to in¬ 
crease or to draw interest, to exchange for all other commodities 
