192 Wisconsin State Agricultural Society. 
ating a privileged class, thereby working injustice and violating the 
fundamental principles of a republican government. 
That the monetary power of coin is entirely different and separate 
from its intrinsic value is readily seen from the fact that the offer 
of a gold watch-chain worth ten dollars, in payment of a debt of 
ten dollars would be no more a legal discharge of the indebtedness 
than a tender of ten bushels of wheat, or any other commodity 
valued at ten dollars in the market. 
These considerations being wholly sufficient to condemn the use 
-of so utterly an inappropriate material as the so-called precious 
metals for the circulating medium of a civilized people, however fit 
it may be for savages and barbarous nations—we will pass to the 
-consideration of the desirability of a mixed currency, or a specie 
basis for paper currency. It is an axiom in finance that on a specie 
basis every dollar of paper issue put in circulation, crowds out just 
so much specie, making it a truly “mixed currency.” 
Perhaps the most vital objection to a specie basis, is the fact that 
it is only in name, but seldom in fact , that it has existed. If it were 
really in existence it would lose many of its objectionable features; 
but seeing it has seldom existed, it being almost a moral impossi¬ 
bility, we propose to unmask the hideous deformity, by a few sim¬ 
ple facts, easily obtained from published reports and other reliable 
-sources. 
What, then, is this reputed u gold basis” in actuality? Sir John 
Lubbock, of' the banking-house of Roberts & Co., of London, ana¬ 
lyzed the receipts of that house, and found them to be in each 
$ 100 . 
Gold and silver. $0 50 
Bank bills. 2 50 
Checks and other forms of discount. 97 00 
Total.100 00 
A basis of 3 per cent.; a superstructure of 97 percent. A previous 
•estimate, made by Professor Bonamy Price, put the inflation of 30 
to 1, and this is further substantiated by Henry Carey Baird, of 
Philadelphia, who demonstrated the total currency of Great Bri¬ 
tain to be $5,300,000,000, which would give as the amount of coin 
in bank on which this superstructure of credit is based $25,500,000. 
The exceeding frailty of a coin basis is aptly illustrated by two 
