198 Wisconsin State Agricultural Society. 
cent, irredeemable bond, in the form of a perpetual life-annuity, and 
lias never been below par, and never will be; and yet, when a citi¬ 
zen of the United States makes a similar proposition to fund their 
debt in an irredeemable currency and a 3.65 interest-bearing bond, 
.all the bullionist organs in the country set up a constant howl of 
“ repudiation.” 
So, also, much has been said about the “ unconstitutionality ” of 
the u legal-tender act,” and yet the Bank-of-England note has all 
the powers and prerogatives of a legal tender in all commercial 
transactions. 
See the case of France in the late Avar with Germany. “Their 
nation was in an incomparably worse position than we ever were; 
beaten in battle, and forced to pay the costs of the war on both 
sides, the enemy retaining their territory as collateral until it was 
so paid, and their chief city', with a population double that of the 
largest city of our republic, in the hands of insurgents. Their gov¬ 
ernment immediately filled the nation with full legal-tender curren¬ 
cy, multiplying several times the former volume of currency, which 
enabled them to perform that -wonder of modern financiering— 
to pay both her foreign and domestic debt, and return to specie 
payment without the least symptom of a crisis or repudiation.” 
But we have the most valuable illustrations from our own expe¬ 
rience during the late civil war. February 25, 1862, Congress 
passed, and the president signed a bill, “ an act to authorize the is¬ 
sue of United States notes, for the redemption and funding there¬ 
of, and for funding the floating debt of the United States.” Now, 
what resulted? Gold instantly lost two-thirds of its premium, and 
in less than four months from the time of the passage of the bill 
* 
twenty-year gold bearing United States six per cent, bonds advanced 
in gold from 90 cents to $1.02. 
On the 7th of June following, another bill, similar to this, was 
passed, authorizing the issue of $150,000,000 more, $35,000,000 of 
which was to be in denominations of less than $5, or fractional cur¬ 
rency as it is called. 
Of the results flowing to the laboring classes, and indeed to all 
classes, from this issue of legal-tender currency, we will quote brief¬ 
ly from Henry C. Carey. “ At once the scene was changed, the 
employer being now enabled to pay cash for all the service and all 
the materials of which he stood in need; and the workman in like 
