State Convention—Dollars and Sense. 253 
But, the law has often defined margins, say from ten to thirty 
dollars in specie for every $100 in paper, and with all the precau¬ 
tions—the solemn oaths required, and with quarterly examinations 
by sworn officers—even the margins nominated have been greatly 
contracted, and the same bags of coin counted in the vaults of half 
a dozen or more banks, and the official tables, prepared with great 
care by the best financial experts, demonstrate that between the 
eras of 1848 and 1860—embracing our hey-day of specie basis —not 
to exceed one per cent. of paper tea s actually redeemed in coin, and the 
country lost from 15 to 25 per cent of the paper! So, that in reality, 
the banking capital of the country, at that time, amounting to 
many hundreds of millions, when divided into 100 decimal parts, 
may be expressed as follows: 
BASIS OF BANKING. 
Number parts confidence. 99 
Number parts coin—“ a trace!”. 1 
Total. 100 
The coin is solid basis, and worth its face, but it would take a 
million horse-power to again infuse 99 per cent, of the carbon of 
confidence into any system of banking. Confidence is easily ex¬ 
ploded, and so are soap-bubbles. So long as confidence is unshaken 
it is as good as gold. If A owes B a gold-diamond brooch, and 
offers him one of brass, with a glass-setting, it is all just as well, so 
long as B has confidence that the brass is gold, and the glass is dia¬ 
mond, but, that confidence once shaken, and the brass trinket is 
valueless. Just so with paper monejq predicated on 99 per cent, of 
confidence and only one per cent, of gold. So long as the confi¬ 
dence-machine is wound up and kept in running order, all is well; 
but once let a screw get loose, a panic break out, and it will spread 
like the measles in the Fiji Islands, and then the 100 parts of coin 
and confidence shrink to one part in coin only, and that is dissi¬ 
pated as readily as jewels of honor from a tliree-cent politician. 
A rush is made for the banks at the first note of alarm. The first 
shock generally closes them up, because confidence, their only stock 
in trade, is gone. So it ever has been, and so will it ever be, so long 
as the people are commercially wedded to banks. A final divorce 
is the only re medy. The best bank that ever opened its doors, 
