State Convention—Dollars and Sense. 275 
Question: In 1864, the 20 th day of June, I was in the city of 
New York. It took two dollars in greenbacks on that day to buy 
one dollar in gold. In the fall of 1866 my oats were worth sixty 
cents in greenbacks. Now 3^011 can get a dollar in greenbacks for 
about eighty cents in gold; a bushel of oats is worth about thirty^ 
cents now. I want to know why it is the greenback is worth so 
much more to-day than it was in 1864, when it was stamped by 
the government just the same as it is to-da 3 r . There must be some 
reason for that. 
Mr. Benton: The gentleman on my left appeared ver) r valiant. 
He set up a man of straw, and dealt blows about valiently, and 
made the straw fly. It shows no logical acumen. Having built 
a fort of his own, he knows the weak points, and can batter away 
at them. The question how are you going to regulate the volume 
of the currency ? First. He wants a currency that is not worth 
anything. I don’t know how much knowledge it shows for a man 
to propose such a thing as that. If he will tell me how he can in¬ 
flate gold, I would like to know it. He spoke about the inflation 
of greenbacks. I ask him about the inflation of gold currency. I 
ask can we inflate a pure gold currenc} T ? Can we inflate anything 
of real value? Is there an inflation of hats and caps? Is there an 
inflation of horses? Suppose we enlighten the gentleman on this 
matter? Congress has passed a law authorizing and fixing the is¬ 
sue of fractional currency" at $50,000,000. Of course, according to 
the gentleman’s theorv, we would all rush for that and take it 
away. Of course, if Congress authorized $500,000,000, we would all 
rush and get it. The facts of the case are, Congress did authorize 
and print that amount of $50,000,000 of fractional currency, but 
the people never wanted but $42,500,000 of it, and the rest re¬ 
mains there. Why do they not want it? Why do not the neces¬ 
sities of the people of the United States demand any more than 
that? Why, if I get any more small currency in m 3 " drawer than 
I need, I take it and get a five-dollar greenback. It is more con¬ 
venient for me. If I have not enough of it I take a five-dollar 
greenback out of my pocket, and go and buy five dollars of frac¬ 
tional currenc 3 r . Why do we not go and get the balance of the 
fifty millions? Simply because we do not want it. If a man has a 
pasture that feeds five cows wouldn’t he be foolish to go and put 
another one in? The government might print this house full of 
