State Convention'—Dollars and Sense. 
279 
will come to the conclusion that such is not the case. How much 
is the currency depreciated? Twelve cents on the dollar. Is it not 
enough to account for that, in the fact that the government itself 
discredits it? Is it any wonder that with that discredit thrown 
upon it that it is depreciated that much? Our trouble arises not 
from a depreciated currency. It would not he helped by specie 
payments. The depression in this country arises from the fact that 
capital has not been allowed in this county to run in legitimate 
channels. It has been used in schemes, interfering with the laws 
of trade. The vast railroad speculations have drawn capital from 
the legitimate channels, and have taken the capital from the farm¬ 
ers; that is the cause of the depression. Business has run in ille¬ 
gitimate channels and so we are laboring under depression. If you 
return to specie payment to day, what does it mean? If you have 
$800,000,000 of gold before you return to specie payments it is simply 
resolving yourself rich when you are not. We must use the credit 
of the government and make wealth, and then we are ready to re¬ 
sume. Let it come by natural causes. 
Colonel May: I have lived long enough to pass through a pe¬ 
riod of three currencies. I have seen the working of the greenback 
system, and believe it is the best of the three. No individual can 
say that he has ever lost a dollar in greenbacks, but can you say so 
much in reference to the State banks, when you had the State bank¬ 
ing system, secured by stocks. When there was specie payment 
how long did it remain so. Just long enough for the banks to get 
into circulation, three, five, or ten dollars to one they had on de¬ 
posit of gold and silver, and so soon as that was brought about there 
was a panic sprung in the country. Suspension was the result, and 
when suspension came, under the State banking system, how much 
were the State bank notes worth? You might have your pockets 
full this evening, and in the morning you couldn’t buy your break¬ 
fast with them. Who has ever lost a dollar since the greenback 
system has been in use? No one. Why then do you want to get 
rid of it? Why desire to get out of circulation the greenback cur¬ 
rency, if it is so good and so nearly par with gold'and silver. Why 
resume specie payment? I have asked men that question. I am 
not prepared to answer it, and no individual to-day is prepared to 
answer it to my satifaction. Why should we prepare to resume 
specie payment while we have a currency that answers our purpose? 
