280 Wisconsin State Agricultural Society. 
I see some individuals desire to return to a specie basis. It is be¬ 
cause the capitalists have not been able to make the amount of 
money out of the greenbacks, that they did out of the other cur¬ 
rency. 
The banks should be satisfied with the present mode of specula¬ 
ting. They are only required to deposit with the treasurer of the 
United States, ten thousand dollars in bonds, and the treasurer is¬ 
sues to them nine thousand dollars in national bank currency, up¬ 
on which they may bank, and at the same time they draw their 
regular six per cent, interest in gold, semi-annually. Should they 
not be satisfied with such a system as that; such a speculation as that? 
But they ask more; they ask that the United States currency; the 
greenbacks, be taken out of circulation, and instituted instead thereof 
a depreciated currency of their own issue, the same as they had under 
the State bank system. That is where we are drifting The national 
bank system is one step toward the old State bank system. When 
we pass from the new banking system to the old State bank system, 
then the issue becomes five or ten dollars to one of gold or silver 
to redeem it with. When the bank breaks, who loses the money? 
Is it the stockholder? He loses his stock and nothing further 
His property, his land, or his capital, that he has invested in other 
enterprises, are none of them touched. 
Mr. Pashley: In 1860 I had one hundred bushels of wheat 
which I sold for $100. I got a depreciated bill for $5, which 
left me $95 for my wheat. 
Colonel May: Supply and demand has always regulated the 
prices of commodities. Beef, pork, or wheat, when there is a scar¬ 
city, always demand a higher price. When there is a surplus they 
bring a lower price. 
Mr. Pashley: Suppose I sell a hundred dollars worth and lose 
five dollars by getting bad money, how then? 
Mr. Roberts: I take it that it is the promise to pay a dollar that 
gives the greenback its value. 
Mr. Pashley: It is its being a legal tender that gives it its val¬ 
ue. It is not the promise to pay. 
Mr. Roberts: I disagree with the gentlemen entirely. I say it 
is the promise to pay that gives it its value. That promise is 
backed by forty-five million of people, as has been stated here, 
