6 pie who take it hasten to invest it in real property, while speculation lives and flourishes by holding it up to public odium and contempt.— The more speculation can'discredit it, the more speculation thrives. Speculation is sleepless in its efforts to discredit it; and yet, sir, there is a way to remedy the difficulty. It is by familiarizing the people with the power, resources, and wealth of the nation ; and this in my judgment is the duty of every Representative if. this House, and of every intelligent and reflecting citizen out of it. [f this $400,000,01)0 of currency were secured to be paid to morrow, if the nation could begin to see it expire by the establishment of a sinking fund of ten per cent, per annum, which would destroy it all in ten years, or if, by'legislation, the Secretary was directed to burn $100,000 of it per day until the whole $400,000, 000 were destroyed, do you imagine that you would hear anything more of a rise m gold? Sir, it would be the death of the speculators on the sea-board, and the nation would rise from ' its apprehensions full of fresh power and energy. Bo email an effort as this, in my opinion, would reduce the expenses of this Government thirty- three and one-third per cent, per annum. If, eir, I am right in this conclusion, why should the people be inflamed with fresh fears by the dark predictions of impending bankruptcy and ruin? And why are we not bound to present, i in contradiction to statements such as I have j referred to, facts that lead the mind to an en-i tirely different judgment? Sir, I repeat with all the emphasis I am capable of expressing, that in advocating every mea- •ure for strengthening our financial system; by encouraging the Secretary of the Treasury to persevere in carrying out t»e ideas distinctly presented in his annual report; by pointing out, to the extent of my humble ability, the way to roll back the current that has set in in such irresistible force against the public credit; by pointing out in even so feeble a manner the vast resources of our country, and showing that an issue of $400,000,000 of currency, which, after all, is only a substitute for the gold and bank circulation it has displaced, I fulfill my duty as a Representative. The people, who are to be •wept away in case of so fearful a calamity as national bankruptcy, will sustain me in my efforts, and will sustain all those who take the same course in the midst of the emergencies of this fearful contest. In the course of the debate, Mr. Speaker, the distinguished gentleman from Massachusetts who advocated the proposition to empower the Secretary of the Treasury to anticipate the interest on the public debt, and so dispose of the surplus gold in the Treasury, and avoid its accumulation hereafter by the same means, declaring that, disguise or conceal it as we might, the currency had depreciated to the extent indicated by the price of gold. Str the quotation daily made for gold in the New York market is certainly an indication for the day of the positive depreciation of the cur- rency. Any one who owns gold can certainly sell it at the New York quotation for papei”. No one can deny the truth of this proposition; but I submit to that gentleman, and to those who concur with him in opinion, whether there are not many good grounds for the belief that there are causes operating to produce this depreciation unknown before in the history of paper money, and whether some of them may not be regarded as wholly artificial, and capable of being easily exposed and dispelled? Sir, I think there are artificial means constantly being used to influence the price of gold. These means have been employed since the suspension of specie payments. They. have increased from month to month for the past year, just in proportion to the growth of speculation, which to day exceeds in volume anything ever known before in the history of civilization. It has become necessary for the safety of this huge structure of illegitimate traffic that the price of gold should continue to rise in respect to the currency; and, sir, it will not be permitted to decline if human ingenuity and human effort can prevent it. Such a state of things must give birth to every species of device and to every kind of artificial process. They will come in the form of misrepresentations of the military situation of the country and exaggerated Statements of any defeats in the field; they will be in the shape of extensive combinations for the temporary purchase of the floating gold,in the market; in the false statemehts as ;,to the character and condition of the public debt, and in the objects and designs of the Government; and all this is rendered more easily available by the ignorance that is permitted to prevail as to the resources and power of the nation. To illustrate my view more fully as to “causes hitherto unknown'* now operating to the prejudice of the currency, I would ask the House to regard New York city the great commercial and financial center, connected by the electric wires with every city and every town of any importance in every State not in rebellion, away to the far off Pacific. The opinions of representative men are solemnly uttered in this House that national bankruptcy and repudia- i tion are surging at our feet to ingulf us in its formidable waves. The lightning that carries this fearful verdict to the people of the country flashes the tidings, to the city of New York almost instantly from innumerable points in the shape of positive orders to buy gold, to buy merchandise, to buy commodities. Thousands of orders reach that great mart in an hour, and through all hours of the day, and hence a traffic, boundless in extent, and all in one direction, all to purchase property at the market prices, without limit, is carried on in that city by a frightened and phrenzied population. Has the currency depreciated because of these transactions? Is national bankruptcy really here, because of such declarations 8 I cannot so regard it. The truth is that this modern instrument, electricity, is playing a new and most important part in the affairs of men, and for the first time in the greatest drama in the history of ' civilization. It so concentrates and so intensi-
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