Excerpt from Review of Our Finances, and of the Report of Hon. S. P. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury What then is the remedy for our depreciated and depreciating national currency? The Secretary of the Treas ury anticipated the disaster, and pro posed a remedy in 1861. I gave his bank plan then my earnest and imme diate support. Well would it have been for our country if it had then been adopted, and gold would not now command a premium of thirty-two per cent. After a year's experience and deliberation, the Secretary ...
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Excerpt from Review of Our Finances, and of the Report of Hon. S. P. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury What then is the remedy for our depreciated and depreciating national currency? The Secretary of the Treas ury anticipated the disaster, and pro posed a remedy in 1861. I gave his bank plan then my earnest and imme diate support. Well would it have been for our country if it had then been adopted, and gold would not now command a premium of thirty-two per cent. After a year's experience and deliberation, the Secretary reiterates his former recommendation, with words of solemn import, and arguments of great force. His is the chief responsi bility. To him is mainly intrusted the custody of the public credit. His is now the duty of saving us from na tional bankruptcy. At such a time, I would differ from him on such a ques tion, only on the clearest convictions, and then only upon the condition that I had a better plan as a substitute, and that mine could become a law now, and be carried now into practical exe cution. If all this could not be done, I would support the plan of the Secre tary, as all admit that delay or inac tion is death. If my words be too bold or earnest, let them be attributed to my profound conviction that the Amer ican Union is in extreme peril, and that its downfall involves the final catastro phe of our country and of our race. Let no man talk of a separation of the Union in any contingency. Let none speak now of peace or compromise with armed treason. Let none think of con structing separate nationalities out of the broken and bleeding fragments of a dismembered Union. No; far better that our wrecked and blasted earth should swing from its orbit, disinte grate into its original atoms, and its place remain forever vacant in the uni verse, than that we should survive. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at ... This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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