Provision should be made
by which the Secretary of the Treasury can obtain gold as it may become
necessary from time to time from the date when specie redemption
commences. To this might and should be added a revenue sufficiently in
excess of expenses to insure an accumulation of gold in the Treasury
to sustain permanent redemption.
I commend this subject to your careful consideration, believing that a
favorable solution is attainable, and if reached by this Congress that
the present and future generations will ever gratefully remember it as
their deliverer from a thraldom of evil and disgrace.
With resumption, free banking may be authorized with safety, giving the
same full protection to bill holders which they have under existing
laws. Indeed, I would regard free banking as essential. It would give
proper elasticity to the currency. As more currency should be required
for the transaction of legitimate business, new banks would be started,
and in turn banks would wind up their business when it was found that
there was a superabundance of currency. The experience and judgment of
the people can best decide just how much currency is required for the
transaction of the business of the country. It is unsafe to leave the
settlement of this question to Congress, the Secretary of the Treasury,
or the Executive.
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