There are a few measures which seem to me important in this connection
and which I commend to your earnest consideration:
A repeal of so much of the legal-tender act as makes these notes
receivable for debts contracted after a date to be fixed in the act
itself, say not later than the 1st of January, 1877. We should then have
quotations at real values, not fictitious ones. Gold would no longer be
at a premium, but currency at a discount. A healthy reaction would set
in at once, and with it a desire to make the currency equal to what it
purports to be. The merchants, manufacturers, and tradesmen of every
calling could do business on a fair margin of profit, the money to be
received having an unvarying value. Laborers and all classes who work
for stipulated pay or salary would receive more for their income,
because extra profits would no longer be charged by the capitalists to
compensate for the risk of a downward fluctuation in the value of the
currency.
Second. That the Secretary of the Treasury be authorized to redeem, say,
not to exceed $2,000,000 monthly of legal-tender notes, by issuing in
their stead a long bond, bearing interest at the rate of 3.65 per cent
per annum, of denominations ranging from $50 up to $1,000 each.
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