Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 2.djvu/525

Rh my respect is for the source from which it comes, I am not able to accept that view of the case. It seems to me that the parallel run here between the issues of the Bank of England and of the country banks during the suspension of specie payments in England, on the one hand, and the legal-tender notes and the national-bank notes in this country, on the other, fails in one very essential point. The Bank of England notes at that period were virtually a legal-tender. I know very well that they were not made so by the express language of the law, but to all intents and purposes they were practically so, and virtually recognized as such by the courts, while the country-bank notes were not. The value as currency of the latter, the country-bank notes, depended entirely on their redeemability in Bank of England notes, and on the credit of the issuing bank. The circulation of the country-bank notes was, therefore, essentially local. But our national-bank notes are virtually to all intents and purposes a legal-tender, just as much as the Treasury note is. By section 23 of the national-bank act of June 3, 1864, they are made receivable in all parts of the United States in payment of taxes, and all other dues to the United States, except duties on imports, and also for all salaries and other debts and demands owing by the United States, except interest on the National debt, and in redemption of the National currency. Now, sir, although they are not literally made a legal-tender in the discharge of private debt, yet being received by the Government for what is due it, and being paid out by the Government for what it owes, they are practically made a legal-tender for all purposes, like the greenback. They are, moreover, founded on the secure basis of Government bonds, payable principal and interest, in gold. Their circulation is therefore not local, but national in the widest sense of the term, just like that of greenbacks. They are just