Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 2.djvu/529

Rh I should be inclined to vote for it if it be coupled with an effectual system of redemption. Of course redemption in specie would be the most satisfactory to me. At present redemption means practically nothing. It accomplishes only the locking up of a certain percentage of the greenbacks for a purpose which is only apparent, and which might practically be accomplished by locking up the same amount of bank-notes. Redeemability, as it now is, might become of importance only in the extreme case of violent and extensive fluctuations in the market value of our bonds, such as might be caused by the very improbable contingency of a foreign war and the consequent increase of our National debt. But now, in the ordinary run of business, redemption under our present law has no restraining influence upon the workings of our currency, except locking up a certain amount of greenbacks.

A restraining influence, however, might be imparted to it even while we are under suspension of specie payments by establishing between the Government legal-tender and the national-bank note the same relation which in suspension times existed in England between the Bank of England note and the country-bank note there; that is to say, if we give the Government legal-tender note a sphere of action superior to that of the national-bank note. This might be done by repealing that part of the national-bank act which provides that the national-bank currency shall be a legal-tender in payment of taxes and other dues to the Government; and the system of redemption might be made effectually by establishing assorting-houses at the different business centers of the country. That, I think, would increase the demand for greenbacks in contradistinction to national-bank notes. It would make the conversion of national-bank notes into greenbacks an object of desire in the ordinary run of business,