"Greenbacks": Or, the Evils and the Remedy of Using "Promise to Pay the Bearer on Demand" as a Measure of Value

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D. Thomas, 1864 - Currency question - 29 pages

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Page 11 - July 14, 1890, are legal tender for all debts, public and private, except where otherwise expressly stipulated in the contract. United States notes are legal tender for all debts, public and private, except duties on imports and interest on the public debt.
Page 8 - And the Secretary of the Treasury may also issue in exchange for coin, and as part of the above loan, or may pay for salaries or other dues from the United States, treasury notes of a less denomination than fifty dollars, not bearing interest, but payable...
Page 24 - That the Secretary of the Treasury be and he is hereby authorized to cause to be issued to any public creditor who may be desirous to receive the same, upon requisition of the head of the proper department, in satisfaction of audited and settled demands against the United States, certificates for the whole amount due, or parts thereof not less than one thousand dollars, signed by the Treasurer of the United States, and countersigned as may be directed by the Secretary of the Treasury ; which certificates...
Page 13 - ... advantageous purchases of specie, to replace at once large amounts, and, at no distant day, the whole, of this circulation by coin, without detriment to any interest, but, on the contrary, with great and manifest benefit to all interests. The Secretary recommends, therefore, no mere paper money scheme, but, on the contrary, a series of measures looking to a safe and gradual return to gold and silver as the only permanent basis, standard, and measure of values recognized by the Constitution —...
Page 24 - Treasury be and he is hereby authorized to cause to be issued to any public creditor who may be desirous to receive the same, upon requisition of the head of the proper department, in satisfaction of audited and settled demands against the United States, certificates for the whole amount due, or parts thereof not less than one thousand dollars, signed by the Treasurer of the United States, and countersigned as may be directed by the Secretary of the Treasury ; which certificates shall be payable...
Page 20 - It is invested with the power to coin money, and to regulate the value thereof, and to regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the several States.
Page 28 - ... and the revenue, upon the supposition, supplies more than is needed for that purpose. There is, then, no mode in which a currency in United States notes can be permanently maintained, except by loans of them, when not required for disbursement, on deposits of coin, or pledge of securities, or in some other way.
Page 23 - ... and after stating the financial measures which in his judgment were advisable, he added: "The secretary recommends, therefore, no mere paper money scheme, but on the contrary a series of measures looking to a safe and gradual return to gold and silver as the only permanent basis, standard, and measure of value recognized by the constitution.
Page 13 - ... The systems of legislators are experiments made on human life and manners, society and government. Zoroaster, Confucius, Mithras, Odin, Thor, Mahomet, Lycurgus, Solon, Romulus, and a thousand others may be compared to philosophers making experiments on the elements. Unhappily, political experiments cannot be made in a laboratory, nor determined in a few hours.
Page 28 - The principal objections to the latter circulation, as a permanent system, were thus stated by him : " (1) The facility of excessive expansion when expenditures exceed revenue ; (2) The danger of lavish and corrupt expenditure, stimulated by facility of expansion ; (3) The danger of fraud iu management and supervision; (4) The impossibility of providing it in sufficient amounts for the wants of the people whenever expenditures are reduced to equality with revenue, or below it.

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