Uncle Sam: Great Scott, I presume if I should get into trouble with some first-class nation, and have to go to war for a few years, and the people began to wonder whether I was going to pull through and pay my debts, that is to doubt my ability to stand the bill, and all that $346,000,000, then that $5.00 United States Note would not pass for $5.00.
Mr. Banker: Precisely so; that very note passed for only $1.75 at one time in 1864, or only 35 cents on the dollar.
Uncle Sam: Well, I wish Congress would get busy and pay these things off, so that I would be prepared for business, if anything should turn up compelling me to fight.
Mr. Manufacturer: From what you have said, Mr. Banker, and what Uncle Sam admits, I guess we all agree that the United States Notes, or Greenbacks, are not money at all, but just ordinary debts, or demands for money, and therefore cannot themselves be money, of course. But what have you to say about this National Bank Note here? How does this differ from the United States Notes or Greenbacks? Don't you admit that this is some sort or kind of money?
Mr. Banker: I do not. It is no more money than the United States Note. Just read what it says:
Mr. Manufacturer: I will. This is what it says:
"The First National Bank of New York will pay the bearer $5.00."
Mr. Banker: Don't you see that that bill is a mere I.O.U. of the Bank, nothing but a promise to pay five times twenty-five and eight-tenths grains of gold, nine-tenths fine, to the bearer? It does not differ in the slightest degree from the United States Note except that one is the promise of the First National Bank of New York, and the other the promise of Uncle Sam to pay $5.00. You can no more say that a promise of a bank to pay money is money than you can say that a promise of Uncle Sam to pay money is money. Both are debts, and both are demands for money, and therefore neither can be money.
Mr. Farmer: Gentlemen, while I must admit that Mr. Banker has completely, yes, absolutely, gotten away with the United States Notes and National Bank Notes and convinced us that they are not money at all, just watch me choke him with this silver slug, weighing 412½ grains, and bearing two invincible superscriptions.