“Into this very delusion many of our fellow-citizens and many members of this House have fallen.
“The chief cause of this new-born zeal for paper money is the same as that which led a member of the Continental Congress to exclaim:
“‘Do you think, gentlemen, that I will consent to load my constituents with taxes, when we can send to the printer and get a wagon-load of money, one quire of which will pay for the whole?’
“It is my clear conviction that the most formidable danger with which the country is now threatened is a large increase in the volume of paper money.
“Shall we learn nothing from experience? Shall the warnings of the past be unheeded?”
Here followed a brilliant historical review of the experience of the Colonies, of the Continental Congress, and of England, with paper money.
“From these considerations it appears to me that the first step toward a settlement of our financial and industrial affairs should be to adopt and declare to the country a fixed and definite policy, so that industry and enterprise may be based upon confidence; so that men may know what to expect from the Government; and, above all, that the course of business may be so adjusted that it shall be governed by the laws of trade, and not by the caprice of any man or of any political party in or out of Congress....
“On the 10th of February, I introduced a bill which, if it should become a law, will, I believe, go far toward restoring confidence and giving stability to business, and will lay the foundation on which a general financial policy may be based, whenever opinions are so harmonized as to make a general policy possible.
“As the bill is short, I will quote it entire, and call attention for a few moments to its provisions: