James G. Blaine (House, February 7, 1878): “The destruction of silver as money and establishing gold as the sole unit of value must have a ruinous effect on all forms of property except those investments which yield a fixed return in money. These would gain an unfair advantage over other species of property.”
James A. Garfield (1880): “Whoever controls the volume of currency is absolute master of the industry and commerce of the country.”
Senator Mills, of Texas (House, February 3, 1886): “But the crime that is now sought to be perpetrated on more than fifty millions of people comes neither from the camp of a conqueror, the hand of a foreigner, nor the altar of an idolator. It comes from the cold, phlegmatic marble heart of avarice—avarice that seeks to paralyze labor, increase the burden of debt, and fill the land with destitution and suffering to gratify the lust for gold—avarice surrounded by every comfort that wealth can command, and rich enough to satisfy every want save that which refuses to be satisfied without the suffocation and strangulation of all the labor of the land. With a forehead that refuses to be ashamed it demands of Congress an act that will paralyze all the forces of production, shut out labor from all employment, increase the burden of debts and taxation, and send desolation and suffering to all the homes of the poor.”
Leland Stanford (Senate, March 10, 1890): “An abundance of money means universal activity, bringing in its train all the blessings that belong to a constantly employed, industrious, intelligent people.... Abundant and cheap money places the power in the hands of the industrious.... Cheap and abundant money means co-operation of labor to an extent hitherto unknown.... Would go far towards aiding his [labor’s] intelligence, toward realizing his highest destiny. It seems to me that the great thought of humanity should be how to advance the great multitude of toilers, increase their power of production and elevate their condition.... To me one of the most effective means of placing at man’s disposal the force inherent in the value of property is through furnishing a bountiful supply of money.... If money were suddenly annihilated from all business affairs there would be a general suspension of business all over the country. It is the duty of statesmen to furnish the means, if possible, to find out the way by which the Creator’s design for the highest advance of civilization is to be obtained. Want, discomfort and misery are not necessarily the heritage of the industrious and provident man. So far as I can ascertain, no government has ever attempted to furnish an adequate supply of money or establish any standard by which its want could be ascertained.”
John G. Carlisle (in the House, February 21, 1878): “According to my views of the subject the conspiracy which seems to have been formed here and in Europe to destroy by legislation and otherwise from three-sevenths to one-half the metallic money of the world is the most gigantic crime of this or any other age. The consummation of such a scheme would ultimately entail more misery upon the human race than all the wars, pestilences and famines that ever occurred in the history of the world. The absolute and instantaneous destruction of half the entire movable property of the world, including houses, ships, railroads and other appliances for carrying on commerce, while it would be felt more sensibly at the moment, would not produce anything like the prolonged distress and disorganization of society that must inevitably result from the permanent annihilation of one-half the metallic money of the world.”
John G. Carlisle (speaking for the Bland bill, 1878): “It will reverse the grinding process that has been going on for the last few years. Instead of constant and ruthless contraction, instead of constant appreciation of money and depreciation of property, we will have expansion to the extent of at least $2,000,000 a month, and under its influence the exchangeable value of commodities, including labor, will soon begin to rise, thus inviting investments, infusing life into the dead industries of the country, and quickening the pulsations of trade in all its departments.”
Secretary Windom (Jan. 31, 1891): “The ideal financial system would be one that should furnish just enough absolutely sound money to meet the legitimate wants of trade, and no more. Had it not been for the peculiar condition which enabled the United States to disburse over seventy-five million dollars in about two and a half months last autumn, I am firmly convinced that the stringency in August and September would have resulted in widespread financial ruin.”
Chauncey M. Depew: “Fifty men can paralyze the whole country, for they can control the circulation of the currency, and create panic whenever they will.”
Hon. G. G. Symes, of Colorado (commenting on the demonetization of silver): “There would be truly enough money to do the business after the shrinkage of prices and the financial disasters. For the new order of things and basis of values there would still be gold enough to carry on the business. It would only require one-half after the new condition and basis was reached. The monometallists, then, would still argue that gold was not scarce.”
Henry Clews, Wall Street financier (March 16, 1895): “Wall Street keeps a quick eye upon the prospects of the suggested international silver conference. It sees in the adoption of a world-wide policy of bimetallism the certainty of a material increase in the metallic money of the commercial nations, and assumes that, in such case, there would be a general rise in values and a consequent speculative boom of wide dimensions.”