"This war has given an immense impulse to every thing. Whence this precipitation? We have barely got out of the war against the rebels before we have a war made upon the business community, upon the manufacturing interests, and upon all others."
"When this great Republican party was made up," said Mr. Wentworth, "we, who were originally Democrats, took up a cross, and it was a great cross. [Laughter.] We were told that if we went into that thing, we should have to lay down at the feet of the irresponsible paper-money men. Now, I want to know of the gentleman distinctly, whether, if he could, he would resume specie payments to-morrow?"
"If," replied Mr. Stevens, "I could have specie payment to-morrow, without deranging the business of the country, I would. If it would derange the business of the country to return to specie payment at once, I would postpone it a little. I voted for the Legal-tender Bill; and I am glad I did so, for the country would not have survived without it."
"Would you compromise on a year?" asked Mr. Wentworth.
"No, sir; nor on two years," replied Mr. Stevens. "England did not resume specie payment the year after the wars with France. The Bank of England issued paper money, but the Government had £14,000,000 in the stock of that bank to give it security, and the Government prevented it from resuming specie payment until it thought it best. Now, when that great war of twenty-five years was over, did England attempt, in 1814 and 1815, to return to specie payment? They had afloat but £20,000,000, or $100,000,000, and they began with their one-pound notes. In a few years they took their two-pound notes; afterward they took their five-pound notes. But they never resumed full specie payment until the latter part of the year 1822. Does my friend from Illinois expect me to be wiser than the great men of England?"
"Does my friend from Pennsylvania deny," asked Mr. Garfield, "that in 1819 the law for resuming specie payment was passed, to go into effect gradually at first, and completely in 1823, and that the full resumption of specie payment actually took place early in the Spring of 1821—only about a year and three-quarters from the passage of the law?"
"Yes," answered Mr. Stevens, "except in very large sums. The law authorized them to go on until the first of January, 1823."
"But they resumed in 1821, about a year and three-quarters earlier," said Mr. Garfield.
"About a year earlier," said Mr. Stevens. "But the law did not pass until four years after the war. Do gentlemen here expect, when England, with almost all the commerce of the world at her command, was unable to resume specie payments for eight years after the conclusion of her wars, and then did it by such gradual legislation that there should be no shock to the business of the country—do gentlemen expect that we are to put it into the power of one man to compel the resumption of specie payments in a single year?"
"I want to know," said Mr. Wentworth, "if the power, and the patronage, and the influence of the great Republican party, so called, is to be used to deprive us of our natural standard of value. Now, I wish, while we go together, to be perfectly honest. Nobody respects the talents of my friend from Pennsylvania [Mr. Stevens] more than I do. He knows more than all of us put together. [Laughter.] I want him to state to the House, fairly and candidly, whether, if we follow him, he will lead us to specie payment; or whether, if he could, he would."