US Presidency
1865

For that end we must each, inour respective positions, prepare the way. I hold it the duty of the Executiveto insist upon frugality in the expenditures, and a sparing economy isitself a great national resource. Of the banks to which authority has beengiven to issue notes secured by bonds of the United States we may requirethe greatest moderation and prudence, and the law must be rigidly enforcedwhen its limits are exceeded. We may each one of us counsel our activeand enterprising countrymen to be constantly on their guard, to liquidatedebts contracted in a paper currency, and by conducting business as nearlyas possible on a system of cash payments or short credits to hold themselvesprepared to return to the standard of gold and silver. To aid our fellow citizensin the prudent management of their monetary affairs, the duty devolveson us to diminish by law the amount of paper money now in circulation. Five years ago the lighthouse circulation of the country amounted to notmuch more than two hundred millions; now the circulation, bank and national, exceeds seven hundred millions.