US Presidency
1897

The several forms of our paper money offer, in my judgment, a constant embarrassment to the Government and a safe balance in the Treasury. Therefore I believe it necessary to devise a system which, without diminishingthe circulating medium or offering a premium for its contraction, willpresent a remedy for those arrangements which, temporary in their nature, might well in the years of our prosperity have been displaced by wiserprovisions. With adequate revenue secured, but not until then, we can enterupon such changes in our fiscal laws as will, while insuring safety andvolume to our money, no longer impose upon the Government the necessityof maintaining so large a gold reserve, with its attendant and inevitabletemptations to speculation. Most of our financial laws are the outgrowthof experience and trial, and should not be amended without investigationand demonstration of the wisdom of the proposed changes. We must be both sure we are right and make haste slowly.