Arkansas true Democrat., 1857-11-24
Gold and Silver Money.

0CiO duQ f9lVSI llCucy.
 "How visionary it is" exclaim some, Ito think of carrying on the business of a great country like this, exclusively with gold and sil- ver'
 Visionary it would be indeed, but who ever proposed this? Not Gen. Jackson, not John c. Calhoun, not Thomas II. Benton, not any hard money man that we ever heard of.
 There are various kinds of paper medium in use. and of these hard money men propose to abolish one kind, and one kind only, namely, bank notes. They are willing that the free use of bank checks, bank drafts, promissory notes, bills of exchange, and every other contrivance now known for facilitating payments, shall con- tinue as at present.
 To bank notes payable on demand. hard money men object, because they are not sim ply paper medium. When they are freely used, they become pgper money, and by their scarcity or abundance regulate prices, just as in hard money countries prices are regulated by the quantity of gold and silver in circulation In "mixed currency,' as it is called, gold and silver ar sunk into mere merchandise or are at best but a subordinate currency.
 As a mere circulating medium, bank notes are convenient enough, but the other functions money is intended to answer, that of serving as standards and measures of value, and as commodity of contracts, bank notes cannot ad- equately perform. A woolen thread would be as good a standard of length, as bank notes are of value, and potatoes or apples would be pre- ferabe to bank notes as commodities of con- tract.
 Such are briefly the objections hard money men have to bank notes. To give them in all their force would require volume.
 At the beginning of the present year, the banks had in circulation, according to official reports, notes to the amount of SEATS, ,822, which is more than they ever had before.
 Now hard money men propose what? That these bank notes shall be suddenly destroyed? No. But simply that they shall be gradually suppzcmted by gold and silver.
 The coinage of the U. s. mint and its branches, amounted in ten years, from 1847 to 1856 inclusive, to S427 ,0Ot 74 Is there any thing "visionary" when we have such an immense coinage in supposing that we can thereby, if we make a proper use of it, gra- dually supplant PA millions of bank notes?
 In eleven years, from 1847 to 1857, our ex- pots of gold and silver amounted to S342, 637,- 094. It being a notorious fact that the greater part of this export was owing to the free use of bank credits, what is there vsionary' in sup posing that if the cause is taken away, the ef- feet will cease?
 According to a statement going the round of the newspapers, the product of gold in Cali fornia has, in the last six years, amounted to 443 millions of dollars. Is there any thing visionary in the proposal gradually to SUD- plant IA millions of paper money with like amount of metallic, when our mines yield us 70 millions of gold in year?
 In 1848 according to the carefully prepared estimates of the Treasury department, the whole amount of gold and silver coin in the United States, was only 120 millions, while in 1854 it was 250 millions If, through the oper- aton of the sub-treasury system, and the abun- dant supplies of gold obtained from California, the amount of specie was doubled in the short period of five or six years, why can we not, by the aid of proper means, double it again?
 These means cannot be called "visonarv,'' for they have been tried over and over again.
 Pennsylvania suffered much in 1928 through the small notes issued by the banks of the neighboring States. An act was passed to pro- hibit the circulation of all notes of less de- nomination than five dollars, and silver imme- diately took their place. The like means have been tried with the like results in Maryland, Virginia, Louisiana, Arkansas, and perhaps some other States
 In England it was found impossible to make sovereigns and one pound notes circulate to- gether. Anac was passed to prohibit the circu- lation of all notes of less denomination than five pounds sterling and immediately gold took the place of paper.
 If the friends of paper money will candidly review the whole question, they will find that there Is nothing visionary" either in the ob- icCG Ildlt IuOiiSN ultl LtEG III N4cM, or the means by which they propose to accomplish it. The only serious obstacles to our havinga sound money and sound credit system, are such as are interposed by the ignorance, the prejudices, or the interests of the friends of paper money banking. They will not consent to the pas sage of acts which shall first forbid the issue of small notes and then rise gradually to those of higher denominations and by their opposition to this salutary reform they are laying the foundation for evils in future years, similar to those we endure at present.
 Under the system as ordinarily conducted, bank cheeks, bank drafts, promissory notes, and bills of exchange, represent nothing more than bank notes, that is, bank debts. Under the re- form which the hard money men propose, all these paper mediums will represent gold and silver
 As simple offices of deposit, transfer, dis count and exchange, banks would be useful.- As paper money hints, they are abominable nuisances, and ought as such to be promptly abated.
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