They insisted that every attempt
to restore silver to its old place would be futile, and that
the promise to make the attempt, under any circumstances,
was juggling with the people, from which nothing but disaster
and shame would follow. They justly maintained that, if we
undertook the unlimited coinage of silver, and to make it
legal tender, under the inevitable law long ago announced
by Gresham, the cheaper metal, silver, would flow into the
country where it would have a larger value for the purpose
of paying debts, and that gold, the more precious metal, would
desert the country where there would be no use found for it
as long as the cheaper metal would perform its function according
to law. From this, it was claimed, would follow the making
of silver the exclusive basis of all commercial transactions;
the disturbance of our commercial relations with other countries,
and the establishment of a standard of value which would fluctuate
and shrink as the value of silver fluctuated and shrunk. So
that no man who contracted a debt on time could tell what
would be the value of the coin he would be compelled to pay
when his debt became due, and all business on earth would
become gambling.
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