Excerpt from Speech of Hon. J. B. Henderson, of Missouri, on the National Currency: Delivered in the Senate of the United States, May 6, 1864 I am now speaking of the provisions generally found in State bank' charters, in order presently to draw a comparison between them and the provisions 'of the bill under consideration, which it is said is to furnish to us this greatly needed currency that is to be uniform in value throughout the country. I am aware that the State banks have heretofore very ingeniously managed to avoid many, if not all, of these wise and wholesome restraints imposed by the States. As capital has done in the past it, will do in the future, and you will not get rid of these difficulties under the proposed banking system; indeed they will be much greater than under any State bank law of which I have any knowledge. As I said before, I do not desire to be understood as defending the State banks or as attempting to urge upon the Senate any right upon their part to issue currewy; I am aware of their shortcomings; but it seems to me illogical to complain of evils existing under a good system, even if it be a State system - evils, indeed, inseparable from all bank issues - and then to urge the adoption of a measure, wholly without safeguards, without a dollar of coin, propped up on public credit, issuing unlimited quantities of irredeemable paper, convulsing the country with its contractions and expansions. Producing at one time the corruptions of extravagance, at another the distress that follows money panics, corrupting the rich and degrading the poor. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.