President Grant appears to be very anxious to return to
specie payments. One plan for this purpose is to restrict the National Banks in paying interest on deposits, an idea intended to keep money afloat in business' and diminish stringency, but his chief suggestion in the Message is to adhere absolutely to £80,000,000 as the maximum of paper issue. He even goes so far as to declare that "a declaration of public policy is a pledge of public faith," and as the Act of June 30, 1864, limits the amount of paper currency to that stun, any further issue is a breach of faith. That is strong language, when the contract is with the people ; but it is certain that rigid ad- herence to the limit would very soon bring currency to a par with gold, and render a return to specie payments an easy operation. It would be wiser, perhaps, nevertheless, when once the two were at par, to let the two remain, as they are clearly both necessary for the business of a country in which the distances are so great and the bank system so imperfectly developed, that the trans- mission of coin is an endless anxiety.
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