Such purchases,
except when made on speculation, are in general but single transactions,
rarely repeated by the same person; and it is a fact that for the
last year and a half, during which the notes of sound banks have been
received, more than a moiety of these payments has been voluntarily made
in specie, being a larger proportion than would have been required in
three years under the graduation proposed.
It is, moreover, a principle than which none is better settled by
experience that the supply of the precious metals will always be found
adequate to the uses for which they are required. They abound in
countries where no other currency is allowed. In our own States, where
small notes are excluded, gold and silver supply their place. When
driven to their hiding places by bank suspensions, a little firmness in
the community soon restores them in a sufficient quantity for ordinary
purposes. Postage and other public dues have been collected in coin
without serious inconvenience even in States where a depreciated paper
currency has existed for years, and this, with the aid of Treasury
notes for a part of the time, was done without interruption during the
suspension of 1837.
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