Among the reflections arising from the contemplation of these
circumstances, one, not the least gratifying, is the consciousness that
the Government had the resolution and the ability to adhere in every
emergency to the sacred obligations of law, to execute all its contracts
according to the requirements of the Constitution, and thus to present
when most needed a rallying point by which the business of the whole
country might be brought back to a safe and unvarying standard--a result
vitally important as well to the interests as to the morals of the
people. There can surely now be no difference of opinion in regard
to the incalculable evils that would have arisen if the Government at
that critical moment had suffered itself to be deterred from upholding
the only true standard of value, either by the pressure of adverse
circumstances or the violence of unmerited denunciation. The manner
in which the people sustained the performance of this duty was highly
honorable to their fortitude and patriotism.
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