If any other commodity less variable could be found, it might very properly be adopted as the future standard of our money, provided it had all the other qualities which fitted it for that purpose; but while these metals are the standard the currency should conform in value to them, and whenever it does not, and the market price of bullion is above the mint price, the currency is depreciated. This proposition is unanswered and is unanswerable. Much inconvenience arises from using two metals as a standard of our money; and it has long been a disputed point whether gold or silver should by law be made the principal or sole standard of money. In favor of gold it may be said, that its greater value under a small bulk eminently qualifies for a standard in an opulent country.
And I may here remark that it requires an opulent country to maintain the single gold standard, and the country does maintain it at very great expense. I do not wonder that he thought an opulent country, a creditor country, the only one that ought to adopt it, for no other country can afford to adopt it. But, like many people who in attempting to improve their condition in society attempt luxuries and extravagances which they can not maintain and which force them back into the ranks from which they came, so nations in attempting to establish the gold standard may find themselves reduced from opulence to poverty.
But this very quality subjects to greater variations of value during periods of war or extensive commercial discredit, when it is often collected and hoarded, and may be urged as an argument against its use. The only objection to the use of silver as the standard is its bulk, which renders it unfit for the large payments required in a wealthy country; but this objection is entirely removed by the substituting of paper money as the general circulation medium of the country. Silver, too, is much more steady in its value in consequence of its demand and supply being more regular; and, as all foreign countries regulate the value of their money by the value of silver, there can be no doubt that on the whole silver is preferable to gold as a standard, and should be permanently adopted for that purpose.