Pointing out how a contraction of the money volume increases the debt obligations of the past, R. H. Patterson, especially commended by Gladstone as one of the ablest of English writers on finance, says:
“And what is such a dearth of money and rise in the measure of value but an injustice to the many to the gain of the few—an unfair exaltation of the power of the past over the present, an unfair and undesirable aggravation of the poverty of the poor and the wealth of the rich—a stereotyping of classes according to wealth, until they tend to become permanent? We have seen how powerful and beneficial was the influx of the precious metals from the New World four centuries ago in breaking the social bondage which had settled over Europe during the long night of the Dark Ages, enabling that generation to escape from the heritage of the past and bound forward upon the new career then opening to mankind. Such times come from the hand of Providence, and with an exceeding rarity even in the long career of civilized mankind. But at least let us avoid the opposite and never allow successive generations to be unfairly—nay, most unjustly, though it may not be so meant—handicapped, each in its own race, owing to a growing dearth and dearness of money.”—_The New Golden Age, vol. II, p. 500._
“To increase our exports sufficient money is required to keep all the industries of the country employed. Without this, national as well as individual bankruptcy must ensue.”—_Message, December 1, 1873._
Hon. John Sherman, in a speech in the Senate, January 27, 1869, said, in opposition to a bill to contract the currency by retiring the greenbacks:
“It is not possible to take this voyage without the sorest distress. To every person except a capitalist out of debt, or a salaried officer, or annuitant, it is a period of loss, danger, lassitude of trade, fall of wages, suspension of enterprise, bankruptcy and disaster.... It means the ruin of all dealers whose debts are twice their business capital, though one-third less than their actual property. It means the fall of all agricultural productions without any great reduction of taxes. When that day comes every man, as the sailor says, will be close-reefed; all enterprise will be suspended, every bank will have contracted its currency to the lowest limit; and the debtor, compelled to meet in coin a debt contracted in currency, will find the coin hoarded in the treasury, no representative of coin in circulation, his property shrunk not only to the extent of the depreciation of the currency, but still more by the artificial scarcity made by the holders of gold. To attempt this task by a surprise upon our people, by arresting them in the midst of their lawful business and applying a new standard of value to their property without any reduction of their debts, or giving them an opportunity to compound with their creditors, or to distribute their losses, would be an act of folly without an example in evil in modern times.”—_Congressional Globe, 1869, p. 629._