will always be maintained. The difference between the system here proposed, and the so called specie paying system--in respect to their respective capacities for furnishing credit and currency, and at the same time fulfilling their contracts to the letter--is as fifty to one, at the least, in favor of the former; probably much more than that. Thus under the system now proposed, the real estate and railroads of the United States, at their present values, are capable of furnishing twenty thousand millions ($20,000,000,000) of paper currency; and furnishing it constantly, and without fluctuation, and every dollar of it will have an equal market value with gold. The contracts or certificates comprising it, can always be fulfilled to the letter; that is, the capital itself, (the PRODUCTIVE STOCK,) represented by these certificates, can always be delivered, _on demand_, in redemption of the certificates, if the banks should be unable to redeem in specie. On the other hand, it would be impossible to have so much as four hundred millions, ($400,000,000)--one fiftieth of the amount before mentioned--of so called specie paying paper currency; that is, a paper promising to pay specie _on demand_; _and constantly able to fulfil its obligations_. It is of no appreciable importance that a paper currency should be payable _on demand_ with specie. It is sufficient, if it be payable _according to its terms, if only those terms are convenient and acceptable_. For then the value of the currency will be known, _and its contracts will be fulfilled to the letter_. And when these contracts are fulfilled to the letter, then, _to all practical purposes, specie payments are maintained_. When, for example, a man promises to pay wheat, either on demand, or at a time specified, and he fulfils that contract to the letter, _that, to all practical purposes, is specie payments_; as much so as if the promise and payment had been made in coin. IT IS, THEREFORE, THE SPECIFIC AND LITERAL FULFILMENT OF CONTRACTS, THAT CONSTITUTES SPECIE PAYMENTS; AND NOT THE PARTICULAR KIND OF PROPERTY THAT IS PROMISED AND PAID. The great secret, then, of having an abundant paper currency, and yet maintaining all the while specie payments, consists in having the paper represent property--like real estate, for example--that exists in large amounts, and can always be delivered, on demand, in redemption of the paper; and also in having this paper issued by the persons who actually own the property represented by it, and who can be compelled by law to deliver it in redemption of the paper. And the great secret--if it be a secret--of having only a scanty currency, and of _not_ having specie payments, consists in having the paper issued by a government that cannot fulfil its contracts, and has no intention of fulfilling them; and by banks that are not even required to fulfil them.