Undoubtedly the _greenback_ was the _nearest_ approach to a _real_ money that any people of the earth ever made. We have only to observe how _admirably_ it has answered nearly all the purposes for which people require money, to be convinced that it has the very best—the most secure—basis that it is possible for a money to have. It stands representative of the capacity and willingness of the government—the representative of all the people—to pay. But it is one of the most _difficult_ of things for the people to divorce their minds from the idea that gold is the only possible, real money. Yet the _facts_ attaching to the greenback stand out in bold and indisputable relief, perfectly and entirely dispelling all basis for the idea. Because the greenback was the _first_ step toward a real money that the country ever took, which left gold entirely out of the question, the impression still remains with the people that a _return_ must be made to a gold basis; never stopping to observe how vastly superior the wealth basis is to what the gold basis would be. Bank note currency, or a currency issued by an individual or by a class of individuals, always carries along with itself the _idea_ and _need_ of redeemability. If, however, there is any thought among the people that the utterers cannot meet their _promises_ of redemption, at that _very_ time when, of _all_ others, _confidence_ is necessary to avoid _ruin_, they rush to prove the suspected incapacity; and generally they do prove it. The idea of, and necessity for, redeemability, is that which _most_ requires to be _divorced_ from money. Money—real money—should never require to be redeemed. It should always be just as valuable to retain possession of as anything could be into which it may be converted. Anything that requires to be redeemed in order to make it _permanently_ valuable or a representative of value is utterly unworthy the name of money, because it does not truly represent _real_ wealth. It is that currency of which there is doubt about the real wealth it pretends to represent which requires to be made redeemable before it will circulate; and _this_ fact proves _most_ conclusively that it is _not_ money in any true sense of that term: that is to say, it is not that which requires to be converted into substance.