We were to attend the convention of the American Bankers’ Association. At the depot we were met by the committee, ex-Governor Crittenden, and leading bankers. The convention was large, and its discussions were interesting. The most important topic for consideration before the Association was the proposition to substitute Silver Certificates for “Legal-Tender and National Bank Notes.” The speech of ex-Comptroller John Jay Knox, who was one of our party, was unanswerable, and should be recorded as an incident of our journey. We say, like the boy blowing the organ to the professor at the key-board: “We did that nicely, sir.” “The proposition of Mr. St. John involves the withdrawal of the legal-tender notes, the disbursement of the $100,000,000 of gold, pledged as security for the redemption of these notes, the increased issue of silver coinage and of silver certificates from $2,000,000 worth to $4,000,000 per month, and finally the giving of these silver certificates the quality of legal tender. “Mr. St. John, we all know, is sincere, is honest in the advocacy of his opinions; but to me it is as clear as the light of day, that every one of these propositions is unwise and impracticable, if not grievously, flagrantly wrong. Do the gentlemen of the convention know that the proposition giving the legal-tender quality to circulating notes was discussed by the people of this country previous to the adoption of the Constitution; and that it was, perhaps, the most difficult question that was considered by the Fathers in the convention that prepared and finally adopted the Constitution of the United States. “The question involves such serious, such far-reaching consequences that its discussion has been avoided by all the great financiers, by all the public men of this country from the outset. From time to time it has been brought before Congress and laid aside as impracticable and unwise,[A] but finally placed upon the statute-book, not as a measure of choice, not because any considerable number of members of Congress believed in it, but because they reluctantly came to the conclusion that it was a measure necessary to provide for carrying on a civil war unequalled in the history of nations.